From Sunday, January 25th – Saturday, January 31st, Historic Preservation Officers and representatives from the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, Yap, Kosrae, Pohnpei, Chuuk, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Republic of Palau, and Guam met with David Look and Paula Creech of National Park Service during the Micronesian Endowment for Historic Preservation and Annual Consultation Meetings. This year’s meeting was hosted at the University of Guam. Throughout this week David Look, Architect, Paula Creech, Micronesia Program Coordinator, and Historic Preservation Officers from throughout the Micronesian region met indefatigably from the early morning well-through each evening to discuss the successes and challenges of each program area and to report on the status of current archeology and ethnography projects from each state or country.
In addition to summarizing the year’s activities, this year’s meeting allowed these dedicated professionals to discuss issues such as Historic Preservation Legislation, Local Registers, National Registers, World Heritage Lists, copyright issues, internship programs, competency and skill certification requirements, program reviews, grant applications, and goals and objectives. Topics of discussion also included ethnographic databases, research permits, researcher reports, regulations, training and technical assistance plans, GIS records, status of surveys and inventories, and plans and repositories for future publications.
Each of the Historic Preservation Officers were given the opportunity to share their accomplishments with their peers and the chance to brainstorm, ask for suggestions, express concerns, and report on some of their findings from the years activities.
While the agenda was full each day, Paula, David, the Historic Preservation Officers, and representatives worked diligently to address and discuss all relevant issues and topics. At the end of the week all participants seemed to be exhausted, but all appeared to have gained better understanding of what the various HPOs had accomplished and where they were headed in the future. While the series of ten hour days may have been taxing, the reports proved that the partnership between the NPS and the Micronesian HPOs is a successful one. Through hard-work, cooperation, communication, and innovation, great things are being done to preserve heritage and culture in Micronesia…thanks to NPS and the Micronesian Endowment for Historic Preservation.
