Mary Lanwi

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Mary Heine Lanwi (born February 22, 1921) is an educator, activist, and promotor of traditional handicrafts in the Marshall Islands. A female pioneer on the islands, she has been described as "perhaps the first Marshallese woman to begin employment outside the home." [1] In 1974, she was the only woman elected to serve as a delegate to the Micronesian Constitutional Convention.

Contents

Early life and education

Mary Heine was born in 1921 on Jaluit Atoll in the Marshall Islands. [1] Her mother Grace was from Ebon Atoll, while her father Claude Heine was the son of Australian-born missionary Carl Heine and his Marshallese wife Arbella from Namdrik Atoll. [2] She had two sisters and two brothers, including the politician Dwight Heine. [1] [2]

After beginning her education at her parents' day school, she was sent to the Jabwor Training School, a missionary-run all-girls school on her atoll. [1] Then, in 1937, she moved with her family to Kosrae, an island in what is now the Federated States of Micronesia, where she studied at Mwot Christian School until 1940. [1] On her graduation day that year, she married her childhood friend and classmate Isaac Lanwi. [2] He would go on to become a doctor and prominent resident of the islands, later elected as a senator in the Congress of Micronesia, and the couple had nine children. [1] [3] [4] [5]

Career

After finishing her education, Mary Lanwi started teaching in mission schools, beginning with her alma mater on Kosrae, becoming "perhaps the first Marshallese woman to begin employment outside the home," although this work was unpaid due to the missions' rules against compensating female staff. [1] In 1943, when World War II reached the then Japanese-controlled islands, she left Kosrae and moved to Laura on the Marshall Islands' Majuro Atoll, where she taught at the mission school there. [1] [6] She subsequently taught at the Rongrong Christian School from 1945 to 1948. [1] During the war, Lanwi's parents and grandfather died in Japanese custody. [2]

From 1948 to 1957, Lanwi took a break from teaching to raise her family. When she returned to teaching in 1957, at the Marshall Islands Intermediate School, it would be the first time she was paid for her work. [1]

Lanwi is also known for her work in support of women's interests, which began during her time as a teacher at the Marshall Islands Intermediate School in the late 1950s; she has been described as "one of the early role models for Marshallese women," inspiring them to work outside the home. [1] Starting in 1958, she served for nearly two decades as the islands' women's interest officer. [1] [5] [6] In this role, she organized some 50 women's clubs, as well as Girl Scout troops, and oversaw extensive training programs for women and girls. [1]

In tandem with her women's empowerment work, she promoted the islands' handicraft industry, seeing its potential to allow Marshallese women to financially support their families. In 1967, she organized the 50 women's clubs together into the Handicraft Co-op, a Majuro-based organization that purchased and sold traditional Marshallese handicrafts. [1] [2] With the co-op's success, Lanwi stepped down as women's interest officer in 1976 and began overseeing the co-op full-time, which she continued until her retirement around 1995. [1] [7] [8]

In 1974, Lanwi was elected as the only female delegate to the Micronesian Constitutional Convention, representing Ebon Atoll. [6] [9] [10] Ahead of the Alele Museum's opening in the early 1980s, she served on its founding board, described an "instrumental" in its creation. [1] [11] Other prominent roles in this period included on the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands' Planning Council and Private Industry Council. [1]

Later years

Details on Lanwi's later life are scant, with last recorded mention of her in 2004. [2]

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The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands, is an island country west of the International Date Line and north of the equator in the Micronesia region in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. The territory consists of 29 coral atolls and five islands, divided across two island chains: Ratak in the east and Ralik in the west. 97.87% of its territory is water, the largest proportion of water to land of any sovereign state. The country shares maritime boundaries with Wake Island to the north, Kiribati to the southeast, Nauru to the south, and the Federated States of Micronesia to the west. The capital and largest city is Majuro, home to approximately half of the country's population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geography of the Marshall Islands</span>

The Marshall Islands consist of two archipelagic island chains of 30 atolls and 1,152 islands, which form two parallel groups—the "Ratak" (sunrise) chain and the "Ralik" (sunset) chain. The Marshalls are located in the North Pacific Ocean and share maritime boundaries with Micronesia and Kiribati. Two-thirds of the nation's population lives in the capital of Majuro and the settlement of Ebeye. The outer islands are sparsely populated due to lack of employment opportunities and economic development.

Austronesian settlers arrived in the Marshall Islands in the 2nd millennium BC, but there are no historical or oral records of that period. Over time, the Marshallese people learned to navigate over long ocean distances by walap canoe using traditional stick charts.

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Majuro is the capital and largest city of the Marshall Islands. It is also a large coral atoll of 64 islands in the Pacific Ocean. It forms a legislative district of the Ratak (Sunrise) Chain of the Marshall Islands. The atoll has a land area of 9.7 square kilometers (3.7 sq mi) and encloses a lagoon of 295 square kilometers (114 sq mi). As with other atolls in the Marshall Islands, Majuro consists of narrow land masses. It has a tropical trade wind climate, with an average temperature of 27 °C (81 °F).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jaluit Atoll</span> Coral atoll in the Marshall Islands

Jaluit Atoll is a large coral atoll of 91 islands in the Pacific Ocean and forms a legislative district of the Ralik Chain of the Marshall Islands. Its total land area is 11.34 square kilometers (4.38 sq mi), and it encloses a lagoon with an area of 690 square kilometers (270 sq mi). Most of the land area is on the largest islet (motu) of Jaluit (10.4 km2). Jaluit is approximately 220 kilometers (140 mi) southwest of Majuro. Jaluit Atoll is a designated conservation area and Ramsar Wetland.

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Leroij Atama Zedkaia was the Marshallese paramount chief, or Leroijlaplap, of Majuro. Leroij Zedkaia spearheaded the movement to break the Marshall Islands away from the rest of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and form the independent Republic of the Marshall Islands. She was also the mother of Jurelang Zedkaia, who has served as the President of the Marshall Islands from 2009 to 2012. Leroij is a title by a female paramount chief, or Leroijlaplap, in the Marshall Islands.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dwight Heine</span> Marshallese politician

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References

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