Palau
Old Knowledge For A New Museum
Jane Olkeriil Works to Perserve Palauan Traditions
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In February a groundbreaking ceremony was held for a new indoor/outdoor complex that will replace the present Belau National Museum and serve as the storehouse of Palauan culture and art. The new complex should be completed in time for the Pacific Festival of the Arts to be hosted by Palau in 2004. Meanwhile, Jane Ibiochel Olkeriil, Project Consultant at the museum has been doing some groundbreaking of her own. Last Fall, Olkeriil began an oral history research project called, “Keepers of the Culture,” on the traditional artists of Palau. She interviewed 13 masters in the crafts of traditional tools and fishing equipment, fiber skirt making, wood carving, Palauan chant, dance and canoe making.
Olkeriil, a recent graduate from the University of Hawaii, Manoa with a degree in Anthropology, wanted to work at Belau National Museum, the “oldest museum in Micronesia,” and to be a part of the team involved with the building of the new museum. When she approached the museum, curator Faustina Rehuher and past art coordinator, Margo Vitarelli, talked to her about undertaking the research. That was fine with Olkeriil. “After all,” she reflected, “it would give me the chance to combine two of my favorite things: anthropology and Palau.”
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Interested in more than just collecting art and observing the master artists in action, Olkeriil craved a deeper insight. She wanted to learn about and document the artists’ childhoods in Palau, their life histories, what it was that inspired them to pursue their art, how they cultivated it, how the environment affected it, how they passed it on. To this end she sought the artists out, interviewed, observed and photographed them. She also made audio tapes of her discussions with them, transcribed the tapes and compiled the information.
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Most of Olkeriil’s informants were in their 60s and 70s. Paulus Obakrairur Sked, a master of Palauan chant who often opened conferences in Palau with a chant, passed away early this year. The chants, passed down for generations, mirror the myths, worldview, culture and history of the Palauan people. Obakairur’s wife was diligent in collecting the chants that, along with audiotapes of his chanting, are in the museum’s research library under the title of “Collections of Obakairur.” Another esteemed artist, Marino Debesol, who is in his late 60’s carved a storyboard as Olkeriil talked with him and took pictures of the carving process. Obakairur is gone, but his culture and his art—and that of Debesol and the other 11 artists—remains documented and preserved.
One thing that emerged from Olkeriil’s study is that art is changing as new materials become available. Artists producing traditional tools and fishing equipment might today use pipe and stainless steel. The material used to paint a red and white war canoe can often be commercial paint from the U.S. mainland. Not so surprising really. Olkeriil recalled that one thing that really impressed her in the inquiry was “Palauan resourcefulness. They found what they needed from the environment. Each village had different materials to use for their art. They used what they had.” They still do.
A distinct aspect of Palauan culture emerged in Olkeriil’s research. The artists told her “nobody really taught them.” They explained that, in the past, children had to show their own interest, their own initiative. When an artisan was sleeping or preoccupied, a child would have to sneak out and look at a fishing net, a fiber-skirt, a storyboard. He or she would have to study it, then try making it. Only when a child revealed a certain level of skill would that skill be acknowledged and taught directly. The artists fear that traditional art is in danger of being lost; kids today tend to ask, “Grandpa, can you make me one?”
Olkeriil said that she is currently writing a proposal for Phase II of “Keepers of the Culture” and that she would like to see more oral history research done in Palau. “I’ve learned a lot about Palauan culture,” she said, “and I’m still learning.” Meanwhile “Keepers of the Culture” will be kept in the library and is ready to be showcased in the new Belau National Museum.
Readers may contact the Belau National Museum by fax at: (680) 488-3183, or by email: bnm@palaunet.com.
