Chapter 3: Kanifay Living History Museum

     The next morning, Tony left the hotel shortly after 7:30.  The event wouldn’t begin until 8:00, but he wanted to make sure he got a seat close to the front of the seating area.

     Not long after Tony had reached the Living History Museum, more than a hundred other tourists left their rooms in six hotels and inns within a half mile of the museum.  Guests at the Chamorro Bay Resort and O’Malley’s Inn followed the main road southward.  South of the bay, guests from Harbor View Hotel, Pacific Hotel, and Hathaway’s Hotel followed the road east and northward.  Guests from Kanifay Divers Hotel were already a stone’s throw from the museum.  By 8:00 AM, around 150 tourists were seated on three sides of a grassy area in front of a traditional house. 

     Twelve Kanifay women in traditional grass skirts were led into the grassy area.  There the women lined up facing the audience.  Some of them looked at the others to make sure that they were standing in a perfect line.  Each woman, except the woman on the far left, held out her left arm to make sure that her skirt wasn’t too close to the skirts next to her.  They were each an arm’s length apart from one another.  Following the lead of the woman on their far left, they bowed low to the audience. 

     A moment later, the leader called out something in the Kanifay language.  Then all of them began a sing-song chant and slowly moved their hands, feet, and bodies in a standing dance. 

     Long ago, the women’s standing dance was their traditional way of welcoming important visitors.  They still use the standing dance—sometimes to welcome tourists, and sometimes in their own communities.

     At the end of the first dance, they straightened their costumes and danced again.  This second time, the dance was a little louder, and the dancers moved more.  The third and last time, the women were loudest and most exciting—or at least as exciting as dancers could be lined up and standing in one spot could be.

     At the end of the third dance, they straightened up their costumes again, some looking at the lead dancer.  Once again, they made a deep bow and, still in a line, walked away from the audience. 

     After the standing dancers had left, someone told the tourists that the movie actor Dash Tobey had been in the audience watching the dance.  He would have to leave for work in a few minutes, but he wanted to stay long enough to pose for pictures with his fans and sign autographs. 

    That was the sort of thing that Dash often did: working the crowds like this whenever he was going to be in one place for a while.  It helped to make him more popular with his fans.  By giving his fans what they wanted of him at times such as this, the fans rarely bothered him when he was trying to work.  He spent more than twenty minutes with tourists and locals who wanted to pose with him and get his autograph.    

      Tony noticed an exceptionally pretty local girl of about eighteen years old trying to get close to Dash Tobey.  The girl was wearing a traditional handmade wraparound skirt, a tee shirt, and flip-flop sandals.  As she came nearer to Dash, her dark eyes shined, and her wide smile was as bright as the sun.  Dash looked closely at her and asked, “You were one of the dancers, weren’t you?”

     Her face brightened even more, overjoyed that he had noticed her among eleven other women.  “Yes, I was,” she said, handing him a slip of paper to sign.  “I didn’t know if you would recognize me without my costume.”

     “I would recognize that smile of yours anywhere,” he said with the smile he had made famous in his movies.  “What’s your name?”

     “Cindy Pialug.  That’s P-I-A-L-U-G.  Oh, and when you sign it, will you write both your name and the name Chuck Bridges?”  Chuck Bridges was the name of the person Dash Tobey played in the movies.

     “Of course.”  On Cindy’s paper, he wrote, “To the girl with the brightest smile I’ve ever seen.  Best wishes, Dash Tobey (Chuck Bridges).”  Cindy and Dash then posed for a picture together.  When Dash turned his attention to the next fan, Cindy held the autographed paper to her chest as if she were hugging it. 

     Tony also asked for Dash Tobey’s autograph and posed photo, he tried to act more grown up as he asked him.

     The Living History Museum was five buildings made in the same style as traditional men’s meeting houses.  The base (below the floor) of each building was made of uncut stones.  The buildings had no walls; they were open on all sides.  There were no nails to hold the buildings together; the parts were tied together with ropes made from plant fibers.  Finally, the roofs were made of palm tree leaves that had been weaved together like cloth.  Even in a heavy rain, water would not come through the roofs.

     By tradition, and even now, men’s meeting houses were where men got together to talk about whatever they thought was important at the time.  Women were not allowed in men’s meeting houses, but these buildings weren’t used for meetings.

     All around the buildings of the museum, Tony saw large stones that looked like wheels of some kind.  In fact, more than 4,000 of these stones could be seen all over Kanifay Island.  Some were small enough to hold in your hand; some were almost twice as tall as a man.  Strange as it seems, these stones were stone money that had been made on an island called Palau over a hundred years ago, and carried to Kanifay Island.  These stones are still used to buy expensive things such as houses.

     In one building of the museum, some women made threads for cloth while other women weaved the threads into traditional Kanifay skirts.  Every girl in Kanifay was expected to learn how to weave her own skirt.  Being able to weave a skirt caused people to have more respect for them.

     In another building, groups of men made traditional Kanifay sailboats.  In one corner of the building, an older man moved little rocks placed in a circle on the floor.  He was teaching them how to look at the stars to tell how to sail their boat from one place to another.  Making boats and learning to sail by the stars were two ways that boys and men gained respect from other people.

     In other places, men showed how to make ropes from plant fibers, how to break open coconuts, and other traditional skills.  Women showed how to use palm leaves to make baskets or to do other traditional skills.

     Around 11:00 AM, tourists once again gathered to watch the men’s standing dance.  Long ago, the men’s dance had been a way to scare unfriendly people.  As it was with the women’s standing dance, the men’s dance had three parts.  Each time, the men acted more and more dangerous.  At the end of the dance, the men bowed to the audience and walked away.

     After lunch, tourists returned to the seating area to watch the women’s sitting dance.  Hundreds of years ago, the sitting dance was a way for women to entertain themselves and others while they were making long trips by boat.  As it was with the women’s and men’s standing dances, the sitting dance had three parts.  Each part had more beautiful movements than the parts before it.  At the end of the third dance, still sitting, they bowed to the audience.  Then they stood up and left.

     Tony rented a bicycle and rode along the small roads near the shore.  Here and there, he saw the island’s famous stone money.  Everywhere, he enjoyed the scenery of Kanifay Island, one of the most beautiful and traditional islands of the Western Pacific Ocean.