The team

Translators

Marcus Bennett

Marcus was the team’s interpreter and translator.

Wilbert Alik

Marshallese Language Arts Specialist for the RMI public school system. He was founding chair of the Marshallese Studies Department at the College of the Marshall Islands. He has initiated and supported many community improvement projects. For MAP, Wilbert translated the ‘History Project’ comic into Marshallese.
Alik Translation Services.

Dr Polly Atatoa-Carr

Polly is a public health physician and an associate professor at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Her work concerns the broader socioeconomic determinants of health and well-being in indigenous Pacific communities, and improving the health and equity of vulnerable groups. Atatoa-Carr acted as a consultant for MAP, participating in key phases of the project and producing a summary document and report for project participants and Marshallese government organisations.
Profile page at the University of Waikato

Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner

Kathy is a Marshallese poet whose writing and activism have gained national and international recognition. Her performance poetry engages directly with the Marshallese history of displacement. Her book Iep Jaltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter was published by the University of Arizona Press in 2017. As a collaborator with MAP, she engaged young Marshallese people in creative writing activities focused on their experiences. MAP commissioned Kathy to write a new poem about displacement. Read more about her and her work in the Poetry chapter of the website.
www.kathyjetnilkijiner.com
Iep Jaltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter

Dr Michelle Keown

is a senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh. She is the Principal Investigator of MAP, and coordinates the project team. She researches postcolonial literature and theory, and has published widely on Maori and Pacific writing. Her books include Postcolonial Pacific Writing: Representations of the Body (2005) and Pacific Islands Writing: The Postcolonial Literatures of Aotearoa/New Zealand and Oceania (2007). Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner’s poetry was Michelle’s inspiration for the project.
Profile page at the University of Edinburgh

Daniel Lin

Daniel is Director of the Pacific Storytellers Cooperative at PREL. Dan created the short film ‘Anointed’ about Runit Island, featuring Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner.

‘Anointed’: https://www.map.llc.ed.ac.uk/photography/.

Jack Niedenthal

Jack is the Secretary General of the Marshall Islands Red Cross Society, and the founder of Microwave Films of The Marshall Islands. Niedenthal is the producer of films including Batman vs Majuro, Jilel: The Calling of the Shell, Zori, and Ainikien Jidjid Ilo Bon̄ (The Sound of Crickets at Night). Read more about Jack’s work on his website: https://www.microwavefilms.org/host.html.

Sara Penrhyn Jones

Sara is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and senior lecturer in Media at Bath Spa University. She is particularly interested in the environment, climate change, social justice, and gender equity. She filmed the MAP workshops with sound recordist Richard Gott, and is producing a documentary dealing with Marshallese displacement. ome of her previous work is available to watch on Vimeo.
Profile page at Bath Spa University
Sara Penrhyn Jones on Vimeo

Dr Alex Plows

Alex trained MAP’s research assistant Aileen Sefeti in qualitative research methods and data analysis, and assisted with the design and support delivery of the interdisciplinary research methods used on the project.

Dr Shari Sabeti

Shari is a lecturer at the Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh. She coordinates the MSc Education (Comparative Education and International Development) and works on teacher education courses. Her research focuses on arts and cultural heritage education, literary, creative writing, and museums. MAP was shaped by Dr Sabeti’s expertise in participatory and creative methodologies.
Profile page at the University of Edinburgh

Aileen Sefeti

Aileen participated in project fieldwork, including conducting interviews and circulating questionnaires. She will assist in the dissemination of the results of the study to Marshallese participants.

Dena Seidel

Dena is Director of the Okeanos Foundation for the US and Pacific region.

Munro Te Whata

Munro is a Maori animator, illustrator, and writer. He was commissioned by MAP to adapt Kathy’s poem ‘History Project’ into a comic. He blogs at munrotewhata.blogspot.co.uk.

Dr Irene Taafaki

Irene is an expert in Marshallese health and education issues. She is the Campus Director of the University of the South Pacific, where she recently led an arts revival project on traditional Marshallese weaving practices. Irene collaborated with the MAP team in organising the workshops and the symposium at the USP. She also supervised Aileen Sefeti and will assist her in the dissemination of project outputs to Marshallese participants and stakeholders.
Profile page at the University of the South Pacific