Walkative Marshall Islands – The Walkative Project

European ideas of areas like the Marshall Islands (in the wider sense Micronesia) still consist of tourist visions of pristine beaches and indigenous cultures. Paul Gauguin’s 19th century pictures made in Polynesia are critically commented, but still fill exhibitions and ticket offices of renowned museums and spread a questionable, outdated picture ethic. The fact is that the Pacific Atolls and Islands represent living environments that suffer from their colonial and postcolonial history (until 1914 they were a German colony), the nuclear legacy as well as they are strongly affected by climate change. These realities underlie contemporary art development. For artistic practice it is important to mix the social interaction (e.g. through media), the connection of useless with necessary materializations, the hyper objects, as well as the exploration of digital capitalism and thus to try out social models between utopia and dystopia realistically. A direct discussion is made possible here.

Méitaka Kendall-Lekka

b.1983 in Majuro Marshall Islands, belongs to the Rimwejoor, clan “Jowi”. She is a professor and chairperson since 2014 Business Studies Department at the College of Marshall Island, Majuro. She holds an MBA from Chaminade University of Honolulu, and is a PhD candidate in Creative Leadership for Innovation and Change at the University of U.S. Virgin Islands, St.Thomas US Virgin Islands. Ms. Kendall-Lekka is an active member of several NGOs, such as Jo-Jikum, who is very active in climate protection. In 2019 she received the “Young Pacific Leaders” – Award for your political / cultural engagement. In February 2019 she represented the President of the Marshall Islands, Hilde Heine, with the mock session of the YPL climate change program at the Pacific Island Forum in Suva, Fiji.

Mark Uriona

b. 1975 in Mozambique, raised in GDR. learnt to photograph in the USA. He studied law and worked as a research consultant for a member of the German federal parliament. 2011 he founded the “Kameradists”, a cooperation of independent Moviemakers. Uriona was a member of the editorial staff of the “Prague Spring”, worked for “Geo Season”, the project “Bosnian voices” and the Helmholtz Association.In 2020 Viviana and Mark Uriona release „One Word“, a participatory documentary that was developed and filmed with the inclusion of Marshallese people through film workshops that have run over a period of nine months in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. https://one-word-the-movie.com/. In 2015, they both released a full feature documentary “No Rest. No Haste. „– a movie about the battle over the land between the indigenous population of Argentina and the transnational agribusinesses.https://www.kameradisten.org/en/ohne-rast-ohne-eile/ In 2012, they released the full feature documentary “Sachamanta” – which deals with community radio stations in northern Argentina and their role in defending the land of the indigenous communities against land grabbing.https://www.kameradisten.org/en/sachamanta-3/ . All of these movies were produced within a participatory approach.

Viviana Uriona

b. 1973 in Pergamino (Province of Buenos Aires). She graduated in political science, studying at University of Cologne and at the Free University of Berlin. She holds a PhD about social movements and community radios in Latin America from the University in Potsdam.