Young women weaving in women's house, circa 1920, TTPI photo archive.

The women’s house on small “outer” islands and atolls of the Caroline Islands (present day Micronesia and Palau) was a special place of refuge and meeting. Visits were primarily dictated by the menstrual cycle - and the accompanying cultural limits the cycle placed on women’s activities - but the house also served as a proverbial “village pump” for camaraderie and communication among the island’s women.

The Spanish priests of the Japanese period worked to expand the participation of women in masses and daily prayers, and to this end convinced the chiefs to greatly loosen the rules regulating segregation during menstruation. Traditionally, women could not go out to gatherings or work in the community (during menstruation) and this ensured that the women’s house was an isolated locale for regular periods of rest and retreat. Men were never allowed entrance, and the house was built at a 90-degree angle to all other buildings on the island. It was common for women, married or not, to sleep there on a semi-regular basis. The house was also used as a place of seclusion (from men) during child birth.

The community work of re-thatching a traditional women's house

Presently, the women’s house on Falalop Ulithi is only unlocked and open for the Women’s Association’s formal monthly meetings and school board conferences. The women’s houses on Asor, Mogmog, and Federai Ulithi remain open (and often occupied) all the time, though probably not to the extent they once were. Rarely does a married woman spend the night there, even when she is menstruating. It remains common for younger unmarried women to spend the night, and for women visiting from other islands to sleep there if they do not have close female relatives to co-habit with. Contemporary use of the women’s house is more wide-spread on islands and atolls further to the east of Ulithi, such as Wooleai, Ifaluk, and Eauripik.

To learn more about the role about Women’s Houses you may want to check out the works of Francis Hezel and William Alkire (see our 10 Great Books About Micronesia Posting). Also there is page on the Pacific Worlds site with more photos.

For more information on the Outer Islands of Micronesia, and to learn how YOU can help promote an expansion of educational opportunity and accomplishment there, visit www.habele.org.

NEWS AND LINKS
Mid-March saw the completion of a traditional canoe voyage from Polynesia to Micronesia. The journey began in the islands of Hawaii and worked it way through the Marshalls to the Island of Satawal, an Outer Island of Yap State in Micronesia. Members of the expedition also helped to build a medical clinic on the Atoll of Ulithi. In other health news, new findings reinforce concerns about the alrming levels of obesity in the Pacific.

Lacee Martinez of the Pacific Daily News editorialized on the need for greater support and assimilation of Micronesians on the US-governed Island of Guam, and Pacific leaders talked more about the perils of trawling during their ongoing regional summit.

The Habele Outer Island Education Fund is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting educational oppurtunity and accomplishment in the remote islands and atolls of Micronesia. Visit www.habele.org for more details.

…with a special emphasis on the Outer Islands. List compiled by the Habele Outer Island Education Fund.



Willard Price’s 1944 Japan’s Islands of Mystery is a great starting point. By his own account, he and his wife were the only westerners to visit the islands of Micronesia during the Japanese period of control from 1914 until the Second World War. Not only does he give exciting accounts of the islands he toured, but his descriptions of Japanese rule also provide an interesting baseline for comparison with the later America Naval Occupation (1945-1951) and the U.S. administered Trust Territory Period (1952-1986). In fact, Price went back to Micronesia after the World War Two and wrote America’s Paradise Lost (1966) in order to ask tough questions about what he saw as an American failure to adequately promote political and economic development.

William H. Alkire’s An Introduction to the People and Cultures of Micronesia (2nd ed., 1976) and his Coral Islanders (1978) were informed equally by Alkire’s formal academic training as an anthropologist, and years of his own personal experience living in the Pacific. Coral Islanders in particular, gives a very detailed account of the atolls between Chuuk Lagoon and Yap proper, with a special emphasis on how this remote Outer Island ecology produced a complex and distinct culture. Bates and Abbott’s Coral Island (1958) is more specifically focused on the Atoll of Ifaluk, and is written for a less academic audience, but also provides a great up-close sketch of Outer Island culture.

Dealing with Micronesia more broadly -and asking tough questions about America’s involvement and techniques there- are: Robert Trumbull’s 1959 Paradise in Trust; E. J. Kahn’s 1965 A Reporter in Micronesia; and David Nevin’s 1977 The American Touch in Micronesia. These books frame questions about the nature of development practices in the Pacific within a background of prolonged cultural isolation, limited natural resources, and the vast scale and physical isolation of the tiny islands. Nevin in particular deals with the awkwardness of idealizing the past while driving toward an ambiguous future. He writes about the emerging K-12 educational system and wonders how a top-down U.S. bureaucratic public school design will meet either local or western needs.

In the late 1980s, the American government-administered UN Trust Territory came to an end. Rather than remaining united as they debated degrees of sovereignty, different island groups pursued individual negotiations with the U.S. This has resulted in a web of republics, federations, and commonwealths in the Pacific, all with varying degrees of formal association with the U.S.

