Taotao Marianas Club Starts Off PIR Week

Pacific Island Review (PIR) showcases many of the Pacific island culture clubs through dance, songs, chants and attire, which is normally performed Sullivan lawn in front of the library. But due to the current pandemic, there were some changes that had to be made because clubs were broken up with some members off island and some remaining on Oahu. This year’s PIR had gone partly virtual, with some clubs performing in person and showing their performance virtually and other clubs when on and used their social media platforms to make their presence know during PIR.

This was the case for the Taotao Marianas Club. Being over 3,000 miles away did not stop three of the officers, who put in time to shoot and put together two videos. But due to technical difficulties, the video the officers made had to get pushed back. In the end the officers turned to IG live and each did an individual talk over a span of three hours, one hour per officer.

“This was probably the most frustrated I’ve ever been because this is not the first time something like this has happened to me.” said Jackie Martinez a Public Relations Officer from Guam. “I tend to have really bad luck with technology, despite having to use it in so many of my classes and job responsibilities. Among the many emotions I was feeling, the most undeniable one was guilt. Not only did I feel like I was letting the other officers down by not having these videos ready, but I felt like I was letting down the Office of Student Activities and Leadership as well because we had to make such a last-minute change to our schedule.”

The video that the club had planed on doing was a talk story session to help potential members get to know some of the officers. They were also planning on doing a video to show how to make a mwaar, similar to a lei po’o, haku lei or flower crown.

During the IG live, which is now posted to the club’s Instagram page as individual IG TV segments, each of the officers got an hour to talk about what their traditions are with in their household and pieces of culture they take in their everyday lives. The officers also mentioned what they like about the island, how to respect the land and what issues they have with tourism, military, inter cultural racisms, and other problems that islanders go through.

“I believe we did get the turn out we initially had hoped for,” said President Adora Erguiza. “After finishing all of our livestreams, we were getting a good amount of likes for our videos on our club Instagram and still continue to do so. Truthfully, my officers and I weren’t expecting a huge number of people to hop on and watch, as we know that people have other things to do or that people might be busy during that time. Regardless, I am incredibly thankful for all the people who took the time to tune in to any of our videos for today.”

To see each of the officer’s IG live video, follow the club at taotaomarianasclub.