The following is by American Folklife Center (AFC) Folklife Specialist Nancy Groce, who worked with the 2022 AFC Community Collections Grant (CCG) awardee, the Habele Outer Island Education Fund, on their cultural documentation project, the Warp and Weft of the Remathau. You can read more about the CCG program here, and the Warp and Weft of the Remathau project here.
The American Folklife Center (AFC) is excited to announce that the first collection of cultural research and fieldwork created through its innovative Community Collection Grants (CCG) program is now available online! “Warp and Weft of Yap’s Outer Islands: Backstrap Weaving in Micronesia,” which was just made available on the Library’s website, was created by members of the Habele Outer Island Education Fund on the Ulithi Atoll in the Caroline Islands, in the Federated States of Micronesia, of the Western Pacific.
Click here for the Warp and Weft of Yap’s Outer Islands: Backstrap Weaving in Micronesia Collection
The CCG program was launched in 2022 as part of the Library’s Of the People: Widening the Path initiative. Over the last three years, the CCG program has supported 29 innovative research projects documenting culture in communities across the U.S. and its territories. Awards have prioritized cultural, occupational and artistic communities and social groups that are un- or under-documented in the AFC’s archives. Participating communities include Chaldeans in southeast Michigan, line dancers in Philadelphia, citizens of the Comanche Nation in Oklahoma, and coffee growers in Puerto Rico, to name only a few. You can read more about particular CCG projects on the Of the People blog here.
Interviews, images and descriptive field notes are central to each project, but once the fieldwork is completed, much behind-the-scenes work remains to be done. AFC archivists and processing staff work closely with awardees to carefully label files, create descriptive “metadata” about each item, and then submit their documentation to the AFC so we can fully integrate each new collection into the Center’s archives and eventually online, on the Library’s website. Detailed work ensures that CCG interviews, videos, photos, and sound recordings will be easily accessible to future Library patrons and the public at large. (For information on how AFC staff prepares and posts collections online, see the recent Folklife Today post, Celebrating the Online Launch of the Fiftieth Occupational Folklife Project – And How It Got There!)
The new Warp and Weft collection documents traditional lavalava cloth weaving on the Ulithi in Micronesia. Led by Habele researchers Modesta Yangmog and Regina Raigetal, the year-long project features interviews with 23 women who weave the beautiful and highly valued lavalava cloth. More than a commodity, lavalava cloth remains an essential element in maintaining cultural traditions and community relationships among contemporary Remathau (People of the Sea). Many of the interviews were conducted in Ulithan (with English transcriptions), which significantly increases the Library’s holdings in the Micronesian language.
The awardees were delighted with the results of their research and are excited to see them go online. Neil Mellen, the Founder and Executive Director of the Habele Outer Island Education Fund, writes: “Documenting and sharing the stories of traditional weavers in western Caroline Islands was a tremendous, uplifting opportunity. The investment and support provided by the Library of Congress, and the American Folklife Center, was transformative. We grateful for, and proud of, the opportunity and partnership that allowed these weavers’ voices to be heard.” And Modesta Yangmog, one of the lead researchers, adds: “I want to thank the Library of Congress, Habele, and the willingness of the interviewees for making this project possible for our young generation. I am happy that people will be able to know more about Ulithian culture.” AFC staff is equally excited and thank the project leaders, fieldworkers, and interviewees involved for creating such an excellent collection that will enrich and expand our archival holdings on their community and its traditions.
Click on over to the new online collection, Warp and Weft of Yap’s Outer Islands: Backstrap Weaving in Micronesia!
You can read more about the Warp and Weft of Yap’s Outer Islands: Backstrap Weaving in Micronesia project, on which the new online collection is based, here.