I travelled around Kyushu for a month, covering all the prefectures except Okinawa. During this period, my main mode of transport between each prefecture was bus. Something that did not occur to me until my WWOOF host shared with me that travelling by bus might be more convenient and cheaper than train. Typically, travelling by bus is cheaper, more convenient with less transfer and also,…
I’ve been wanting to try farming for the longest time ever. There’s a few places I had in mind. Australia and New Zealand for fruits, Italy and France for vineyard, Japan for tea and rice. In the end, I chose Japan for a few reasons but mainly to improve my Japanese.
As this is my first time and I’m not sure if I will like it, I’ve decided to try a short gig. I searched online for platforms that could connect me with hosting farmers and WWOOF was the top search. After reviewing feedback, looking at the hosts, type of work available and reading blogs, I’ve decided to trust WWOOF and registered as a member. WWOOF doesn’t have a main central website. To WWOOF in Japan, you need to register on the WWOOF Japan website. Their headquarters is in Hokkaido. To apply as a member (WWoofer), there is a yearly fee of 5,500 yen via paypal.
Before I applied as a WWoofer, I was browsing the host list and looking for hosts and jobs that I am interested in. I was hoping to try tea farming but surprisingly, it was rather difficult to find a host that does that. I settled for fruits and rice instead because I’m not a fan of animal husbandry. You can easily find a host by area that you like. I was looking around either Chiba, Shizuoka or Fukuoka area. I ended up shortlisting two in Fukuoka and wrote in to one first, and if I didn’t get any response in the next few days, I’ll write in to another. In the message, I asked if I can WWOOF from 15 Oct to 28 Oct 2019. I wrote in English and Japanese (with some help from Google) just in case. I messaged the host 1.5 months before because I needed some confirmation before booking my flight.
Turns out, I was really lucky that the host that I wrote to checked his WWOOF mail everyday and I got a reply the next day. I guess it helps to check if the WWOOF host is active by reading the host profile. For example, some of them will update they are urgently looking for WWoofer or they are not looking for WWoofer. My WWOOF host (h2792 embed link) told me that he can take me in on those dates. He also told me that in order to obtain his contact information, I had to click on the ‘Request Contact Information’ link at the top of the host profile page. After that my host disclosed his contact information. The contact information will disappear in one week, so remember to note it down! Nearer to the date, we used the same platform (WWOOF message) to contact each other.
Pre-farming logistics
Register as a member (WWOOFer) on WWOOF Japan
Decide on the host and message them using WWOOF message and let them know the dates you wish to commit to (and how many people).
You will usually receive an email notification that you have WWOOF message and go to WWOOF Japan website to check. It is best to check the website message inbox everyday just in case.
Once your host replies and accepts your dates, click on the ‘Request Contact Information’ link at the top of the host profile page.
Your host will share his/her contact information. Remember to note it down as the contact information will disappear in one week.
Remember to print your WWoofer permit as you will need to give the hardcopy to your host. Click on ‘WWoofer Permit’ on the left menu bar. Please also bring the identification that you registered (e.g. if you register using your passport as identification, you will need to show your passport to the host for verification).
Fast forward to my 1 month trip to Japan. I planned to farm for 2 weeks and explore around Kyushu in the next 2 weeks. Thank god I went with Fukuoka in the end because Typhoon Hagibis hit Japan and most of the regions were affected except for Kyushu region. Chiba was probably one of the worst hit areas. My flight wasn’t cancelled and I landed in Fukuoka on 13 Oct. I contacted my host on WWOOF Japan website one day before to arrange for pick up (because in the contact information, it was mentioned that he can meet at the bus station or the train station). I stayed 2 nights in Fukuoka City before taking a train to Kurume to explore a little then take another local train to Chikugo Ooishi to meet my host. My host is working, so he could only meet me after 5pm.
I got off the train, probably the only person to alight at this stop because it’s the country after all. Most people drive or in fact, take the expressway bus that is faster and more convenient (I learnt about the expressway bus from my host and it became my main mode of transport when I travel around Kyushu). My host, Hayashi-san along with 2 other WWoofers from France met me at the train station. Hayashi-san drove us back to his house and I was shown to my room. My room is a Japanese tatami room and there is a small table, laundry rack and futon for me to sleep on. Preliminaries, I gave Hayashi-san my WWoofer permit and showed my passport as verification and Hayashi-san explained to me the expectations and schedule. We talked for a bit as well, getting to know each other, Hayashi-san is an experienced WWOOF host of 12 years and had 300 over WWoofers in this duration.
Here’s the schedule from Monday to Saturday:
0700: Wake up and get ready for breakfast
0800 – 1200: Work (teatime usually at 10am for 30mins)
1200 – 1300: Lunch
1300 – 1700: Work (teatime usually at 3pm for 30mins)
1900: Dinner
Sunday is my break but 3 meals are provided at the same time as well.
