‘Konferencian Dinana Islas Marianas’ set for Pagan this summer

“Konferencian Dinana Islas Marianas” slated for Pagan this summer gains full steam with the formation of a local ad hoc steering group working in tandem with Guam AMIM planning group, according to Northern Islands Mayor Jerome Kaipat Aldan.

Aldan made the announcement following a meeting Friday with the mayors and members of the respective municipal councils of Rota, Tinian, and Saipan at the second floor of the Saipan Mayor’s conference room.

Aldan is Konferencia host of the first historic gathering of Dinana Islas Marianas on Pagan Island. Konferencia is unlike other forums, for it serves as a vehicle or a process aimed at inspiring aspirational conversations in re-awakening and re-connecting the islands’ ancestral heritage seemingly separated by geography, distance and historical circumstances or anomalies, and re-bonding the indigenous people of Islas Sinahi Pacifico in the Marianas together in fellowship from Guam to Farallon de Pajaros.

Islas Sinahi Pacifico (translated crescent islands of peace) typifies the geographic formation of the Marianas chain of islands shaped like a crescent moon, its geographic shape likely giving the island chain its geneological identity Islas Sinahi Pacifico, or the Cresent Islands of Peace.

Konferencia as a process aims at forging re-acquaintances throughout the chain, by sharing know-how and local resources in different media forms, accessing host cultural features represented, for instance, in cultural chant, traditional herbal practice, belief and folklore, anthem, language, tradition and custom, values, arts and art forms, inter-/intra-bartering, trade and commerce geared toward greater fresh and wholesome organic local food production and value-added food products using science and technology, harnessing human capital resources through traditional cultural education complemented in formal setting including higher education, and tradition, in the process recognizing inter-/intra-is-land barriers and forging common remedies beneficial to the people of the Marianas that leads to greater sustainability of the CNMI’s limited island resource base.

Areas of interest for the konferencia is also on “i familia” as in genealogical tracing of ancestral roots. For instance, there will be reflections on the implications of various archaeological findings throughout the Marianas actively shared by outside scientists covering the farthest northern tip of the Marianas crescent to the southern tip of the chain, aimed at establishing genealogical linkages, for instance, with early carbon-dated settlements in Pagan during 1321 in Regusa, Pagan. Part of konferencia includes a study tour to Pagan’s earliest settlement in at Regusa Village laced with lattes today carbon dated to the 1300s.

The one-and-a-half-day Pagan konferencia in mid-June follows two weeks after Guam’s 2016 Festival of Pacific Arts (FESTPAC) in Guam this year. Because of limited accommodation, konferencia is limited to 100 participants based on published criteria, one of which requires the participant to dedicate at least 50 hours of storytelling to others at home, at school, in the community, and with diaspora communities about konferencia in Pagan.

The local ad hoc steering group lending helping hands to the host mayor consists of former councilman Diego Kaipat, local traditional historian on ancient relics John Castro, Sakman Canoe builder Pete Perez, and members of the Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council Tonie M. Tudela, Alice S. Igitol, and Reina C. Camacho.

Last Friday’s meeting with CNMI municipal mayors and elected council members was convened following earlier meetings convened by Aldan with potential local partners in government and non-government sectors, including regulatory and destination promotion agencies, a local college environmental group, and a host of private-sector sponsors and interests.

The Sakman that just arrived in Guam from San Diego, California to participate in the Guam FESTPAC will join Guam Tasi Seafarers thread the Marianas waters en-route to Pagan ahead of the pilgrimage.

Aldan sees that the konferencia will play out in sync with a vision for Gani Islands re-settlement and re-development in the overriding effort ”to promote, preserve and apply traditional knowledge, innovation, expressions and practices of indigenous traditional culture and increase understanding of this chain of islands in the Pacific.” Aldan emphasized the importance of experiencing the Marianas’ last frontier in Pagan’s in its pristine natural setting. (PR)