I share what matters to me with utmost humility and profound gratitude for the role models who have taught, inspired, and challenged me to own my core values. I hope you would give yourself the opportunity to share with me what matters to you. I believe that somewhere in the middle is a place where our common humanities can work together to make this world a better place to live for us today and for future generations. Thank you!
Name Matters
I am Raatior. Reclaiming my native family name Raatior was a personal protest against the injustice of foreign domination on indigenous rights. Sadly, I am the product of a long history of colonialism in which our identities have suffered greatly at the hands of overzealous foreigners. They arrived uninvited on the shores of our pristine islands in many forms, causes, and agendas…all with the same misplaced notion of “helping” us by displacing our native names, our spiritualities, cultures, traditions, governing structures, diets, and our lives in the name of their foreign gods, ideology, self-proclaimed governments, unjust economies, and their social and physical illnesses. While Micronesia has since reclaimed its sovereignty with several outward legal documents with the U.S. and the United Nations, we as a collection of varying languages and cultures continue to struggle to find our true identities. We have been dominated so long by foreign governments that we have to reclaim our histories, reconnect with our spirituality, recalibrate our self-understanding, revisit our roots, reclaim our traditions, reclaim our innate goodness, and remove our dependency syndrome.
My own family name has been marred by this history of foreign domination. My paternal grandfather Raatior (named after a navigational bird – so I’m told), a well respected chief on the island of Onoun, was baptized Ionas by overzealous missionaries who desecrated ancestral names with European names as though only Euro-centric names guaranteed entrance into the Heavenly Gate. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, a Peace Corp volunteer on Onoun back in the 60’s decided that Ionas was better pronounced in its American form on his class roster. So, at the stroke of his number 2 pencil and a high dose of cultural insensitivity he forced my older siblings to take the name Jones as their last name. And there began the story of the Maggie and Damian Jones and the subsequent line of Jones kids in the middle of the Pacific without a sliver of Jones DNA in any of us.
I carried that last name for 30 years of my life even though I’ve never felt comfortable having to explain its American origin. Exactly 30 years later while in graduate school at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley and with the support of my older siblings who I respect dearly I decided to stand up and legally reclaimed my native family name of Raatior. Ironically, the legal system in Berkeley, California…the bastion of 60’s radical liberalism and counter-cultural protests in support of civil rights…reversed the wrong done by one of its own sons in the Peace Corps. While I respect my siblings’ decision (or indifference) to keeping the name Jones, I consider this little feat of reclaiming my indigenous name as my shield of honor and the roots of my pride.
Indigenous Heritage
I am indigenous. I value and take pride in my indigenous roots, history, language, spirituality, culture, traditions, and firmly stand against all forms of colonialism. I unapologetically believe in the beauty of our indigenous knowledge and way of life. Sadly, colonialism in all its ugliness turned our once proud people to believe that our indigenous cultures are somehow less than the Spanish, German, Japanese, and the American life. These unscruplous foreigners came uninvited to the shores of our islands led by governmental and religious imperialism. They built schools to teach us their foreign languages to displace our own languages. They constructed places of worship to their deity, recite their biblical verses, baptized us while rejecting our deities, our names, and our value systems. Today, we perpetuate these practices unquestioningly.
I am Pwaraka and Alengeitaw. I am proud to be part of a matrilineal society in which our lineage and roots are traced through our mother’s clan. As such, I am a proud member of the Pwaraka and (afakur) to my father’s clan of Alengeitaw. Pwaraka has linkages either in name or history with Ketemang, Houpelai, and others throughout Chuuk and in some of the outer islands of Yap. The clan was legendary back in the days, so they say, as having the fiercest warriors who conquered lands throughout Chuuk.
I am Chuukese. And a proud Chuukese! I was born into a family of 8 siblings on the island of Tamatam, raised on Onoun, and moved to Houk where most of my family now live. Although I live in the diaspora, I embrace my Chuukese identity with everything that accompanies it…good, bad, and ugly. Growing up in those outer islands in Chuuk State was a real privilege. There, I learned the valuable lessons of living simply and respecting others which have proven to be wonderful ways to counter the complicated life in the United States. I really do believe a variation of that saying which goes something like…you can take the boy out of Chuuk, but you can never take Chuuk out of the boy. I am proud to be Chuukese.
