MICRONESIA

 

READ

I’m aware of only one book from the Federated States of Micronesia that’s been translated into English, which is why I ended up paying an exorbitant sum of money to an online bookseller for a used copy of The Book of Luelen, written or dictated by Luelen Bernart and translated and edited by John L. Fischer, Saul H. Riesenberg, and Marjorie G. Whiting.

This book recounts folk stories and other facts about the Micronesian state of Ponape, now known as Pohnpei. These stories were collected and recorded between 1934 and 1946 by Bernart, who was “concerned that Ponapeans of later times should know their own culture and the events of their past.”

While the stories circle around a bit, and are often repetitive, they essentially describe how people first came to Ponape and how their society progressed. According to legend, a man named Japkini made a very large and very deep canoe, with the help of two women – Lipalikini and Lijapikini. They and several other people went on a voyage in the canoe, looking for land. They eventually came to a coral reef, which they built upon to form a piece of land they called Ponpei.

The stories are full of cannibals, giants, demons, and spirits. In addition to these folk tales, however, there are entire chapters listing the various types of flora on the island and the uses for the flora – food, medicine, fiber, oil, and building material, to name a few. Bernart includes information about what people wore and what they ate. He discusses how the land was divided and who the rulers were; which spirits or gods were worshipped and who were their priests.

There are also chapters about the foreigners who came to Ponape, both as rulers and as visitors. Apparently, more ships came to Ponape from America than other lands. Foreigners brought tobacco, alcohol, and firearms to the island, and according to Bernart, “[t]he inhabitants of Ponape did not like foreign ways.”

H. E. Maude, a British Colonial Service administrator, historian, and anthropologist, explains in the foreword “the paramount importance of local oral tradition: as an offset to racist bias in European literature, and as our main source for reconstructing the history of the immediately pre-European contact period.”

As a layperson, I have to admit that I found The Book of Luelen to be somewhat tedious, but for anthropologists and historians, I’m sure it provides a wealth of information.

COOK

According to The Book of Luelen, plants available to the Ponapean people for food included breadfruit, Polynesian chestnuts, mangos, yams, taro, and bananas. In searching for a Micronesian recipe, I found one that called for two of these items and very little else.

The recipe for Micronesian Sweet Potatoes and Bananas on the InternationalCuisine.com website could not have been any easier. Peel, cut up, and boil a couple of sweet potatoes; peel, slice, and fry in margarine three bananas; then mix the boiled sweet potatoes in with the bananas. The recipe called this a side dish, but from my point of view, it made a perfect breakfast. 

GIVE

In the first chapter of The Book of Luelen, when trying to build the land that later became Ponape, Japkini and his fellow voyagers had to contend with the waves from the sea destroying their work. They called upon two forces to come and protect the land from the waves. One was Katenenior, the barrier reef, and the other was Katinanik, the mangrove.

Coral reefs are still vital to the people of Micronesia, and I was happy to find on the GlobalGiving website a project to help monitor and protect the health of Micronesian coral reefs. According to the project description, “50% of coral reefs have died in the last 30 years and 90% are projected to die within the next century.” In response, an organization called OneReef and local communities are working “to enforce no-take areas, monitor reef health, and build social cohesion.” The hope is that “island communities of Pohnpei will more effectively protect and monitor coral reef ecosystems and reinforce traditional stewardship.”

More information about this project is available at: Equip rangers to save coral reefs in Micronesia - GlobalGiving.

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