Community Voices: Migration and the Loss of Cultural Heritage

Participating in this year’s celebration, the Island Ark Project focused on the Palauan community, for whom they have worked with in the past including several organizations and government officials including Palau Community College, the Belau National Museum, and so forth. IAP continues to focus its work in preserving and safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), and in lieu of IYIL19, the Island Ark Project chose to focus closer on the community members themselves and how the loss of cultural heritage has already affected many Palauans today.

Although Climate Change has been a primary focus that has and continues to have an impact on cultural heritage, other factors including colonization, emigration, and globalization have impacted many communities and their heritage for hundreds of years. Through this resource, we look through the lens of Palauans and Palauan-Americans who emotionally feel and acknowledge what it is like to not know their language or cultural heritage.

In addition, larger themes that this social media campaign has discussed include: Understanding the holistic relationship and importance of cultural and linguistic preservation, how factors including colonization, emigration, globalization, and transnationalism have impacted Palauan-Americans today, reestablishing the relationship between land, language, culture, and Palauan epistemology.

Resource: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pb9gazcvb_vcyXuXSF3sYNcK9fPzAbfv/view?fbclid=IwAR0l0R7gxgiStDPBwWdQ7WfxcXTdBPYx69BPEMWe7OuKqYvO_hF-A1y_rH4