Marshall Islands Art Camp

Description

Marshallese youth and family were invited to a series of creative workshops with Marshallese poet Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner and Hawaiian artist Solomon Enos. The first set of workshops aimed to empower Marshallese youth as they explored ideas of migration, home, and cultural belonging, whereas the later workshops held in November 2017 presented aspects of the work done as part of the MAP project and discussed strategies on how to take things further.

During the May workshops, Michelle Keown taught the history of nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands and Shari Sabeti led a workshop on using graphic novels about migration and displacement as teaching resources. The workshops took place across a period of a week (running for 2-3 hours per day) with a group of thirty 11-12 year old pupils in each setting, to allow for a comparative analysis of attitudes towards displacement in both internally- and internationally-displaced populations.

The May workshops included a range of activities including creative writing/performance poetry workshops (with Marshallese poet Kathy Jetnil- Kijiner); visual arts workshops (with Native Hawaiian artist Solomon Enos), and photography workshops (led by Christine Germano) involving the schoolchildren photographing and interviewing a member of their extended family. Each activity was focused around Marshallese understandings of displacement; the socio-cultural determinants of well-being that have endured in spite of that displacement; and how existing strengths might be drawn upon to build cultural resilience and plan for community development in the future.

The May workshops took place at Central Middle School Honolulu, the Coop school in Majuro and Ejit Elementary School. On 23 November 2017, an additional workshop was held at Ebeye Public Elementary School, and from 25-29 November 2017, Michelle Keown and Shari Sabeti presented the outcome of their work at the University of Hawai'i. Poetry written in May was read to school classes and further interviews with staff and students were also conducted.

Period	4 May 2017 → 27 Nov 2017
Event type	Workshop
Location	Honolulu, United States, HawaiiShow on map
Degree of Recognition	Regional