After Hayashi-san showed me around the house and settled in, at around 7+pm, Hayashi-san told us that dinner was ready. We went to the kitchen and everyone had dinner. It was really delicious, the meals were prepared by Hayashi-san’s daughter-in-law, Maho-san. There’s three generations in this house for meals, Hayashi-san and his wife, son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. We each have our own utensils for food and there’s master utensils on the dishes as well. My fellow French WWoofers were really nice too. They have been WWoofing for 10 months on a 1 year working holiday visa. They are a couple and one of them spoke really good Japanese. I felt relieved knowing that as time went by, her Japanese improved because like me, she learnt Japanese back in France but when she first arrived in Japan, she couldn’t really speak and understand. It also helped that our host family only speaks Japanese, so we are forced to learn. But not to be afraid, even if you don’t understand Japanese, it is fine. Hayashi-san and his family are very nice and they would either try to simplify the Japanese for us or gestures do help as well. Or you might be lucky like me to meet fellow WWoofers who can speak and understand some Japanese. But it is true, I managed to speak better than I did back home because I am in an environment where I have to listen, understand and speak Japanese everyday for 2 weeks that gradually, I am a bit more comfortable and confident with the language.
Day 1
The next morning, I woke up early at 6.20am to get ready. I was freezing in the middle of the night not sleeping under the futon. At 7am, the morning community announcement began. It’s really interesting to hear that, where promptly, they will announce 3 times, one in the morning at 7am, one in the afternoon at 12pm and one in the evening at 7pm. Mostly to give news highlights, community updates and weather updates. We had breakfast at around 7+am where Hayashi-san’s wife prepared for us and after that, at 8am, we started work.
We went to the workroom across the house and started organising and cleaning the workroom. Our task for the day is to weigh and sort the pears that were harvested yesterday. I brought my own work gloves to the farm because on the profile, I saw that I’ll need to bring a few items like gloves, raincoats and rubber boots. I was a little worried about the rubber boots but turns out I could borrow gloves, coats and boots from the farm. However, I strongly advise bringing 2 sets of gloves in case of wet weather, because we had to experience wearing wet gloves for work and it wasn’t the most comfortable feeling ever.
Hence, my first farm work commenced. To sort the pears by weight, there is a machine to do it. First, at the other side of the machine, Hayashi-san added the respective stone weight, then, he started the machine and started putting each pear on the scale. As the pear moves across the machine, it measures the weight, it is the same, it drops down to the relevant slot. We on the other side of the machine will collect them and place them in the crate. The tough part is to carry and stack the crates because it’s heavy AF. Surprisingly, this requires stamina because the machine is going relatively fast and we had to constantly shift things around. At 10am, we stopped work for tea time. We sat on crates and around the table to have hot tea, snacks and pear. Hayashi-san peeled the skin and cut the pears for us. The pears were super sweet and juicy. It was a half an hour break and we learned more about each other and culture while we ate.
10.30am, we went back to sort the pear. Once sorting is done, we removed the pear wrappers and cut the stem and placed it back to the crate. I learnt that they wrapped the pears while it is growing to prevent the crows from eating it. While working, we listened to the radio Hayashi-san tuned in to and occasionally, conversed while we work. This goes on until 12pm where we went back to the house for lunch. We rested for a while until Hayashi-san called us for lunch and we went to the kitchen to eat the food Maho-san (Hayashi-san’s daughter-in-law) prepared for us. After lunch, we went back to our room to rest until 1pm where we headed back to the workroom to continue working on the pears. At 3pm, it’s tea time and again, we sat on crates and drank tea, ate snacks and pears. 30 minutes up, we went back to work until 5pm. Seigo-san (Hayashi-san’s son) told us we can go and gave us a drink which was their product. Kabosu juice. Really refreshing.
First day was tiring for me because I don’t exercise at all and stacking crates of pears was super challenging for me as I lack the strength. Nonetheless, I didn’t think it was boring and rather enjoyed the work. We went back to the house where we can do whatever we want until Hayashi-san called us at around 7plus pm for dinner. Dinner was prepared by Maho-san as well and there’s always many dishes including leftovers. What I loved the most is that the Japanese don’t like to waste food. We ate leftovers for days until it finished. For all meals, we usually ate with Hayashi-san and his family, hence there were interactions every time. After dinner, we are back to our room to rest. I was really tired and could start to feel the soreness in my muscles, knowing too well that the next day will be really tough.
