AELÕÑ IN AIBOJOOJ: Visual Reclamation of Marshallese Self-Representation

This Master's Project begins with a visual history of the Marshall Islands as presented by foreign occupiers during the late 1800s until the present day and moves into Marshallese self-representation and agency through a community photography project in the midst of the National Climate Dialogues held in Majuro in 2018. This project argues the need for a Oceania Visual Methodology that centers indigenous communities' control over their own visual representation.There are a few dominant visual narratives of the Marshall Islands, however precious few of those narratives are told by the Marshallese. Issues such as, climate change, the Compact Of Free Association, and the nuclear legacy are discourses about the Marshall Islands fueled by the media. Images of loss and devastation that promote concepts of extinction rather than the deeper stories of an imaginative and problem solving people. But what happens when the cameras are given to those who actually the descendants of the land? How does the lens shift? In July, 2018, a small group of Marshallese students and community members, came together to participate in a photography project engaging the question, "What is the visual story you want to tell about your home?" The result was a photo exhibition that was shared at the close of the National Climate Dialogue held at the International Conference Center in Majuro. The participants named the exhibition, Aelõñ in Aibojooj - beautiful small things. The exhibition shares images of children, of laughter and favorite beaches, of soil erosion and solutions, of culture and community. In a just a few images, it provides a larger visual narrative of the beauty of place that is often not truly seen. It is for the people of this place, who call this place home, sharing the beauty in the small things of everyday life. Their life