GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Martin Weirlangt converses in his Moiliili home, with his daughters Arlene, left, and Kuuipo sitting in the background.
Martin Weirlangt seems to be a man who's found a balance in his life and his work. While he and his family moved to Hawaii nearly three years ago from the Micronesian island of Pohnpei due to his job, as a father Weirlangt has kept a steady hand over his family in a quiet, authoritative way. Preserving family in new land
Micronesians like the Weirlangts
try to enjoy the benefits of American
culture while maintaining their own
Gary C.W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.comThis in spite of his weakened health, due to "nasal ferachial carcinoma." Speaking last Monday in the cozy walkup in Moiliili he and his eight family members call home, he recalled that what he thought was a growing problem with his sinuses was later diagnosed as a tumor in his ear that threatened to spread. It is a condition his mother suffered from, and Weirlangt is fighting it with ongoing treatment.
Throughout the interview, Weirlangt's family deferred to him, as his son, daughters, niece and her rambunctious 2-year-old boy passed through the small living room on their way to the kitchen, bathroom or bedrooms. Weirlangt's wife, Beauty, volunteered no comments, content to sit on a nearby sofa, fanning herself on this humid afternoon.
WHILE WEIRLANGT welcomed the move to Hawaii with his family due to better health care and schooling, he and his fellow Micronesians -- about 4,000 strong here and, according to Weirlangt, a majority of them from the Marshall Islands -- it's been an uphill battle to find their way through American society.
Weirlangt was born and raised on his self-described "garden island of Micronesia" during its U.S. occupation. He watched American movies as a youth, studying English -- the official language on an island that's home to four ethnic groups -- in school beginning in the fourth grade.
Weirlangt said his home island, colonized in turn by the Spanish, Germans and Japanese, "has gone through a lot of changes culturally, both in beliefs and values." Since its independence in the '70s, Pohnpei is the largest island of the Federated States of Micronesia, which includes the islands of Chuuk, Kosrae and Yap.
Pohnpei has the most mixed, cosmopolitan population, numbering 35,000, of that group. The island measures about 144 square miles, half the size of Oahu, and lies about halfway between Hawaii and the Philippines. It's a lush and green island where Weirlangt said "it rains a lot, about 200 inches a year.
"In Pohnpeian family culture, the mother is the supporter and the father the provider and the one who has final say in all matters," he said. "When we brought the kids here with us, they found themselves exposed to a different culture and with a limited use of English.
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Portrait of the Weirlangt family, clockwise from bottom right: Martin, his wife Beauty, daughter Kuuipo with her 2-year-old cousin Shawnty, niece Maureen, daughter Arlene and son Kenmore. (Missing are sons Ben and Albert.)
"It's difficult sometimes to try to maintain our home's cultural values and beliefs. I look at the difference between my kids and most Micronesian kids here and wonder, Are we doing enough to make them feel responsible for not just their parents, but also their elders?
"I'm not denying that there are problems lots of Micronesian folks are having in trying to find a good life here. They're struggling, especially the younger ones," Weirlangt said. "Like most Micronesians, we have a tendency to stick together and not venture outside of our own groups. I know that local teachers have expressed their worry that Micronesian youth are generally too quiet in the classroom and only answer when asked."
In using the advantages of the American educational system with his own people, Weirlangt says sometimes the two don't necessarily mesh well. "It's a fine line you have to watch when it comes to the education of our own children. For example, the standards that our own Department of Education has set up, I question whose standards they really represent, because not all of the required textbooks and teaching strategies work with our children."
OF THE WEIRLANGTS' six children, the daughters, 10-year-old Arlene and 12-year-old Kuuipo, go to Lunalilo Elementary and Washington Intermediate, respectively. Son Ben, 13, also attends Washington, and 16-year-old Albert goes to Kaimuki High. Kenmore, 18, opted to leave high school and has a cleaning job at the Kahala Mandarin. The Weirlangts' oldest son, Henry, 19, lives and works on Maui, where Martin's cousin helped get the young man work during the pineapple harvest season.
"I warned my sons that they would end up with such blue-collar jobs if they didn't have a high school diploma," Weirlangt said. "But it was their decision once they came of age. I hope the younger ones won't make that same decision when it comes time.
"I always tell my wife, 'The girls are your responsibility and the boys are mine.' It's better if we stick to our cultural values. I tell my boys that they have to realize that in life it's good to be honest, respectful and good citizens, whether here or back home. My main concern is that they've been exposed to new things apart from our culture.
"That's why I have a curfew, to be back home every evening by 10 p.m. It's like, once the sun goes down, I don't trust them, but yet on the other hand, I want to send them out into the world and learn to be adults. But I've also seen some Micronesians fall into using ice, alcohol, some of them in jail ..." he said as his voice trailed off.
The couple's religious conviction helps keeps them strong.
"My wife is Protestant and I'm Catholic, very much like the population of Pohnpei, 50-50. My wife is Mortlock, whose people are originally from the island of Truk that relocated, with the help of the Germans, to Pohnpei in the 1900s because of a destructive typhoon."
Beauty takes care of the house and the finances. She was attending adult education courses, trying to improve her English, before she had to help care for the 2-year-old son of her sister's daughter Maureen while she works as a housekeeper at the Sheraton-Waikiki. Maureen, 23, also lived with the family in Pohnpei.
WEIRLANGT'S health will determine whether he and the family take a trip to Pohnpei in December. Before falling ill, Weirlangt traveled regularly between here and the Pacific islands as a member of the math and science consortium, the Pacific Resources for Educational Learning. Professionals like him who are part of the combined seven major programs of PREL work with educators of such U.S.-affiliated Pacific islands as American Samoa, Guam, Micronesia and, of course, Hawaii.
Originally hired away from Pohnpei's State Department of Education, Weirlangt's contract with PREL will end in 2005.
What today's Micronesian immigrants are experiencing is a far cry from Weirlangt's time. Up to the mid-'70s, he was one of many college-level students who came to Hawaii to study, thanks to special visas. After his education at Chaminade University, the new political relationship between the FSM and the United States resulted in an open-door policy that allowed Micronesians to come and go without a green card or work permit.
Weirlangt said Pohnpeians have used Hawaii as a steppingstone to the mainland, where there are pockets of Pohnpeians in cities as far away as Kansas and Florida.
But the once relatively hidden group of immigrant Pacific Islanders is starting to make itself known to the general population. Thanks to an umbrella organization called the Friendship League, Weirlangt said they've helped put together a couple of public events, like the one held at McCoy Pavilion last November, and "Ku'u One Hanau, Sands of My Birth" at Bishop Museum last Sunday, with demonstrations and performances that featured the arts of places like the Marshall Islands and Palau.
"We've been slow to come around," he said, "but I'm glad it's not like we're hiding out from everyone now."
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