The Sudsee or South Sea Expedition completed a series of ethnographic studies in Micronesia and Melanesia from 1908-10 under the direction of the Hamburg Museum of Ethnography.
Expedition researchers collected detailed information on indigenous cultures that eventually totaled 23 published volumes. They also brought back thousands of cultural artifacts and took hundreds of photographs.
Spennemann will discuss the expedition’s activities in Micronesia and his ongoing work to translate two Expedition volumes on the Central Carolines, the ancestral homeland of the CNMI’s Carolinian community.
The translation of this material is a Council project supported by a “We the People” from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The resulting information will be of great value to the study of traditional Carolinian culture and history.
Spennemann is an associate professor in cultural heritage management at Charles Sturt University. He has researched and written extensively on Micronesian history and heritage.
His comprehensive study of the German colonial administration of the NMI, “Edge of Empire,” may be purchased at the council office.
For more information, call the council office at 235-4785.