The Edge of Paradise: America in Micronesia (1993) is an account of this process. P.F. Kulge had been a Peace Corps Volunteer in Palau during the late 1960s and returned to his country of service two decades later. It is a very personal account that centers on his relationship with key Palauns, but it is written in a way that provides generalizable insights about the region as a whole. Rounding out our list is Jesuit Father Francis Hezel’s The New Shape of Old Island Cultures: A Half Century of Social Change in Micronesia (2001). Hezel’s decades of firsthand experience in Micronesia and the vast collection of written resources collected at the Micronesian Seminar (which he founded) come together beautifully. As Edward Lowe explains in a review:

As an anchor for the analysis of change, the book argues that Micronesian social organization and social practices were, for most of its known history, organized around one's access to and control over productive land and sea resources. Generally, a person secured his or her rights to access these resources by cultivating membership to a particular kin group. The growth of the cash economy in the decades following the Second World War allowed nuclear families to derive their livelihoods from outside the land-kin system, resulting in an uncoupling of land and kinship as foundations of everyday social relations.

Hezel’s arguments are strong, specific, and well crafted. The book is an excellent read.

For more information on the Outer Islands of Micronesia, and to learn how YOU can help promote an expansion of educational opportunity and accomplishment there, visit www.habele.org.

The Habele Outer Island Education Fund is proud to unveil its new and improved website habele.org.



The site, developed by Palauan Joshua Willter, features detailed information about the Fund, an easy to navigate structure, and a collection of downloadable resources.

Mr. Willter is well known for his widely read Olekoi Palau page which provides news and information from around the Pacific. He has also authored commercial sites (such as palauradio.com) and Palauan government webpages (including senate.palauoek.net and palauembassy.com). These and other similar projects demonstrate a sustained professional commitment to bringing Island voices and concerns to the Internet. Hosa hartel hachigachig Josh!

Habele is dedicated the advancement of educational opportunity and accomplishment in the remote outer islands and atolls of Micronesia, a former US trust territory in the central Pacific. In addition to our scholarships and material donations to the islands we also look to keep US-based donors and volunteers abreast of news and events that involve Micronesia. Here are three important articles, all of which deal with the complexities of Pacific development and America’s role in it.

The Foreign Born In The Armed Services
Micronesian citizens are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan
Migration Information.org article reposted by ILW.com, March 2007

...lawful permanent residents and certain nationals of three countries in free association with the United States — the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau — are eligible for military service…

Health woes hit Micronesia:
Reliance on canned food is leading to diabetes and other problems
Hawaii Star Bulletin, March 11, 2007

...people in Micronesia seemed to import the worst of Western-style diet…. "I think it's really growing fast on our island," Sesario said. "Here we have canned foods like corned beef. It's low grade, a little bit above dog food. People buy it because one can of corned beef can feed the family."

US Policy Toward South Pacific Island Nations
US State Department Press Release, reposted at Scoop.co.nz
March 16, 2007

In FY 2006, United States assistance to the Pacific Islands totaled almost $190 million. Of this amount, about $150 million was comprised of grants from the United States to the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Palau under the Compacts of Free Association administered by the Department of the Interior. The remaining $34 million is devoted to the rest of the Pacific Islands through such programs as the Peace Corps, military assistance (International Military Education and Training and Foreign Military Financing), counter-terrorism, and child health…

For more background information check out Habele’s postings on US Spending in the FSM and the US-FSM Compact

Habele is sending school materials to Palau this month! We have boxed up a collection of books, pens, pencils, note cards, and even a digital camera and accessories for Bethania High School.

Bethania is an independent all-girls school located in Ngaraard, Palau. This is the school that Habele’s 2006-07 scholarship awardees are attending. Since the new year Habele has also sent supplies to the Atoll of Eauripik and the Island of Fais.

The Habele Outer Island Education Fund is a IRS recognized non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of educational opportunities and accomplishment in the Outer Islands of Micronesia. The fund has no paid employees. All board members have served as classroom teachers in Micronesia. Visit habele.org to learn how you can help!

The new and expanded Habele photo album is now online. Click here to visit!

NEWS AND LINKS
Businessmen Look To FSM Politicians For Change
Pacific Magazine, March 06, 2007

Pacific States Will Receive $1.8 Million Plus
Pacific Magazine, March 06, 2007

Re-designed and expanded Micronesian Seminar Website.

Interesting new site covering the Outer Islands: ulithi.tk

Great page for the Atoll of Ifaluk: ifagalz.com

Habele wishes Hal, an inspirational friend and dedicated believer, a full and speedy recovery.

His life-long commitment to service - both public and nonprofit - and his fundamental belief in the power of education to shape individuals' lives are truly exemplary.