Majuro in the 1970s
August, 2017: Forty-one years ago, Eldred ‘Al’ Fewkes arrived on Majuro to help Jerry Kramer of Pacific International Inc. build a copra plant, bringing with him his wife Ruth and son Gary. Now we can look back in time at Majuro thanks to Gary scanning in some of the many photographs his family took between Read More
The Lost Art of Finding Our Way
A Harvard science professor wants to further document traditional Marshallese navigation methods to help boost the islands’ indigenous culture. Marshall Islands wave piloting is one of the navigation techniques featured in Professor John Huth’s book ‘The Lost Art of Finding Our Way’. Professor Huth told Radio New Zealand in March, 2017, that his research found its use of Read More
Muslims in the Marshalls
How Islam Is Gaining A Foothold In Micronesia A mosque and a Muslim congregation are flourishing in the Marshall Islands by demonstrating Islam is a force for good in the community. Joyia sees his community playing a healing role where Marshallese society is out of balance: drug and alcohol abuse, a breakdown in marriage and families, Read More
Canoe trip ‘out of this world’
Jacque Spence, Executive Vice President of the Canvasback Medical Missions, and her team recently went sailing on a couple of traditional Marshallese canoes. Her verdict? “Sailing on a Marshallese canoe is out of this world! Marshallese were master canoe builders, indigenous navigators and amazing sailors. It is so great that they are making efforts to Read More
WAM Open Day
WAM Director Alson Kelen explained to the audience why the program always includes women: We went to the Council of Chiefs and they did not need to stop and think about it, because they understood that everyone in the community has a task to do when making and sailing a canoe. It doesn’t matter if Read More
Virtual Museum of Clothing Mats
The revival program of jaki-ed (clothing mats) includes a virtual museum of the world’s collections of jaki-ed, many of which were collected from the turn of the century through to the 1920s. The museum was spear-headed by the University of the South Pacific’s Majuro campus Director Dr. Irene Taafaki. The museum was designed and created by Read More
Dan Zak on the Nuclear Era
So we (the U.S.) tested 67 nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands from 1946-1958. If you take the explosive yield and spread it out evenly, the equivalent would be like setting off one and a half Hiroshima bombs every day for twelve years. In the above video, Washington Post reporter Dan Zak, who visited the Read More
The Acronym Jungle
While you were away, the MIJ reported that MEC had a power outage, MWSC upped the water days to seven, MISSA won a case in court, water flooded the ECC, and, FYI, I’ve switched my money from BOG to BOMI. Acronym heaven: One aspect that’s extremely likely to send you up a tree in your Read More
Jaki-ed Revival Program
By KAREN EARNSHAW Happy Hands: This name of one of Majuro’s successful handicraft stores describes beautifully the weavers of the Marshalls Islands. To be a skilled weaver is to use your busy hands to be creative as you sit with a happy circle of friends and at the same time earn a living, greatly improving Read More
Language Introduction
After living in the Marshalls off and on for 15 years, the number of Marshallese words and phrases I know and use are pathetically few. ‘Hello’, ‘how are you?’,’ see you tomorrow’ and ‘can I have another glass of white wine’ are about the limit. This is for four reasons: I’m lousy at learning Read More
