Pacific, Climate & Environment Profile Series: Dr Reia Anquet

As part of AFRAN's 10th anniversary celebrations, we continue to highlight the diverse voices, expertise and perspectives that have shaped our network over the past decade.

Today, we are pleased to feature Dr Reia Farrall-Anquet, a French-Australian lecturer whose work explores some of the Pacific's most pressing challenges. She is currently based in the Social Sciences department of the Université de la Nouvelle-Calédonie. Having begun her career as a teacher of English, she now lectures on British and Irish civilisation within anglophone studies — études anglophones. Her own research examines the impact of anglophone countries' institutions on public policy, and more specifically on climate change mitigation strategies.

For Reia, the Pacific is not simply a field of research, it is home. Born in Papua New Guinea, raised in Tasmania and now based in New Caledonia, her personal journey across the region informs her research on climate change governance, rising sea levels and the role of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in the Indo-Pacific.

As the holder of an Australia-France Indo-Pacific Studies (AFIPS) Early Career Research Fellowship — financed by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and supported by the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia — Reia spent three months during 2025–2026 at the ANU's School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet), and at Monash University. The fellowship allowed her to assemble a francophone and anglophone multidisciplinary team drawn from universities across Australia, bringing together scientists, mathematicians, environmental law experts and economists.

AFRAN's own networks proved equally generative. A chance encounter at the 2026 FAR Southern Connections conference in Tasmania with Patricia Mallam, Knowledge Broker for Climate Services and DRR at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), has since grown into a sustained collaboration: co-authored articles on the Indo-Pacific, and further work in progress on the role of knowledge brokers in the Pacific.

Her work also challenges the way the Pacific is often represented in international climate discussions. Rather than seeing Pacific Island states solely as victims of climate change, she emphasises their role as active contributors and leaders in the global climate dialogue.

For Reia, meaningful cooperation also requires creating spaces for genuine and inclusive conversation. It was in conversation with Dr William Young, PRISMSS GEDSI and Traditional Knowledge at SPREP, that she encountered Vātālanoa — the Pacific-led approach he developed, bringing together the Pan-Pacific concepts of Vā and Tālanoa with Western data collection methods to enable inclusive community consultation — and its implications for regional environmental work.

Through her own experience, Reia also illustrates the role AFRAN can play in creating connections across France, Australia and the Pacific. From speaking at the 2025 AFRAN Forum on Pacific Resilience in Sydney to connecting with researchers through the network, AFRAN has helped create opportunities for collaboration and exchange.

Discover Reia's perspective below as we continue celebrating the people and ideas that have contributed to 10 years of AFRAN.

AFRAN - Reia Anquet.pdf

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