Lately, I’ve been thinking again about fairo, the Chuukese word for respect…respect for self, others, and nature. A consultancy study with Micronesian parents on the Big Island, Maui, and Oahu revealed that “respect” is the #1 Micronesian value they want their children to know.
In her 2013 dissertation entitled, “Way finding: Envisioning a culturally responsive educational system for Chuuk State, Federated States of Micronesia,” Dr. Margarita Cholymay our first female PhD in Chuuk wrote this about the importance of respect in the Chuukese culture:
‘Respect’ is a core Chuukese value that serves to harmonize and regulate relationships among people and with nature…regulating expectations and behavior among children toward one another (related to age and gender); relationships among adults and children (including teaching roles of elders, grandparents, parents, uncles and aunts); relationships among traditional chiefs, church leaders and teachers; and relationships of people toward land and ocean (including plants and animals)…’Respect’ is the cornerstone of the Chuukese character.
According to Cholymay, the word respect can be loosely translated in Chuukese as, “fairo, sufon, mennin, mafen, rongosich, anneasosich, tirow, amwansosich, amwanifich, faffarirotiw, faffairota.”
As a proud Chuukese parent and educator, I too am concerned about today’s Chuukese youth living outside of Chuuk. Most of our young people are growing up in households without the elders to teach them our values, language, and cultural practices. It’s up to us in our families, aterenges, churches, associations to teach our Chuukese youth the value of fairo…the core idea of respecting others to get respect. Maybe by reclaiming fairo, the core of our character, we Chuukese can begin to reclaim the best of ourselves as respectful, caring, humble, and strong people.
If you’re interested in joining me in my FAIRO Project, then click here to learn the various ways that the Fanapi Foundation is suggesting for individuals and communities to begin perpetuating fairo (respect) in our families, churches, communities, schools, aterenges.
