SAIPAN — A team of researchers and local advocates will return to the Marianas this month to present the results of a community-driven maritime heritage mapping project that engaged more than 100 residents across Saipan, Tinian, Rota and Guam last year.
The public is invited to a lecture at the American Memorial Park Visitors Center theater on March 18 at 6:30 p.m., where team members Jennifer McKinnon, Genevieve Cabrera and Madeline Roth will discuss the mapping project, its results and next steps.
In 2025, dozens of cultural experts and practitioners participated in workshops to identify and document ocean-related sites and practices across the Marianas archipelago. The effort captured a broad range of ocean heritage reflecting the islands’ deep and longstanding connection to the sea.
McKinnon, a maritime archaeology professor at East Carolina University who led the project, said the team is eager to return the work to the communities that contributed to it.
“We’re excited and grateful to be returning to the Marianas starting next week to give those individuals who contributed to the project last year an opportunity to review what’s been captured before it is published,” McKinnon said. “Our research helps document that the ocean is as much a part of the people’s heritage, identity, and survival as the land, an unbroken, deep, and expansive connection that has existed for generations.”
Before the public lecture, the team will hold a series of meetings with workshop participants to review the maps and verify accuracy.
The project was originally funded by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, but that funding was terminated in September 2025. McKinnon said the team is pressing forward regardless, committed to completing the maps and ensuring the information remains with the local community.
Once finalized, the maps will be developed into ArcGIS StoryMaps, web-based tools that embed maps with photos, videos and other multimedia. The Northern Marianas Humanities Council will host the StoryMaps online by the end of 2026.
McKinnon has previously led research projects in the Marianas including the creation of the WWII Underwater Maritime Heritage Trail: Battle of Saipan.