Day 2
Similarly, I woke up at 6.20am, still freezing because I was dumb enough not to sleep under the futon. But this time, I wore long pants and sweater to sleep so it wasn’t as bad as the first night. And true enough, my muscles were sore AF. After our 7+am breakfast, Hayashi-san drove us to the rice field. Our job today was to harvest rice. We were in our normal shoes, clothes and gloves. To the field, Hayashi-san taught us how to harvest the rice. Using the sickle, we cut the rice crop which was later placed on a machine to remove the husk from the crop. We were asked to harvest three-quarters of the field first because kindergarten children from Fukuoka will be coming over for field trips and they will try to harvest the rice crop as well. At 10am, we sat in the field and had our tea. There was a persimmon tree there and we plucked a few persimmons for our snack. Just like the pear, these persimmons were super sweet and juicy.
From a distance, we could hear the kids walking towards the field. Hayashi-san’s son, Seigo-san taught the kids how to harvest the rice. They took turns to try and while waiting, some of the kids were distracted by Hayashi-san, who was fixing the machine while others were busy looking at insects. They were pretty fascinated by us because we don’t look Japanese. One kid asked me if I could touch insects. To be honest, I am not a fan of insects, but when fully clothed, I could co-exist in an outdoor field. The weather wasn’t really doing great, it started drizzling and after the kids left for the pear field, we resumed work, harvesting all the rice crop. These rice were actually used to make mochi. By the time we finished, and tied the straws, it was raining pretty heavily and we went back to the house for lunch.
After lunch and break, we went back to the workroom to finish up our task from yesterday. One of the workers, Chi-san came in to help, we had tea at 3pm. After tea time, we were geared up, covered with raincoats, pants and boots. Off to the pear farm to harvest some pears in the wet weather. We loaded empty crates on the back of the truck and Hayashi-san drove me to the farm while both Camilles followed Chi-san in her car.
At the pear farm, we transported the empty crates on the tractor to the end of the farm, then hung basket around us and began plucking pears from the trees to our baskets and once that’s full, placed them in the crate. I thought it was as simple as just plucking pear off the stem but I was told to be careful and how to pluck the pears from the trees as new pears will grow from the stems. As it was still raining, it was a bit uncomfortable, where water will fall on us when we harvest and with the humidity, there were tons of mosquitoes. Harvesting the pears was also tricky because we need to follow the branches from respective trees. After collecting around 20 crates of pears, we transported them back to the farm and called it a day. Harvesting pears is definitely an easier task than sorting them.
Dinner as usual was great, and we usually gained more knowledge about Japan, culture and food from dinner conversation. Hayashi-san offered some homemade umeshu and it was really nice! Their family don’t really drink alcohol, so I was a great help to finish the umeshu.
Day 3
The next day after breakfast, we went back to the workroom to sort the pears. After lunch, Hayashi-san drove us to the farmers’ market to have a look. There, we saw various products and there were pears from the Hayashi farm there as well.
Hayashi-san then drove us up to the mountain to sight-see. After looking at the scenery and taking photos, he drove us to the next destination, the community centre where they are getting ready to exhibit their work. Hayashi-san is part of the photography club and there is an exhibition where members exhibit the photos they took. The gym was divided into two sections so that one is for the photography club and the other is for the calligraphy club. The photography club members were really friendly and we were talking afterwards. There was a lady who could write kanji names really nicely and all the members were asking her to help them write theirs. I chimed in and asked if she could write mine too.
We hung at the photography club for 1.5 hours and I thought that was probably the end. Turns out we were not going back, Hayashi-san drove us to Asakura where there is a famous park, Kunishiseki Hiratsuka Kawazoe Iseki Park, however, the park was closed. Hayashi-san then drove us to the Kirin Beer Factory where it is in season the cosmos field is in full bloom. He dropped by a 7-11 to buy umbrellas first as the weather was pretty bad. Upon arriving at the field, we could see that there were two huge fields of cosmos and we were trying to take photos in the rain.
I’ve decided to go to the onsen next door after having been attacked by mosquitoes, hoping the hot water will relieve the itch. The onsen fee is 500 yen but Hayashi-san gave us free tickets to the onsen and without further ado, I walked next door with an umbrella and my clothes.
I gave the ticket to the owner of the onsen who’s really friendly and before entering, I asked her if there’s shampoo in the onsen. She said there isn’t and I went back to the house to take all my essentials. Went back to the onsen and she asked me to take my time. This is my second onsen experience. I was lucky the first onsen, I had it to myself. But this time round, there were people in the onsen. What I found really funny or interesting was that people talk to each other naked. So this old lady was wearing her clothes while I was preparing to take off mine and she started talking to me and asking me about the weather if it was still raining outside and if it is huge that requires an umbrella. Being polite, I replied to her until she was done and left.
