Ariana Tibon-Kilma is a Marshallese nuclear justice activist and educator who advocates for compensation and care for nuclear test survivors in the Marshall Islands.
Tibon-Kilma's mother is Marshallese politician Amenta Matthew and her maternal grandfather was Marshallese activist Nelson Anjain. [1] Her family are survivors of the United States Nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll programme, which studied the impact of radiation on human bodies. [2] [3] She lives in Majuro. [4]
Tibon-Kilma was educated at the College of the Marshall Islands (CMI) in Uliga, where she was a member of the Nuclear Club. [1] She then studied Political Science at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. [5]
Tibon-Kilma works as a nuclear justice activist who advocates for compensation and care for nuclear test survivors in the Marshall Islands. [6] [7] In 2017, Tibon-Kilma was appointed as chair of the Marshall Islands National Nuclear Commission (NNC) by Nitijeļā (the legislature of the Marshall Islands). [1] She became President of the NNC in 2023. [8] In this role, Tibon-Kilma has spoken at the United Nations Human Rights Council, [9] [10] [11] [12] at the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women [13] and at the Nuclear Connections Across Oceania conference at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. [5] [14]
Tibon-Kilma has also worked with the Marshall Islands public school system to develop a curriculum about the country's nuclear legacy and co-taught a Nuclear Issues in the Pacific course at her former college, the College of the Marshall Islands. [5]