Holohol: A holistic approach of Remathau ancestral seafaring wisdom towards enhancing post-disaster resilience
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2025-05
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Island and coastal communities worldwide face unprecedented climate change challenges. In this thesis, I explore the adaptive capacity of the Remathau (“people of the sea”; refers to the Indigenous inhabitants of the low-lying atolls and islands of Yap State in the Federated States of Micronesia). I focus on the ancestral seafaring knowledge and traditions to enhance climate change adaptation and post-disaster resilience for small islands and coastal populations. Through a collaborative community-based research approach using oral histories, participant observation, partner-driven computational modeling analysis, and Indigenous ways of knowing, the project engaged with the Remathau community, including the diasporic populations, to understand how their ancestral knowledge systems can enhance climate change adaptation and post-disaster community resilience. The overarching purpose of this research is to document and assess aspects of Remathau ancestral seafaring knowledge, including established inter-island social networks, cultural practices, climate topology, and environmental knowledge essential to the community’s historical adaptive capacity and resiliency, and analyze how this Indigenous body of knowledge can inform community-driven efforts for climate adaptation and post-disaster resilience. This establishes the project’s guiding research question: How can Remathau ancestral seafaring knowledge enhance post-disaster resilience for island and coastal communities? Using grounded theory through thematic analysis, four major themes were developed, including Kol Faluyach (cultural values of our islands), Repiyal Faluyach (traditional knowledge), Hamwalel Faluyach (stewardship practices), and the Kol Repiyach Igala (fragility of Indigenous) knowledge that illuminates historical adaptability and contemporary challenges. Drawing on the narrated oral histories combined with Indigenous methods, archival sources, and my capacity as a researcher and member of the community, I contend the post-disaster resilience of the Remathau community is grounded in Holohol, the social fabric of the interwoven ancestral seafaring system. The project contributes to risk reduction frameworks to strengthen community capacity and resilience; cultural heritage preservation, education, and empowerment; and lays the groundwork for future research.
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Cultural anthropology, Cultural resources management, Climate adaptation, Cultural heritage, Indigenous knowledge, Post-disaster resilience, Remathau (people of the sea), Yap-Micronesia
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364 pages
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