Navigators creating, sharing art

CMI Ettonaak staff with their mascot, Ginger. From left: Neine Rear, Kelly Lorennij, Junjun Jamore, David Willbanks, Richard Newman, Ronald Jorthan and Berlyann Labija. Photo Jaerin Chang.
CMI Ettonaak staff with their mascot, Ginger. From left: Neine Rear, Kelly Lorennij, Junjun Jamore, David Willbanks, Richard Newman, Ronald Jorthan and Berlyann Labija. Photo Jaerin Chang.

KELLY LORENNIJ

“Ettonaak,” CMI’s literary magazine, started off the new semester with a reading for its second issue, which comprised 11 poems and one short story. In addition to an open mic section, the reading featured writers who contributed to the first and second issues.

The magazine, a product of the Liberal Arts Department at CMI, features Marshallese and English poetry, fiction, essays, and art by current Navigators (students) and alumni. Ettonaak is Marshallese for “porch,” and was chosen as the magazine’s name because, according to the faculty and student editors, it is also “a place where people sit and talk, tell stories, eat, celebrate, and share… as long as there are ri-bwebwenato (storytellers) and ri-ronjake (listeners).”

The first Ettonaak issue came out late last May, a special treat for many students stressed with finals as well as faculty and staff, including College President Dr. Theresa Koroivulaono who is always happy to read work of students, all of whom came out for the magazine’s first reading event.

Currently, Ettonaak has eleven staff members — a student editor, art editor, and layout editor along with five student advisors and three faculty advisors — putting together its third issue. The theme of the next issue is “Ghosts and Demons.” The first two issues did not follow a theme, but hopefully this will help potential contributors narrow down the subject of their writing and increase the number of submissions.

Ettonaak is a chance for CMI students to get published, but more than this, it is an effort to “share and preserve” young writers and Pacific literature.

Read more about this in the February 2, 2018 edition of the Marshall Islands Journal.