Then I was ready to go in when a lady came out of the onsen, greeted me and told me to take my time. So I guess it’s just manners where the locals greet each other and tell each other to take their time to enjoy the onsen. It is customary to not wear clothes in the onsen area and it is important to bathe first before entering the onsen. There’s soap at the bathing area. After showering, I went into the indoor onsen. Inside, ladies were talking to each other and I went to the corner of the onsen. I asked if I could go to the outdoor onsen and they told me I can and where it was. I went outdoors and enjoyed the onsen alone. After a while, Camille joined me at the outdoor onsen and we chatted, learning more about her other WWOOF-ing experience and work.
After a hard day of work and muscle ache, a soak in the onsen proves to be a really great choice. I finally understood why in the game, Harvest Moon, there’s onsen that could relieve fatigue after farming. Dinner was amazing. Japanese curry rice and because it’s the season, Maho-san added pears to the curry which made it sweet and flavorful.
Day 4
The next day, we went to the field to harvest. This time round, Camille brought mosquito repellent along and offered me to use it. We spent the morning harvesting crates of pears and after that, Hayashi-san drove us out to Oita for lunch. Apparently, Hayashi-san knows the owner and it has a really nice ambience to it. Biko Oita Cafe & Space. Hayashi-san treats us to the Japanese set, which comes with salad, miso soup and the main consists of meat, vege and onigiri. It was such a huge serving that I forced it down, NO FOOD WASTE! We finished with a cup of organic coffee which surprisingly, wasn’t as bitter as I thought.
After lunch, Hayashi-san brought us to sight-see around, we went to this forest where trees were really old and afterwards, he drove us to a ceramic workroom where he bought us tea cups as gifts.
Oita is on the other side of the mountain from the place we are at, and the drive between mountains and fields with the window open was really refreshing. We were back to the pear fields to harvest more pears for the rest of the day. However, that was not all, after transporting the harvested pears to the workroom, Hayashi-san drove us to the town to catch the sunset. We were taking photos and timelapse videos but the view was pretty magnificent.
Back at the house, I did my laundry and hung them outside, hoping they will be dry by Monday.
Day 5
On Sunday, it was my rest day and also Camilles’ last day. I truly enjoyed their company and couldn’t have asked for a better WWOOF mates. I’ve gained a lot of knowledge from our conversations and really admire them for WWOOF-ing around for 1 year. After parting ways, I borrowed a bicycle from Hayashi-san and rode to the town. First thing on the list is to the drug store. I wanted to get mosquito repellent but couldn’t find it. It’s the season where everyone was buying that there’s no more stock. Since I am back to civilisation, I bought some drinks and materials that I can write on. I continued to explore around and the weather was turning rather warm. Got myself an ice-cream from the convenient store and continued cycling around until it was around lunch time that I cycled back to the house. Lunch was provided on Sunday as well. Hayashi-san joined me at lunch and asked if I am interested in playing golf. Apparently there’s a park golf game that he is going to participate in and invited me to join.
After lunch, he drove to the park and it was really crowded. There is a competition going on and there were probably 12 teams of 4 playing. I joined a team where I met Nashi-san, Yasuie-san and another younger guy who’s name I forgot. Of course I was the worst player scoring 90 points. The higher your score, the worse you fare. But it was a really fun moment. Yasuie-san even bought me drinks. After the match, the winners received prizes and participants got drinks and tissue paper. Yasuie-san even gave me the prize that she won (mostly snacks). Really cute. But everyone was so friendly and inclusive. I also met Hayashi-san’s cousin, Hajime-san.
Back to the house, I thought that was the end. I took a short break and was thinking if I should cycle to town again. Was about to head outside when Hayashi-san invited me to another place. We walked across his house to another house. Behind that house is a pavilion and people were laying out food. Apparently it was a feast probably to celebrate the harvest season. I had my first horse sashimi. Kyushu-ben was really difficult to understand but I had a great time mingling with everyone. They kept pouring alcohol for me but I am gamed for it. Hayashi-san’s cousin was also really cute and friendly. She was the one who made sure I was looked after. Their hospitality really touched me.
After the feast, which was essentially dinner, I went to the onsen for another soak. After onsen, I went back to the room where I swapped room to Camille’s room as another WWOOFer will be joining in the next few days.
Day 6
Breakfast was prepared by Maho-san and after breakfast, we went to the workroom to separate pears for juice and those to sell. Sakuragi-san, a friend of Hayashi-san came to help out this morning. We had snacks tea and snacks at 10am. The snacks were really nice, brown sugar snacks from Okinawa. We continued sorting our pears and went back to the house for lunch at 12pm.
It was sorting of pears that we harvested after lunch, cutting the stems and placing them in the crate. We ate the famous Fukuoka snack that is usually for souvenirs, Hakata torimon. Back to doing the same work until 5pm. In between, the captain whom I met yesterday at the feast came over and said hi. He’s so funny and jovial, calling me “shachou” – president. Ha.