I am Micronesian. I am a proud Micronesian! For the sake of those in the global community who prefer to generalize people’s citizenship by nationality, then I am proud to say I am a Micronesian. While that “Micronesian” label is limiting because it was historically created by foreigners to label a variety of unique people, cultures, and identities, it is what it is. I am a proud citizen of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) which includes the four states of Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei, and Yap. When traveling the world as part of my job, I proudly carry my FSM Passport, my Micronesian roots, my history within the larger context of a struggling yet proud people, and take every opportunity to be a good citizen ambassador for the country I love, Micronesia.
Spiritual Diversity
I am Ignatian Spirituality. While I was born into a Christian faith with a Catholic tradition back in Micronesia, it was my 10 years after college training to become a Jesuit priest in the Micronesia Region of the New York Province of the Society of Jesus that formed the core of my Ignatian Spirituality… a journey of deep faith for which I will forever be grateful. The Jesuits truly formed who I am today, my spirit of service and my capacity to love unconditionally. They deepened and stretched the conservative Catholic faith into which I was raised as a child to be grounded in the liberally-based Ignatian spirituality of “finding God in all things” and “all things in God.” That simple yet profound worldview directs what I do with my life, my decisions, my relationships both personal and professional, how I relate to the world, and especially how I honor every student that walks into my space for advise. I am blessed with this foundation of my heart which respects the dignity of humanity and the responsibility to the Earth. It matters less to me what particular faith community a person belongs to whether Catholic or Protestant, Jewish or Muslim, Rastafarian or atheist; what matters to me most is that each person’s search for meaning in life enables them to see the Goodness in self, others, and the world. And when that Goodness takes over ones heart, no act of injustice is ever acceptable anywhere, any time, to anyone.
Equity
I am educational equity. I believe that every child deserves a good education and the opportunities to fulfill their potential regardless of where they were born or live. I grew up in some of the poorest public schools in the Northwest region of Chuuk State, FSM. Those schools continue to struggle while our own elected leaders squander publics funds for their own self-advancement. My formal education began at a nondescript one-room Houk Elementary School (Houk) which led to Weipat Junior High School (now Northwest High School on Onoun Island), Chuuk High School (Weno). Somehow with hard work and determination I managed to earn a bachelor’s degree from University of Guam, masters degree from University of San Francisco, and a doctorate from University of Hawai’i at Manoa. Education has been an equalizer of social inequities back in Micronesia and here in the U.S.
Community Activator
I am activist. I was born into a culture which embodied humility as a virtue and silence is the hallmark of respect. As such, the less you say, the more respectable you are. Sadly, those same values have been exploited by elected officials in my homeland and my adopted home in the US to keep people quiet thereby silencing the voices of justice…all under the guise of respect. Politicians have exploited their power to advance their own corrupt and selfish ways. The world desperately needs more people with burning desire to make a difference in the world to march, speak up, and not be afraid of the consequences. My Jesuit formation taught me the importance of understanding the root causes of the problem to find solutions and to embrace the power of my mind, the strength of my character, the courage needed to persevere, and the commitment to lead by example.
Talents that Serve Others
I am
AMDG. I am eternally grateful for the 10 years I was a Jesuit where the motto is
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam…for the greater glory of God. It is important to me to use every talent or gift that has been entrusted to me personally, professionally, creatively, socially, economically in service of others for the greater glory of God.
I believe that “Who I am is a gift from God. What I become is my gift to God.” By birthright I am a proud Chuukese Micronesian of the Pwaraka & Alengeitaw clans. I continue to share my gift as an
international educator by career choice, a
Pacific-focused social entrepreneur by passion,
education consultant by training, COFA
community organizer by duty,
humanitarian by responsibility, Pacific
youth empowerment trainer by necessity, an
A+JOJO Team member by love, a
web designer by hobby; these are some of my gifts to God. I continue to search for opportunities to make the world and people’s lives around me better and more fulfilling.
Last Words…
Now that you’ve entered my world, I hope you would give yourself the opportunity to share with me what matters to you and why. I know that somewhere in the middle is a place where our common humanities can meet to work together to make this world and our islands a better place to live for us today and for future generations.
