VOICES FROM “UNDER-THE-GARLAND”: SINGING, CHRISTIANITY, AND CULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN CHUUK, MICRONESIA

In Chuuk State, in the Federated States of Micronesia, Christianity and its music have been primary aspects of everyday experience for over a century, and today they remain significant sites of cultural heritage. Christianity was once a primary means by which Islanders sought considerably new contexts, structures, and meanings for musical practices, but this heritage has never remained static and unchanged. Through the examination of music in Chuuk, I comment in this article on a need for more critical studies of Christian music in Pacific ethnomusicology and, more importantly, the need to engage with the local agency that has characterized these traditions. I explore Christian music as rooted in Chuukese culture, and the experiences and agency of the people of Chuuk, and not simply as a result of nineteenth-century missionary enterprises from America and Europe. By examining the process of historical missionization and current musical practices, I show that an understanding of music and faith in Chuuk is entirely connected to Chuukese culture and, furthermore, that the ways in which musical practices intersect with faith are diverse, dynamic, and transformative. For the people of Chuuk, Christianity and its soundscape are integral to the life ways of island communities, and indeed, Islanders articulate them as some of the most prominent and meaningful cultural practices.