Join us for a special event next weekend to honor Marshallese Nuclear Remembrance Day at the Burke Museum!
When: March 1-3rd, 2024, 10am-5pm daily
Where: Burke Museum, Seattle, WA
What: Live art-making event with master weaver Emma Joran from the Marshall Islands
Over the course of three days, master weaver Emma Joran will demonstrate a weaving technique with pandanus to create a piece of art over a repurposed nuclear fan blade. The Burke Museum, Blades of Change Nuclear Arts Initiative, and Hanford Challenge are in collaboration to support this project.
All visitors who purchase a ticket to the Burke Museum over the three days will be able to visit the artist studio and see the art unfold as Emma Joran works on the piece.
Emma Joran was born and raised in the Marshall Islands, and learned how to weave by watching her mother and other women in the community weave. She taught weaving to Pacific Islander students at the University of Washington, and actively researches the Burke's weaving collections from the Marshall Islands, including 19th-century jaki-ed, which were used as women's clothing prior to the arrival of missionaries on the islands.
"The nuclear legacy and how it connects us is much deeper than we know it. On March 1, 1954, the United States tested its most powerful hydrogen bomb at 15 megatons, code named Castle Bravo. The plutonium and ionizing radiation weapons were created here in Washington State and detonated upon Bikini and Enewetak Atoll - Marshall Islands. In generations to come, people may be displaced, food security lost, and other chronic health conditions as an outcome of the nuclear era. We are not alone! We shall never forget! The resilience and strength of nuclear frontline communities who are continuing to fight for dignity and respect must be upheld by these remembered stories towards justice." The COFA Alliance (Compacts of Free Association with the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau)
This event is partially funded through a Public Participation Grant from the WA State Department of Ecology.