Small Island Leadership
buenos aires
here at the university of guam we’ve
been thinking about the idea of island
wisdom
as a component of our strategic planning
a component of island wisdom is the idea
of island leadership
and so island wisdom and its component
leadership are related to
the cultures that we have developed in
these islands
over thousands of years and island
leadership
is something that’s unique to small
island communities the world over
i first got interested in the idea of
island leadership
growing up in the virgin islands and
then also my academic study ever since
has been
these relatively small island
communities of the caribbean sea
since being in guam for now almost three
years
i’ve been appreciating the comparison of
the pacific islands
with the my experience in the caribbean
islands and noticing some parallels
along the way the big difference here in
the pacific of course
is that our island communities have
indigenous cultures that
are thousands of years old and so that’s
a difference for the
from the caribbean situation but a lot
of other things are quite similar so
what is island leadership so island
leadership refers to the unique
demands placed on particularly the
well-educated and professional classes
in relatively small island communities
to take up leadership
roles so take for example guan an uh
a population of 165 000 people this
relatively small cities worth of
population
is doing things that larger states and
larger
even independent countries are having to
do in terms of
managing an entire government a governor
a legislature
courts local and appellate courts local
and federal ports
we have our own power grid we have our
own
sewer system our own water system we
have our own customs and immigration
and managing our borders we have
fisheries we have exclusive economic
zone
we have seven consoles of independent
countries accredited
to the governor of guam so this in some
ways a mayor of a small city of 165 000
people
has seven diplomats equivalents of
ambassadors
accredited to her to to deal with these
international issues
so that’s an example of the kinds of
things that you’re expected to do in
this relatively small
environment another example would be
moving on to to
the the kind of people so all of these
different roles inside the
society of guam have to be filled by the
people that we have and so what’s very
common for
particularly for college-educated
professional people in guam
and these other islands is that they’re
expected
to assume leadership roles in ways that
people living in smaller communities or
other communities
around the country in the world are not
expected to so
it’s typical that you would be expected
to serve on boards on advisory boards or
governing boards
that you would perhaps run for office
that you’d accept an appointed position
to office
uh that you’ll be expected to take up
a business to be an entrepreneur in a
business for something that’s needed in
the society
and all these things are available to
somebody who lives in a town of 165
000 people in oregon or virginia or some
other place
but in in guam and our other small
islands
there is this heightened expectation for
leadership
in this environment uh and
other our local neighbors
also have everything that i’ve just
mentioned for guam and then
also that they’re independent nations so
the republic of palau the federated
states of micronesia
the republic of the marshall islands
have all of those expectations that
people in guam
have as well as an ambassador
in washington an ambassador in tokyo an
ambassador to the united nations
plus all that you associate with that
kind of responsibility a vote there in
the united nations
dealing with foreign powers often being
squeezed between powers it’s a it’s a
very
it’s a lot to put on a relatively small
population
a further thing that all of these small
islands have to maintain is their own
health care systems which in the
pandemic we’ve been experiencing
the stresses on those and so so i think
it’s important to
think about the kinds of people who
assume these roles so let me just give
you a few examples
of some people from our region and the
kinds of things that they have done
in their lives that indicate the need
for this kind of island leadership
so first i’d like to point out
antoinette sanford tony sandberg
she was chair of the board of regents of
the university of guam
but she’s also been chair of the guam
chamber of commerce
she’s been a senator in the guam
legislature and she’s been a business
person of the year and multiply multiple
organizations
she started her own tech firm and has
been very successful at that
she’s a mentor to many particularly
women leaders but also to many others as
well
including me another example would be
our governor lou leon guerrero
of course a registered nurse that’s
fairly unusual for a governor to have
been a nurse and so that’s been
remarkably helpful during our pandemic
to have someone with a healthcare
background
leading us through it she’s also been a
banker and she’s been a chief executive
officer for the bank of guam
and of course she’s been a legislator
and now governor
so another example of a wide variety of
interests an unusual
mixture of activities next up is my
predecessor robert underwood
who was course president of the
university of guam before that a
teacher and a professor administrator in
the university
he’s also been an activist for
indigenous rights and for indigenous
culture and indigenous language
he’s also been a board and council
member in an array of organizations
including even up to now
he’s been also a politician and a
congressman a member of congress
for uh 10 years another example is hilda
heine the former president of the
republic
of the marshall islands she is a poet
and an
author so a poet and a president isn’t a
very common combination but she’s
extraordinary
that way she’s a teacher she’s one of
the first marshalese women to earn a
doctorate
and she’s been an administrator in
various government roles and also a
representative
as really in a diplomatic role to
international organizations
so again an unusual combination
expectations for leadership
in a wide variety of areas and lastly my
final example is larry rigatol who is
currently a
adjunct professor and master navigator
teaching
students at the university of guam to
build traditional proas and to navigate
and sail them
so he’s originally from yap and he’s
also the holder
of degrees from the university of san
francisco as well as oxford university
and he’s also been an advocate for
indigenous cultures and life ways in a
number of different
situations he’s been the chair of the
banking board in the federated states of
micronesia
and also the head of multiple government
organizations and heads
executive head of government divisions
and he’s been a diplomat
and a senior representative in his
country’s foreign service
so that mixture is also highly unusual a
combination
of traditional and uh sort of more
uh international level kinds of
leadership that you wouldn’t expect
from people living in other other
relatively similar size populations but
in other
places in the world and that breadth and
depth of leadership gives
an added level to the island wisdom that
we have in this region
and in small island communities world
over so island leadership is a component
of island wisdom
and something that we in this area this
region of the world can bring to the
world
to help us solve our problems and as we
all
are emerging from the pandemic and
dealing with the fallout from a number
of different challenges of recent years
we know the world needs help and we in
micronesia can provide
we in small island communities can
provide elements of leadership and
wisdom
to the world ctus