Dianne White

It’s with great pleasure that I introduce readers to Joseph Ruak. Joseph is Repagu’nu’worh and was born and raised on the island of Saipan, the setting of Nancy Bo Flood’s debut YA novel, WARRIORS IN THE CROSSFIRE.  His father’s family came from the outer islands of Chuuk and settled on Saipan during a time when few people lived on the island.

DW: You’ve known Nancy Bo Flood for many years.  Can you talk a little about how your paths first crossed, your long-term friendship, and your feelings about a person like Nancy – who is not from the island – writing a book about such a significant piece of Saipan’s history?

JR:I met Nancy through a mutual friend, who used to teach at the Northern Marianas College (NMC), where Nancy used to teach also. My friend told me that Nancy writes books, collects legends, myths and folklores. My friend encouraged me to meet Nancy regarding the idea of getting the Talabwogh Men Stick dances recorded on a written format and/or video format. You have to remember that, like many cultures, the Carolinian culture was passed down through the generations through its oral histories.

My father and I had been brainstorming ideas on how to save our traditional chants and dances when this rare opportunity presented itself.  We discussed it and decided that the best chance our chants and dances would have of being saved was to work with Nancy.

After my father and I met and worked with Nancy on our first project together, I felt like Nancy was sent by our ancestors to look for my father and me, so that we might work together to save our dances. I have since adopted Nancy to be my Nina or Godmother. Anyone who has the patience and takes the time to see another world view is an exceptional human being.

photo credit: ctsnow

DW: You were born and raised on Saipan and grew up some
20 years after the events chronicled in WARRIORS.  Unlike many, myself included, whose parents lived through WW II but experienced it far from the battlefield, your father, Felipe I. Ruak (to whom WARRIORS is dedicated), and many family members actually lived in the middle of the battlefield.

With so many reminders all over the island – memorials, bunkers, tanks, and artillery – did you ever ask your parents about their experiences during the war?  Some of these have been chronicled in the book, Saipan: Oral Histories of the Pacific War, by Bruce M. Petty. Are there other stories that have stayed with you that you’re able to share?

JR: My dad shared stories about how the students would be “disciplined” when any student came late for school. The student would be made to stand at a corner of the classroom with both arms extended forward, while two or more textbooks would be placed on the students extended arms. When the books fell off the student’s extended arms, that student  would be whipped. My dad also shared stories of having to walk more than a mile (one way to get to school)… their days would start at 4am each day. I feel very lucky to be alive after the WW II.

DW: You’ve said in an interview with Mary Eckstein that your father, Felipe I. Ruak, began to want to teach you Talabwog Man stick dances when he realized that only he and a few of his peers knew the dances.  At that time, you were getting ready to leave for college.  How did it feel knowing you were taking on a very significant role in passing along a piece of your own family’s heritage as well as that of the Carolinian people?

JR: At the time when I was learning the dances, my enthusiasm was based solely on just learning the dances for the sake of learning. And really because the energy of the dance is one that is so contagious, I couldn’t help myself but to keep learning.

It is always so fun performing the dances, especially when the team synchronizes and we all become one with our chants, our movements and our cries to our ancestors.

DW: You mention in the interview with Ms. Eckstein that when you were in your early teens, you didn’t want to embrace your Carolinian heritage. As you grew older, that changed. What brought about this change?

JR:I suppose being young and not having a lot of Carolinian role models (in my young mind, I totally discounted my father as a role model…he was just too normal!), I thought that the Chamorro kids and their parents were cooler; I wanted to be like them, I wanted my family to be like them.

When I went to college, people were interested in learning about my heritage. I asked my parents questions regarding my Carolinian heritage. I began to develop an interest in learning more about my own heritage…it has been and continues to be such an experience learning about my own heritage.

DW: In 2003, the National Endowment for the Arts honored your father and you with a National Heritage Fellowship.  The NEA awards are described as “a way of honoring American folk artists for their contributions to our national cultural mosaic.” How did your work first come to be recognized by the NEA?  The experience must have been extraordinary! Can you talk a bit about the honor and what it meant for you, your father, and the Talabwogh Man Stick Dancers?

JR: My father was still around in the year 2003, however his health did not allow him to travel with us to Washington D.C. to accept the NEA award. I felt cheated by life that my father could not be with me to receive this award. Really in my mind, my name should not appear anywhere near that award, ONLY my father’s.

DW: Do you still serve as artistic director of the Talabwogh Man Stick Dancers group?  Will you be performing at the Flame Tree Arts Festival this year, and can you talk a bit about this important cultural event?

JR: Artistic Director sounds so official, I’m simply just Uncle Joe trying to impart what little I know about my ancestral Talabwogh Men Stick Dances to the youth of my village. And yes, we will be performing at the 2010 Flame Tree Arts Festival.

The Flame Tree Arts Festival is an annual arts festival which started back in 1981 prior to my going to college. My father taught my group of teenagers at the time. There were 20 or more young people of Talabwogh who showed for practices, but in the end it was only eight of us who mastered the chants and the dances.

We were my father’s first group of students, we were also part of the first Flame Tree Arts Festival performers and continue to perform at this annual arts festival. I like to think of it as my father’s connection to us, our village and our youth. I like to think of it as my father’s small contribution in connecting our ancestors to our people. When the boys from our village and I perform —- I feel alive and well!

DW: I was fascinated by a youtube video of your Millennium Pacific crossing with Mau Piailug.  Your trip sounded amazing!  I suspect such an experience has stayed with, even though ten years have passed.  Do you have any plans to make the trip again?

JR: I do have plans to make that trip again, I just don’t know when. My mother’s health condition is at a stage these days where it’s best that I stay close by.

Many thanks to Joseph for taking the time to talk about Saipan, the Talabwogh Men Stick Dancers, and for giving readers of Nancy Bo Flood’s, WARRIORS IN THE CROSSFIRE, a peek into some of the background behind the story of a fictional boy, his family, his closest friend, and the life they endured together caught in the crossfire of one of WW II’s bloodiest battles of the Pacific.

*In addition to his direction of the Talabwogh Men Stick Dancers, Joseph gives hands-on and information-packed presentations to school children across the Pacific in his role as Public Information Officer for the Department of Lands and Natural Resources of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands. His interests have focused on coral reef management and protection of endangered animals such as the fruit bat and the green sea and hawksbill turtle.

** If you missed yesterday’s post with WARRIORS’s acquiring editor, Stephen Roxburgh, you can find it here. Debbie Gonzales of Simple Saturday posts a review of WARRIORS here. Sarah Blake Johnson of Explorations posts a review here. Julie Larios of Jacket Knack includes an interview with Helen Robinson, Art Director, on the cover of WARRIORS here.

Enjoy!