ALL
Federated States of Micronesia
ICH Materials 2
-
From Micronesia to YouTube: Pasifika Renaissance on Documenting Oral TraditionPasifika Renaissance was established in September 2014 in Japan as an NGO with a mission to preserve and promote cultural and historical heritage in the Pacific Islands. The organization aims to revitalize traditional culture and empower local communities. They work in three main fields: documenting, researching, and teaching about traditional cultures and cultural heritage; providing technical assistance to relevant agencies and organizations; and promoting tourism. You can find out more at the organization’s Facebook page, where they post cultural and historical information, including historical photos and educational materials, and share updates about their activities.\n\nThey are currently engaged in a major project to document oral traditions in Pohnpei State. Many older Micronesians have fond childhood memories of listening to stories told by elderly relatives before bed. This practice, however, has been largely lost in Pohnpei due to the spread of new media such as videos and games and the decline of the younger generation’s interest in traditional culture.\n\nTo document stories from knowledgeable elders and pass them down to younger generations, Pasifika Renaissance began filming those stories in 2015 and sharing the videos on their YouTube channel with kind permission from the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) Office of National Archives, Culture and Historic Preservation. This method of documenting and sharing traditional knowledge through online media is rare in the Pacific Islands. However, we believe that it has a great potential for future applications due to the relative ease of use and the internet’s global reach. Our project has been welcomed and supported by traditional chiefs, elders, and other community members, who share our concern that traditional knowledge could be lost.\n\nTo date, Pasifika Renaissance has uploaded more than two hundred narrative videos. These stories include legends, traditional tales, historical events, customs, chants and songs from Pohnpei (9 videos), Pingelap (69), Mwoakilloa (11), Sapwuahfik (60), Nukuoro (25), and Kapingamarangi (25) as well as two island groups of Chuuk State: the Mortlock Islands (10) and Namonuito (16). They hope to add more videos from Pohnpei, where they began their work just this year in collaboration with the Division of Historic Preservation and Cultural Affairs, Pohnpei State Department of Land. The YouTube channel has attracted over 240,000 views. Of these views, 78.5 percent are from United States, where one-third of FSM citizens now reside, and an 12 percent of the views come from within the FSM. Pasifica Renaissance’s YouTube channel has now reached 640 views per day, which they believe suggests a keen interest in these stories.\n\nThey offer their appreciation to the storytellers and others who have supported this project as well as the generous donors such as the KDDI Foundation in Japan. They hope by watching these videos, people can continue to pass on these stories to their children and younger relatives. If you would like to contribute stories or know someone who is willing to share stories with the organization, please contact them at pasifika.renaissance@gmail.com or by phoning the above Division (320-2652). If you have a knowledgeable elderly relative or friend staying overseas and have the ability to record his or her story via cell phone, tablet, or digital camera, please let them know. Please follow Pasifika Renaissance on Facebook and YouTube channel to receive updates as this project develops. They plan to extend this project to other states in the FSM and other Pacific regions in the near future and hope to collaborate with researchers, government agencies, NGOs, and community members. Please get in touch, and let them know how you can help spread this “renaissance” movement.\n\nPhoto : Interviewing Mr. Rasner Elias, Pohnpei © NGO Pasifika RenaissanceYear2017NationMicronesia
-
Woven Sail of Lamotrek AtollFor centuries, the people of the central Caroline Islands have relied heavily on their voyaging canoes as their primary means of transport. They made voyages to islands near and far to obtain food, tools, and other valuables. In some instances, following devastating natural calamities, their canoes are used to relocate to a different island as was the case for the Carolinians who now reside in the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas (CNMI). Today, the art of canoe building and traditional celestial navigation continues in these remote islands of the Federated States of Micronesia. Although at a smaller scale than what it used to be, the important knowledge of their ancestors is being