Day 7
Sleeping under the futon was really a game changer that I survived 13 degrees celsius feeling warm at times. This morning, after breakfast, we went to the workroom to unwrap and put the pears into the crates. It was just Hayashi-san, Sakuragi-san and I. Chi-san joined us after tea time. Lunch today was yakisoba and they were so good.
After lunch, Hayashi-san drove us up to the mountain by van to harvest kabosu. It’s a bit like citrus/lime/calamansi. There were so many spider webs and insects in the kabosu field. I teamed up with Chi-san, while she cuts fruit from the tree, I picked them up. We harvested 8 crates of kabosu and I think pears were so much easier to harvest. We had our tea time on the mountain before heading back to the workroom to finish up with the pears. The journey up and down the mountain was kind of bumpy and I was surprised I didn’t get motion sickness, probably because the window was opened. In general, the view was really serene and beautiful.
Being a person who is utterly terrified of change, having to relinquish my normal daily routine due to Covid-19 has been a huge strain on my mental health. Here in Malta, we are currently experiencing partial lockdown: all flights have been cancelled, schools, restaurants, pubs, coffeeshops and many other miscellaneous shops are closed and many people (including doctors and nurses) are in…
I want marks like this. I imagine I’ll have to be a brave little toaster and handle lots of stingy warm-up before the caning even starts. And then handle someone winding up and going hard on my ass. Restraints and a gag will probably be in order, even if we do it at a playspace.
The cruel reality of marks like this are that you can only get them with NO warm-up. A good warm-up reddens and swells the whole area and the distinct contrast of the cane mark is lost. You will have to be very, very brave to get these marks. Good luck and have fun!
I had gotten a different impression from my partner who gave me the most pretty marks, MLAM. The warm-up wasn’t for me to be less uncomfortable/in less pain when the real hitting came, it was to get the blood to the surface and prime the area for bruising.
Perhaps the techniques for leaving distinct cane marks could be different than the techniques for leaving lots of bruising, although I did get plenty of nice and distinct paddle marks. Thank you for sharing this, though! I almost prefer no warm-up sometimes. The pain from the actual impacts is awful, but I really hate the slapping warm-up. The impacts can come one, then some waiting time, another, some waiting time, etc, but the slapping is just constant stinginess.
I think I’ll need to test this out. Have someone give one buttock a nice warm-up, and nothing for the other, and then have them hit me equally hard with the cane on both sides.
I want a cute blushy sub boy in between my legs dressed in thigh highs and an oversized cosy jumper. With their back against my chest and my legs over their thighs keeping their legs open and still as I tease them for ages. Hearing those beautiful whimpers and seeing them hide their face in the sleeves of their jumper and be all cute as they beg to cum
Yes yes and yes!
Big sweaters and thigh highs are an unbeatable look, and I do so love teasing adorable creatures.
The holding their legs open with my own and watching them get all blushy and shy and start begging as they get more and more desperate to cum is so much yes.
It’s a minor pet peeve, but it is everywhere today so errrr…. please keep in mind that “Rest in Peace”/RIP literally comes from a latin phrase and is a very very deeply Christianexpression.
When talking about the departed, Jews say “may their memory be a blessing.”
So please, when talking about a dead person who is Jewish, try to keep in mind that RIP is a Christian phrase.
I learned something today, so I’ll pass it on so someone else can learn too
Can I add onto this with the Islamic version? We say “to Allah we belong and to Them we return”; the original Arabic is often abbreviated as “illwiir”. Keep that in mind if you receive news of a Muslim who’s passed away. Thank you!
So I will admit I was feeling funny about going to the Field Museum because of the whole “look at display of objects from colonized groups” thing. Especially because of the Black Panther post with commentary on museums.
But boy, the Field Museum really does seem to be doing a fair amount towards rectifying past attitudes and actions. I took these two pictures and there were at least two others I wish I had remembered to take pictures of. I was thrilled to see such obvious mentions of this kind of thing instead of a lack of change or pretending it didn’t happen.
@kaijutegu I’ve been meaning to post these for the past few days, every time I see the BP museum post go by again!
This is great, but I would be really curious to see what tribe responses to these efforts have been. I know a lot of tribes struggle with NAGPRA recognition and have to be “validated” through historical records written mostly by white explorers. I would hope the Field Museum would take a more proactive approach. I also hope there’s an effort to return these artifacts to their homes and help those populations with preservation on their own terms, rather than maintaining those items in their own care (unless that permission has been specifically granted).
