“We desire the Nauruan nation to be sovereign and free to govern itself.”

DeRoburt's 1962 declaration to the United Nations Trusteeship Council, launching Nauru's formal push for independence from Australian administration.

“We hold it against Britain, Australia and New Zealand to recognize that it is their responsibility to rehabilitate one third of the island.”

Spoken on Nauru's independence day, this held the former administering powers accountable for repairing the land stripped bare by decades of phosphate mining.

“The rule of law without love is tyranny.”

Law and authority must be tempered by compassion and mutual understanding among peoples, or they curdle into oppression.

“Climate change is, for us, a matter of life and death.”

Spoken on behalf of low-lying Pacific island nations, underscoring that climate change is an existential threat rather than an abstract policy debate.

“Unless bold action is taken, much of my region could be rendered uninhabitable within our grandchildren's lifetimes.”

A warning that inaction on climate change threatens to erase the homeland of future generations across the Pacific.

“I forgive you if you have never heard of Nauru — but you will not forgive yourselves if you ignore our story.”

Nauru's small size and obscurity should not excuse the wider world from learning the environmental lesson of its ruined phosphate landscape.