Saipan Kios-ku: A Visitor and Learning Center

  By RAMON BLAS CAMACHO
Special to the Saipan Tribune

Editor’s Note: Due to the length of this article, it is being published as a two-part series. The continuing piece will be published in tomorrow’s edition of the Saipan Tribune.

Not only is the Saipan kios-ku a part of history, but one that also contributes to history in the making, serving as a living example of a community-based partnership initiative. The kios-ku is setting a trend in neighborhood revitalization. It showcases the vast historic assets Saipan offers in the inner villages, making the inner villages unique visitor and learning centers for island residents and visitors to appreciate and learn from. The renewed effort by the council in making Saipan villages learning centers and tourist magnets promotes environmental stewardship and ultimately builds sustainable communities that thrive on their unique historic characteristics.

Spearheading the village sustainable project, the Saipan municipal council partners with regulatory, permitting, community development agencies, the business sector and common ordinary citizens on Saipan in establishing Saipan’s first local memorial kios-ku in Chalan Kanoa, Saipan’s oldest capital village and the center of local government during the Trust Territory period.

The kios-ku project is the council’s first concerted revitalization effort in the village of Chalan Kanoa-one that is intended to draw tourists to the village for cultural sightseeing and lessons in local history, culture, and leadership in public service.

The goal of Saipan’s village revitalization initiative is to build local capacity for villagers to identify, develop and promote a marketing niche within their respective villages, by showcasing hidden priceless historic and cultural treasures. These treasures would give residents and visitors a better understanding of and appreciation for the people living in the villages, their history, lifestyle, legends and folklores, culture, and demographic characteristics. These natural treasures also promote environmental stewardship of the natural scenic resources in the villages. Such natural and manmade resources capturing our imagination, for example, include Saipan’s largest fresh water lake in Susupe, a breeding ground for local land turtles and a variety of wildlife and Chalan Kanoa’s District One wetland forest, a prime nesting ground for wildlife from as far as Japan. The vestiges of the Japanese sugar factory at the Mt. Carmel campus is an historic fact about economic prosperity during the Japanese era and the role sugar once played as an important export commodity shipped out of the nearby sugar dock across from the Mt. Carmel Cathedral. The footprints of this era remain to this day as seen on the rows of old Japanese bunkers near the kios-ku in District Three. Close by is another piece of Saipan history-Saipan’s first and oldest elementary school, the William S. Reyes Elementary School in Chalan Kanoa, named after the first local superintendent of education.

Drawing tourists and curiosity-seekers to the inner sanctuary of our villages is a niche marketing strategy. It adds value and provides diversity to Saipan as a tourist destination. No longer should visitors be confined to the traditional ocean, surf, and blue sky in promoting or marketing Saipan as a tourist destination. Refocusing our effort on the cultural and historic jewels in the inner villages is exactly the type of tourism draw Jim Beighley of the Pacific Division of Duty Free Shoppers made reference to during a visit to Saipan. This type of niche marketing also serves another purpose: rehabilitating the rich historic and cultural assets in every village; educating residents and tourists about the island’s rich culture and heritage; and having fuller appreciation and understanding of the island’s truly unique culture and history.

At an appearance before the Marianas Visitors Authority monthly meeting, for example, Beighley talked about a new trend in leisure travel abroad seeking to experience (the “What I did” aspect of travel) and not wholly for shopping (the “What I bought” aspect of vacation), which Beighley dubbed ‘talk value’ tourism. Beighley underscored the value added resources of the CNMI in sharing its authentic culture.

Experiencing authentic indigenous cultures was also a topic of discussion in an interview with Hayato “Jack” Yoshino of PHR Ken Asset Management, Inc., in Guam’s Directions magazine, which Yoshino pointed to Guam as lacking in “cultural sightseeing” in its tourism promotional and marketing strategies. His finding led him to work with Guam’s Gef Pago (Chamorro) Inarajan Cultural Center, in order to fill a niche by promoting Chamorro culture in Guam, making this authentic experience in indigenous way of life a new dimension in the tourists’ total visitor experience to the island.

Acting on the urgency to save our historic treasures and enhance the destination potential of the island while learning our history and promoting the local culture and tradition became the impetus for the local council’s community leadership in working with villagers and affected agencies develop local capacity for village-level leadership, in promoting and marketing the host culture, so that tourists may have the privilege and opportunity to experience the unique aspects of the tradition, culture and language of the indigenous people. In the process, residents not only promote their villages but also benefit from the village revitalization activities by enhancing the quality of life in the village.

Indeed, Beighley prescient warning: “Today’s travelers are spending more to accumulate experiences as opposed to material things, and that travelers’ particular passions are important factors in their destination choices”.

After working literally round-the-clock for a couple of years to fine-tune the site development plan that matches available funding, the Saipan council and its community partners now have a reason to breathe a sigh of relief over the construction of the third and final phase of the kios-ku project slated for completion and official opening this year.

The conceptualization and selection of the kios-ku design took untold hours of labor by its founding members and the council, because it was important for the council then as it is today that the design is one that not only captures Saipan’s political history and its underlying significance, but also one that depicts local leadership during the pre-commonwealth period up to the present time.

To be continued tomorrow.

Ramon Blas Camacho is chairman of the 11th Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council. (website:saipanmunicipalcouncil.blogspot.com)