@upperpaleolithic Idk if you already did, but in case you didn’t, I would click to read the Black Panther post I linked! I know @kaijutegu talks a lot about returning artifacts to the groups they came from & such, and co-curation (which is the maintaining of objects at the museum, but with input from the original group).
I don’t think it’s in the link I included, but I also remember another discussion on that same post where people were talking about how there are still issues with paperwork & bureaucracy & difficulties with recognition or jumping through hoops to sort this kind of thing out. I think it was more about the availability of collections to scholars of color & scholars from the groups that those collections are from, but yeah. Still definitely some difficulties, and I’m sure not all museums have the funds or time or people necessary to be doing as much as they should with de-colonizing and all. But there is some progress and hopefully that will continue to spread and improve.
Loads of good stuff to talk about here! ’s gonna get long, but I hope you take the time to read it if you’re interested in this stuff! Also please let me know if you can’t see the links.
I’ve posted about it before, but the Field has an incredibly good repatriation department that actively does work with indigenous nations to get stuff home. But the goal isn’t “empty the museum,” the goal is “present indigenous history in a way that represents what the native group actually wants.” Case in point: this totem pole.
I told the story of it here, but the gist is there was this really awesome but totally stolen totem pole and the people who made it rather wanted it back, so back it went- but then the museum commissioned a couple of native artisans from that same group to create a new totem pole to take its place. When done well, repatriation’s not just about giving stuff back- it’s about building relationships with the groups. A lot of Native American groups want archaeology and museum exhibitions to happen- they recognize the scientific and social value. But they also generally don’t want to be objectified.
Another really good example of culture of origin reaction to repatriation/co-curation is the Maori response to the Field’s marae, or meeting house. The house was sold in the midst of a family dispute, and another one was constructed at the original site- and when the Field wanted to exhibit the house, their first point of contact was that family. One of the curators had been trying to talk to the descendants for years about the possibility of repatriation, but… ok, so this is another kinda sticky point about repatriation.
Not every object was stolen and/or excavated; some were actually sold- and there can be an enormous deal of shame surrounding past actions, which was the situation with the descent group for this marae. The fact that the museum bought is inconsequential to this shame- the shame here comes from the fact that it had been sold at all. A family elder/chief had sold it, and that was still a major source of family shame- like somebody selling Grandma’s headstone. When the museum tried to reach out to them, for quite some time it was like rubbing salt in this still-present wound. To the Maori, these houses are alive- spirits dwell in them- and they still have incredible spiritual significance to the Maori today, and so what the museum and the Maori ended up doing was… honestly, something really spectacular.
No, really, it’s cool as hell. The original creators’ direct descendants were flown other and stayed in Chicago for a while while they talked with the Field curators about what to do with the marae. It was restored and painted- not the standard methods for archaeological conservation, but that was less important than keeping the house the way the Maori wanted it. Maori groups regularly come in and have events there, and we do what we can to help keep the spirits warm. Sometimes people even sleep in there, because the Maori asked for that. Now, the big repatriation law in the US- NAGPRA (the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act)- doesn’t cover non-Native North American groups, but this is something that the Field finds important for a lot of reasons. It’s not just about ethics- it improves the museum experience for guests as well. It adds contextand shows cultural continuity for the creator cultures.
The Field also has co-curation in place pre-NAGPRA; the Pawnee Earth Lodge we have is a modern recreation that was built with the guidance of Pawnee elders back in 1977. It’s been rededicated, and there’s been drum circles and purification rituals held there by representatives of the Pawnee nation to cleanse the space. It would have been ethically tenuous to have a “genuine” earth lodge in the museum, but having one built for us that combines ancestral and modern Pawnee spiritualities and sensibilities is like I mentioned in the other post- it’s a way to show museum guests that Native Americans still exist and that these rich cultures and their traditions aren’t some relic of an ancient past.
But there’s a major design flaw in NAGPRA that makes repatriation extremely difficult sometimes, even when the museum itself wants to give stuff back. This barrier is the five year rule- basically, when NAGPRA was passed in 1990, museums had five years to identify all of the Native American stuff in their collections and list its tribal affiliation. In the bad old days of collecting, a lot of people didn’t bother to take down the names of the folks they took stuff from, and thanks to the way the US laws regarding tribal enrollment work, group affiliation can change, be subsumed into larger groups, or just not be federally recognized. So a lot of material got classified as “culturally unidentified,” and some museums aren’t making efforts to identify it. And legally, they don’t have to, because they were supposed to get that done within that five year period. Five years is a tiny amount of time to get a bulletproof cultural affiliation on artifacts and remains- big natural history museums have millions of objects in their collections sometimes.
