Sustaining Support for Community-Led Documentation at the American Folklife Center and Beyond

Fenn, John; Stefano, Michelle (2025-01-06). "Sustaining Support for Community-Led Documentation at the American Folklife Center and Beyond". JAF: A Global Quarterly. 138 (549): 300–317. ISSN 0021-8715.

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Abstract: "...In August 2024, the first online collection from Community Collections Grant (CCG) projects was made publicly available on the Library of Congress website. Titled Warp and Weft of Yap’s Outer Islands: Backstrap Weaving in Micronesia, the collection comprises four dozen photographs and 23 audio interviews, and documents the insights and livelihoods of women who safeguard traditional lavalava cloth weaving on the Ulithi Atoll, Yap State, Micronesia. This collection emerged from a 2022 CCG project co-led by researchers and distinguished weavers Modesta Yangmog and Regina Raigetal of the project’s community, and Neil Mellen, Founding Director of the Habele Outer Islands Education Fund. In the announcement for the collection launch, Yangmog expressed her gratitude for the “willingness of the interviewees for making this project possible for our young generation. I am happy that people will be able to know more about Ulithian culture” Indeed, Warp and Weft of the Outer Islands of Yap is an archival collection and educational resource created by the tradition’s keepers and contextualized by their firsthand perspectives, for audiences far and wide. Preserved for the future in accordance with archival standards, it is equally a collection of rich cultural information created for themselves: for community members of today and tomorrow to actively sustain lava-lava cloth weaving and the significance, meanings, and values it reflects..."