passed on to younger generations. Waa’gey is a community-based organization working with island communities to transfer traditional skills and knowledge. Realizing the challenges brought to the shores of Micronesia by globalization and environmental issues including climate change and rising sea levels, the people of Lamotrek Atoll in Yap worked with Master Navigator Larry Reigetal and his crew to build an outrigger canoe named The Lucky Star1.. Using only traditional seafaring methods and no modern navigation technology, the eight-man crew led by master Reigetal braved storms and powerful ocean currents to travel over five hundred miles to Guam over five days to showcase the Micronesian culture at the Festival of Pacific Arts in May 2016. After the festival, the crew sailed back to Lamotrek over a period of ten days.\n\nThe crew brought along a traditional pandanus sail woven by the people of Lamotrek to use during the festival and to display the skills used to create it. The entire process of weaving the sail took more than six months, with over thirty people contributing to its construction. Due to modern seafaring technologies, the traditional weaving techniques in Lamotrek had not been in practice for over half a century. However, through this project, Waa’gey was able to enlist the help of a 95-year-old Maria Labusheilam, the last master weaver in Lamotrek. She taught the skills to twenty women apprentices, led by her daughter Maria Ilourutog, granddaughter Pualina Lairegiyalo, and daughter-in-law Esther Letalimepiy. The men of Lamotrek, led by Xavier Yarofaliyango, cut and stretched the leaves and stitched the sail together. Labusheilam died two weeks after passing on the knowledge. She did not see the final outcome of her work. The pandanus sail is woven from the Pandanus odoratissimus (screwpine) commonly grown on beaches of tropical islands. The leaves are harvested, dried under the sun, and stripped into single fibers. They are then woven into longer strips of sheets that are then strengthened by stretching and wrapping the sheets around coconut trees. The sheets are then sewn together with sennit twine ropes made from coconut fibers. Sail weaving is not the same as weaving sleeping mats, as they need to be doubled and overlapped to ensure strength and durability.\n\nThe sail was displayed at the University of Guam and the Honolulu museum. It is now in Hawaii and will make its way to New York where it will be the main art display at the UN Headquarters during the Ocean Conference. It will then travel to Europe, Asia, and Australia before making its final voyage to the Federated States of Micronesia in 2018 to sail the MicroGames torch in Yap . It is autographed by all the people from Lamotrek and the president of the FSM, H.E. Peter Christian.\n\nPhoto : Master Navigator Larry Raigetal and his crew entering Guam harbor on their canoe the Lucky Star during the opening ceremony of the 12th Festival of Pacific Art and Culture © Waa’geyYear2017NationMicronesia
Open Archive 2
-
Sailing Canoe Building, Namonuito Atoll, Micronesia
This video depicts some processes of Namonuito sailing canoe building. Namonuito Atoll is an outer island of Chuuk State, Federated States of Micronesia. We would like to thank a master canoe builder, the late Mr. Samuel Jos (b. 1942) and his helpers from Mr. Asterio Takesy's family in Pohnpei.
Micronesia -
Pwo Navigator Initiation Ceremony, Yap, Micronesia
On a limited number of small coral atolls in the Central Caroline Islands, in Yap and Chuuk States in the Federated States of Micronesia, traditional navigation has been still actively practiced. This tradition, however, which has been succeeded by their ancestors for hundreds if not thousands of years, is sadly disappearing due to a lack of interest among the current generations of islanders. This video depicts a pwo initiation rituals for traditional navigators in Yap, Micronesia. A navigation school sponsored by the Yap Traditional Navigation Society was taught by a master navigator Ali Haleyalur from Lamotrek Atoll, who conducted the pwo ceremony. This video shows that the master of ceremonies initiated a navigator while he tied a coconut-leaf bracelet and an amulet to an initiate’s right wrist over lavalava-covered ceremonial bowl and intoned “bracelet for the navigator” chants. Then the master removed all the lavalavas, which were given to him by the initiates’ relatives, from the top of the bowl, and performed “tapping of the pounded breadfruit” chant, getting down on his hands and knees. After he took the initiates’ food from the bowl and put it in baskets, additional baskets of food were filled for 12 schools of navigators. After the pwo ceremony, a new navigator needs to attempt a solo voyage on his own to be considered a full-fledged navigator.
Micronesia