Now, I can say with absolute certainty that the Field is not doing that, because I’ve actually worked on some of this material. A few years back, I was working on a project to identify several hundred boxes of that “culturally unidentified” stuff. These boxes were considered lowest priority because they only contained soil samples, rocks, animal bone, some lithic debitage, and ceramic potsherds, but the work still was important. When my chunk of the project was complete, our repatriation department sent notice to several of their native contacts. None of them wanted two hundred boxes of broken pottery back. Case closed- unless later on they decide they do want it, in which case now it’s been identified and so they’ll get it pretty quickly. That’s an example of a best-case scenario. When remains are involved, it gets a lot trickier. Sometimes two or more nations claim the same set of remains, or the museum drags its feet. Harvard’s Peabody Museum runs into this problem a lot- here’s an article from a few years back, if you want some scope on this kind of problem. If the Wampanoag and the Narragansett clam the same remains, and their historical territorial affiliations overlap, and DNA testing isn’t going to give a good outcome (some groups do not want DNA testing, and others are so closely related that haplogroup testing wouldn’t really be helpful at all, plus admixture over the years can make DNA testing even more complex), who’s in the right? Who gets the remains? Sometimes it works out- Kennewick Man, for instance, ended up buried in a location agreed upon by the groups that had claim to him, and most, if not all, of them participated in the interment ceremony. But other times, it doesn’t- and the legal battles wage on, which can get real expensive real quick for the native groups and museums, especially smaller museums that don’t have a big endowment. Fortunately, there are federal grants available to help. But this leads to another massive problem with NAGPRA…
NAGPRA has some serious budget issues.
Do you know who’s in charge of NAGPRA? It’s the National Park Service! You know, the one that our current president is decimating? This means that NAGPRA grants (aka money to be given to people trying to get their stuff back or money given to museums to help ID stuff) have been substantially reduced as well. In fact, they’ve been 100% reduced! That’s right, our wizened yam of a president requested a whopping ZERO DOLLARS for repatriation grants! It does seem like they did get some funding, as they haven’t closed down grant application- but I hope this stands as an illustration of the potential seriouness of this problem. In addition, part of the legal requirement for repatriation is publishing inventory completions and intents to repatriate in the Federal Register, and there’s a massive backlog of those.
Finally, the actual repatriation process does take some time. The NMAI has a really cool guide to safe repatriation online here; you really can’t just hand over the stuff and say “see ya! you’re on your own!” A lot of it’s actually poisonous, thanks to the old-timey pest treatment called “covering it in arsenic until the bugs are dead.”
Tell us about your current project(s) – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?
Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project
What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)
Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like)
What character that you’re writing do you most identify with?
What character do you have the most fun writing?
What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree?
Is what you like to write the same as what you like to read?
Are you more of a drabble or a longfic kind of writer? Pantser or plotter? Do you wish you were the other?
How would you describe your writing process?
What do you envy in other writers?
Do you want your writing to be famous?
Do you share your writing online? (Drop a link!) Do you have projects you’ve kept just for yourself?
At what point in writing do you come up with a title?
Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?
Tried anything new with your writing lately? (style, POV, genre, fandom?)
Do you think readers perceive your work - or you - differently to you? What do you think would surprise your readers about your writing or your motivations?
Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them.
Is there something you always find yourself repeating in your writing? (favourite verb, something you describe ‘too often’, trope you can’t get enough of?)
Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)
What other medium do you think your story would work well as? (film, webcomic, animated series?)
Do you reread your old works? How do you feel about them?
What’s the story idea you’ve had in your head for the longest?
Gala season is going strong, and thanks to Chiquitita, it’s about to get a little more extravagant.
Join us on April 30 at 8 pm for a night of drag, music, and burlesque with performances and musical sets by:
West Dakota
Panthera Lush
Serena Tea
Macy Rodman
Foxy Belle Afriq
Kirlia
Horrorchata
Chopstix
Maya Margarita
DJ P_A_T
Tickets start at $30 ($25 for Members, $40 at the door) and include after-hours admission to #WarholRevelation. Masks are required in order to visit the galleries.
Meet the Museum has a way of bringing to life the youthful abandon and merriment of a Jerome Myers artwork. May Days are just around the corner and we still have spots open in the afternoon session!
For three Sundays, beginning on May 1, young artists ages 2-4 and their adult companion will experiment with and explore art to discover who we are, learn about the world around us, and the ways in which art can help heal us.
This Thursday, April 14 at 7 pm, we will be joined by Guadalupe Maravilla, Lady Quesa, and Pastor Juan Carlos Ruiz for an exciting #BkMTalks on art, healing, and immigrant communities.
