Learning the Ropes
Written By: Ave Petra
I was so excited when I found out I was accepted as an intern for the Gineftao I Kuttura “Share The Culture” program at War in the Pacific National Historic Park (WAPA) in Guam for many reasons. I was born and raised in Guam but am currently going to college in the States, so it was good to be able to come back home and work at a park I had volunteered with before. I am not CHamoru*, or indigenous to Guam–I’m Filipino-American–but I appreciate CHamoru art and think it’s really interesting & important, so creating workshops to share those facets of CHamoru culture was a really appealing opportunity. I’m interested in working in environmental/cultural outreach with organizations like NPS, so an experience like this would be very enlightening for me.
(*In the CHamoru language, “ch” is considered one letter and capitalized as such.)
Memorial Day flag display at Asan Beach Park, one of WAPA’s units.
In my first week I was asked to make an action plan for my summer, and then went over it with my supervisors, which was helpful in figuring out what kind of workshops I could hold and what resources we had.
Part of my plan for the summer was to spend a few weeks getting a sense of how the park operated and how the rangers handled different kinds of outreach events, before attempting my own event. I helped manage different tour groups, usually bringing up the back so everyone was together and could hear the guides. Tagging along with tours was helpful in learning different ways to convey information while still being engaging, like asking guiding questions to the tour group to lead them to a certain historical detail or experience.
Another aspect of running the park that I helped out in was assisting in volunteer events, which were focused on helping maintain the park in some way. It was nice to get out of the office and work up a sweat shoveling chunks of grass and dirt off of park sidewalks, but it was also a useful experience in seeing all the details and logistics that go into organizing events for the public.
Left: Me bringing up the back of a tour group. Right: shoveling overgrown grass off of the sidewalk at one of our park units.
I wanted my first workshop to be related to something I was experienced in, so it wasn’t too overwhelming and I could help people while actually knowing what I was talking about. I decided to do a printmaking workshop with printing blocks inspired by CHamoru art and handicrafts, since I had a lot of experience with printmaking and helped with a similar ACE workshop at the park last summer. However, I didn’t want to do the exact same thing again, so I did a lot of research into ancient CHamoru pottery designs, cave paintings, and handicrafts like weaving and carved 20 printing blocks. There were some pottery designs I had never seen before, so I wanted to include them in the blocks I carved so more people could appreciate them. It was also fun to find interesting visual motifs in objects like woven mats and fishhooks. Additionally, I made a zine about the historical and cultural background behind CHamoru pottery designs so visitors could get some context about the designs they were printing with and what they might represent.
Top Row: CHamoru pottery designs found on sherds uncovered by archaeologists. Bottom Row: Printing blocks and prints made by me, with designs inspired by CHamoru pottery and other cultural handicrafts/iconography.
I was confident in my printing blocks and my preparation for the workshop, but I was definitely caught off-guard when I was running the workshop. I had set up everything I thought I could have needed the day before, but when more and more people showed up, I had to move to a bigger space and add more tables. Another big change I didn’t intend for originally was including multiple colors: I had planned to have one color of ink available so that different inks wouldn’t mix and make the prints look muddy, but when we moved to a bigger space one of my supervisors convinced me to add more colors. I was overwhelmed by the number of little kids that showed up, since I didn’t have a lot of experience dealing with kids that age, as well as the last-minute changes to the plan I had in mind. Luckily, I had the help of the other ACE interns at the park and my supervisors, which helped me manage my stress and the crowd that had showed up.
The printmaking line at my workshop.
My first workshop went well overall, but it was also a big learning moment for me. Specifically, I learned which skills I needed to work on this summer to improve my workshops: interacting with younger kids, and flexibility. At the moment, it was stressful, but afterwards I realized it was really helpful in figuring out what my goals for the summer should be outside of running workshops, which helped me feel better.