This paper foregrounds the crucial role and contributions of local communities in building climate justice solutions while challenging and resisting insufficiently inclusive climate policies. By reflecting on the findings of our project, which used talanoa as methodology, we share important lessons for both researchers and development practitioners about what an authentically inclusive approach to research and programming looks like from the perspective of Pacific communities of researchers and advocates with lived experience of disability and climate change. The resulting OCEANS principles hold together six practice-level commitments that the project distilled from the forums: Ownership, Cultures, Equality, Accessibility, Networked, and Sustainable. Together with layered practices of care, time, sensory accessibility, trust-building, co-facilitation, self-awareness, agility, deference, and attention to power, the practice-level commitments offer a practical framework for climate adaptation work led by, rather than designed for, Pacific communities with lived experience of disability.