️ Guadalupe Maravilla, artist dedicated to healing through sculpture, drawing, painting, choreography, sound, and performance whose work is currently on view in “Guadalupe Maravilla: Tierra Blanca Joven”
✨ Lady Quesa, staple of the Brooklyn drag scene, regularly hosts the Yas Mama party at C’mon Everybody, and is supervisor of arts programming at youth development organization The Door
⛪ Juan Carlos Ruiz, pastor at Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Bay Ridge and, during the pandemic, collaborated frequently with Maravilla on mutual aid efforts including food distribution and sound baths
This program will include ASL and Spanish interpretation. Tickets are $16 ($14 for Members) and include after-hours access to #GuadalupeMaravillaBkM.
Welcome to the weekend! Tomorrow marks the end of “The Slipstream: Reflection, Resilience, and Resistance in the Art of Our Time.”
Over the last year, we’ve loved seeing you all take to the Great Hall to enjoy this activation and find your feelings of joy and anger; relief and fear; love and vulnerability.
Experience the work of over 60 intergenerational artists—centering artists of color—through April 10. Access to The Slipstream is free with admission.
Throwing it back to First Saturday. Thank you all for helping bring back #FirstSaturdaysBkM with style and safety last weekend! Here are just a few of our favorite moments including: VIVA Brooklyn! on the Plaza with Mel Chin, participants creating Fundred Dollar Bills, a special town hall in the Auditorium, performances by Isa Reyes and Bathe, and guests gathering in the galleries. We’ll be back with another exciting program in May, so look out for future announcements to register for free. Until next time!
New tickets are now available for our Pints and Prints classes on May 19 happening at 6 pm and 8 pm!
We’ve added space to this exciting event, where you can grab a pint and create your own Pop art print inspired by #WarholRevelation in this collagraph class led by teaching artist Sam Kelly.
Tickets are $35 ($25 for Members) and include after-hours admission to Andy Warhol: Revelation, art materials in your own Brooklyn Museum tote, and a complimentary drink. Get your ticket: https://bit.ly/34OIkTF
In these troubling times where it feels like you can never get a break or have a place to just breathe, this Teen Night offers you just that. Join us Friday April 29 at 5–7:30pm for a soul-enticing experience.
Explore these two artists’ work and how they integrate their culture, community and personal spiritual awakenings. Guadalupe Maravilla: Tierra Blanca Joven features new sculptures, retablo paintings, tripa chuca drawings, and sound works, as well as a Healing Room, a community space for collective care designed by teen staff. Baseera Khan: I Am an Archive displays rich and multilayered sculptures, installations, collages, drawings, photographs, textiles, and a video in which Khan investigates othering, surveillance, cultural exploitation, anti-blackness, and xenophobia within our public and private spaces.
What to Expect
First we’ll have “What is Healing? A Community Discussion” with artists and healers Charlie L'Strange and The Brooklyn Bruja. Then, throughout the night you can take cute photos in our photo booth, create your own mood board surrounding the themes of healing, decorate candles in connection with the colors associated with the 7 chakras (which are the main energy points of the body), and lastly taking inspiration from Guadalupe Maravilla’s exhibition, play the Tripa Chuca game!
Of course we can’t end a Teen Night without a dance party and performers! We will be having SHAMIQUA serenading us through her magical voice, an open mic, and UPTWN spitting fire bars of rhyme and rhythm through rap. Lastly, we’ll have DJ SYNCHRO setting the vibe throughout the night!
This program is free, open to all youth ages 14-22, and to register click here.
Art of Healing is organized by the Teen Night Planning Committee, our paid teen internship in public programming.
Posted by Shanice Baptise-Peters, Senior Teen Night Planning Committee member.
Registration is now open for #FirstSaturdaysBkM on May 7!
Celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with a line-up of Asian American artists who are bringing new interpretations to existing traditions for liberation and healing. Throughout the afternoon and into the evening, we’ll be joined by the following guests to share their music, collaborative weaving, original poetry, artist and curator-led gallery tours, and more:
Asian American International Film Festival
Baseera Khan
Brooklyn Pop-Up
Cynthia Alberto and Weaving Hand
Disco Tehran
Jaz Sufi
Jee Leong Koh
Mood Ring
Nathan Bajar
Sally Wen Mao
Shoko Nagai’s TOKALA
YiuYiu 瑶瑶
In the Beaux Arts Court, you can find SHOWTIME hosting a one-of-a-kind interactive experience inspired by #TheManWhoFellToEarth.
First Saturdays is a free event, we just ask that you register in advance at the link below. Admission is subject to capacity at the time of arrival.
While proof of vaccination is no longer required at the Museum, staff and visitors aged two and older can help us take care of one another by continuing to wear masks.
You know, the guidebooks all tell you that Pisa is only a day trip. It’s somewhere you quickly pop over to while you’re in Florence just so you can take photos trying to high-five the Leaning Tower. It only has the one thing. You don’t need to be there for more than a few hours.
