Yap Living History Museum

Located in the Micronesian Pacific, surrounded by coral reefs and mangrove forests, Yap is a small island with a total population just a little over 11,000. Most visitors arrive on Yap to dive its award-winning dive sites where giant manta rays, sharks and an array of exotic creatures can be found. Yap is the most traditional island of its counterparts in the Federated States of Micronesia. Step into a Yapese village and you can find children practicing a colorful traditional Yapese dance or an old woman weaving her basket. Little boys in red thuws, or loincloths, run across the stone path that has been used for centuries while a young girl in a grass skirt offers a fragrant flowered nunuw, or lei.

The traditions and customs of Yap are very much alive and the “Mogethin” spirit can be found throughout the island. A new Museum is under construction in Colonia, Yap. The Yap Living History Museum will offer live local demonstrations (weaving, cooking local food, tool making, etc.), traditional Yapese dances, story telling and traditional canoe sailing. The purpose of the Yap Living History Museum is to put traditional skills, values and ideals at the forefront and increase the public's knowledge of the significance of traditional culture as well as the history of Yap islands.

The elders of Yap are a treasure trove of wisdom. They also contain the knowledge of traditional skills and myths of the past. It is important that these skills and stories are not lost on the next generation. Yap Living History Museum is an educational arena for old traditions to come alive once again.

For more information about Yap Living History Museum please contact the museum's coordinator, Laura, at lakoonce@gmail.com or visit www.visityap.com.

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