Six honored for their work in the humanities

The Council of the Humanities recognized several individuals Friday night with prestigious awards, commending them for efforts that benefit the local community in the field of Humanities during a ceremony at the Dai-Ichi Hotel Saipan Beach’s Claret Room.

Presented with the 2004 Governor’s Humanities Awards were Dr. Dirk HR Spennemann, Pacific STAR Center for Young Writers, Noel B. Quitugua, Lino Olopai, Howard Willens, and Deanne Siemer.

Spennemann, an associate professor of Cultural Resources Management at Charles Sturt University in Australia and an expert on the German colonial period in Micronesia, received the nod in the research and publication category, being recognized for several publications resulting from extensive research over the past five years. He also completed a project in which he collected, organized and annotated thousands of pages of German language materials relating to the NMI, which is available for use by scholars and others interested in the German period.

Among the publications are Aurora Australis: The German Period in the Northern Mariana Island 1899-1914, known as the first comprehensive study of the German colonial period in the NMI; The German Annexation of the Caroline, Palau, and Mariana Islands; and German Sources on the Marianas.

Pacific STAR Center for Young Authors was commended for the completion of a project featuring oral accounts of World War II. A book entitled “We Drank Our Tears” was published as a result of the project, which had students interview and document the experiences by elderly relatives during the WWII. The effort in documenting the accounts for future generations to learn and understand earned them the Preserve CNMI History Award.

The book has been distributed to libraries and repositories in the Commonwealth and is also available for student use.

“It represents a valuable addition to local history told from an indigenous perspective,” the Council said.

For his part, Quitugua, currently the exhibit curator at the Northern Mariana Islands Museum of History and Culture, was recognized as a knowledgeable individual in the field of Chamorro history and culture, and thus, was the recipient of the Humanities Teacher Award. His studies have enabled him to replicate tools and other materials used by Chamorros in the ancient times, and is well versed on local family histories as well.

Quitugua was also commended for sharing his knowledge with others through presentations at schools.

Olopai was commended with the Preserving Traditional Cultural Practices Award after being a strong advocate of reviving and using traditional cultural practices to effectively deal with the challenges of the modern world.

He documented his early life experience on Saipan, as well as his search for cultural identity, involvement in political status of the Commonwealth, and effort in seeking balance with cultural traditions and the modern way of life.

His manuscript, entitled The Rope of Tradition, will be published by the Council later this year.

Willens and Siemer received the Lifetime Achievement in the Humanities Award due to their “significant contributions to the humanities in the Commonwealth over the past three decades.”

Willens represented the Marianas Political Status Commission in negotiations with the U.S. regarding political status in 1972. He and Siemer also served as counsel to the First and Third Constitutional Conventions.

The two engaged in extensive research in the 1980s that resulted in the publication of National Security and Self-Determination: United States Policy in Micronesia (1961-1972), and An Honorable Accord: The Covenant between the Northern Mariana Islands and the United States.

Both have been involved in various Humanities projects relating to the NMI, and are currently in the final stages of making available in electronic format thousands of pages of edited transcripts of oral interviews regarding the status negotiations. About 55,000 pages will be made available.