This exhibit invites everyone to pause and step back in time to the era before colonialism. It will showcase our ancestors' material culture, featuring actual artifacts, replicated utilitarian household objects, fishing implements, tools, weapons, and many more tangible items. Additionally, the exhibit will include written accounts, illustrations, and photographs from the colonial periods, as well as reconstructed items by cultural practitioner and experimental archaeologist Noel Quitugua (Manggaffa (Familian) Achi’ak/Gecko Clan). Noel Quitugua is a Chamorro cultural researcher, Chamorro language interpreter/translator, visual artist, master artisan, public speaker/lecturer, former educator, and former curator at the Northern Mariana Islands Museum of Culture and History.

Seeing, touching, and experiencing actual objects are just as vital as music and dance in practicing, promoting, protecting, and perpetuating our cultural heritage and identity for future generations. The exhibit will feature two hands-on cultural activities: using a kamyu (coconut grater) along with learning indigenous terminologies associated with coconut grating, and playing chongka, a traditional wooden log game where participants will learn how the game is played. Other hands-on cultural activities will include wood carving using a metal adz, the game of batu, spear throwing, and many more.