Content Library

News

Curated stories and analysis from islands and sustainability leaders worldwide.

Filter by Core Theme

All Themes Circular Economy Climate Action Connectivity & Digitization Culture & Community Energy & Transport Green Finance & Economy Ocean & Biodiversity Policy & Governance Tourism & Remote Work Water & Food

Showing 9 of 385 news items in Culture & Community

Culture & CommunityAugust 6, 2025

80 years on, former teacher conveys history of hidden island in World War II

"Caption:Masayuki Yamauchi teaches junior high school students about the history of Okunoshima, an island in Takehara, Hiroshima Prefecture, in May. Photo credit: Jiji via JapanTimes.co.jp Excerpt from japantimes.co.jp Takehara, Hiroshima Pref. – Okunoshima, an island in the Seto Inland Sea, is known as a ""rabbit island"" for being inhabited by around 500 to 600 wild rabbits. Despite this current image, the island has a dark past. The tiny island, located in the city of Takehara, Hiroshima Prefecture, hosted a poison gas plant of the now-defunct Imperial Japanese Army before and during World War II, leading to its removal from the map for confidentiality purposes. Masayuki Yamauchi, an 80-year-old former high school teacher, has continued to tell the island's history for about 30 years, calling for attention to be paid to Japan's history of aggression, not just its damage from the war, such as the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Built by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1929, the poison gas plant manufactured yperite, or mustard gas, which causes skin sores, as well as balloon bombs. According to Yamauchi, the plant had around 6,600 workers and produced a total of about 6,600 metric tons of poison gas by the end of the war in August 1945. Some of the gas was deployed in China. As a social studies teacher, Yamauchi learned that the poison gas had been abandoned and caused harm. To convey this fact, he began working as a guide for visitors to the island about 30 years ago. In mid-May, Yamauchi gave a tour to junior high school students from Gifu Prefecture around the island. In front of the memorial monument for workers at the poison gas plant, he shared stories of those who suffered harm from the poison gas, such as chronic bronchitis. ""Children of your age also came to work (at the plant),"" said Yamauchi. The students listened attentively while taking notes. "

Culture & CommunityAugust 6, 2025

Why Iceland leads the way in reinventing classical music

"Excerpt from ft.com Orchestral concerts came late to Iceland. While large-scale works by Stravinsky and Schoenberg were being introduced in Paris and Vienna in the 1910s, audiences in Reykjavík were listening to sonatas by Beethoven played on an upright piano — the only instrument available. By the time Iceland established its own orchestra in 1950, a century after many European capitals, much of the world was moving on to rock’n’roll. But in the 21st century, no other country has reinvented the language of the symphony orchestra on such distinctive and appealing terms. Next month, the BBC Proms will spotlight María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir and Anna Thorvaldsdottir, two composers who have proved pivotal to the sudden popularity of Icelandic orchestral music. Meanwhile next spring, the Barbican in London will present a series of concerts devoted to contemporary Icelandic composers who slip easily between the worlds of concert music and film, including the late Jóhann Jóhannsson (who scored Prisoners, Sicario and Arrival) and Oscar winner Hildur Guðnadóttir (Joker, Tár). Call it the First Icelandic School — the only formative national movement in classical musical history to have emerged in the 21st century, dominated by women and heavily influenced by art pop. The figure of Björk, who once sang an avant-garde song cycle by Schönberg at the Verbier Festival, looms large. "

Culture & CommunityAugust 6, 2025

On huge river island in India’s Assam, annual floods threaten local arts

"Caption:Two women cycle past a lush green paddy field on Majuli, one of the largest river islands in the world that faces continuous erosion of its banks to the Brahmaputra River. Photo credit: Subhendu Sarkar / LightRocket via Getty Images / AlJazeera.com Excerpt from aljazeera.com Assam, India – Makon Kumar’s wrinkled fingers are covered in dried-up clay. She squats on the damp dirt outside her one-room, bamboo-stilted home and spins a pottery wheel – a palm-sized grey bowl – with her left toe. Inside the bowl is a lump of newly-bought wet clay, which Kumar slaps, flattens and curves into the pot’s base. “My grandma and her grandma passed this practice down to us. We are not farmers, we have no land, and this is our work,” 60-year-old Makon said as she pressed her fist into the clay and carved out the pot’s mouth. Makon belongs to the Kumar community of about 540 people, whose women have been known for their unique pottery work since the 16th century. These women avoid machinery or a potter’s wheel but rely on their toes to spin a plate or bowl with clay. "

Culture & CommunityAugust 6, 2025

Artist Aims To Honor Revolutionary Puerto Rican Women With Paseo Boricua Portraits

"Caption:Humboldt Park actor, storyteller, producer and comedian Melissa DuPrey is working with local leaders to produce 20 portraits honoring Puerto Rican women in Humboldt Park. Photo credit: Provided via BlockClubChicago.org Excerpt from blockclubchicago.org HUMBOLDT PARK — Artist and activist Melissa DuPrey is on a mission to increase visibility for Puerto Rican women past and present in Humboldt Park. The Humboldt Park native, who is an actor and comic, is working with local leaders and cultural institutions to put up 20 portraits with accompanying plaques near the neighborhood’s signature steel flags. The featured women revolutionized the arts, culture and politics, among other areas, and were integral to the diaspora community in Chicago. “My project seeks to span the spectrum of identity and … many areas of either culture, education, revolution, politics, even Santeria and religion that we are able to live,” DuPrey said. “One of these profiles might also be one of the first Black women to touch a bomba drum — it’s not just about revolution; it’s about revolutionizing the thing.” Lolita Lebron, Julia de Burgos, Ana Roque de DuPrey, Mariana Bracetti, Blanca Canales, Luisa Capetillo and Mayra Santos-Febres are some of the iconic Puerto Rican women DuPrey hopes to feature. They are not as well known as Puerto Rican men who have been highlighted in the community, she said. “Canales was a huge revolutionary, and we don’t know much about her,” DuPrey said. “So when we talk about Puerto Rican history, which is such a small portion of our Latin history in general, women often get left out.” DuPrey is partnering with nonprofit arts agency 3Arts to fundraise for the project, called Las Flores del Paseo Boricua, or The Flowers of Paseo Boricua. It met its initial fundraising goal in just 48 hours, so now she has a stretch goal of $10,000. DuPrey hopes to raise a little over $1,000 more before Thursday night to hit that goal, she said. The project also received $2,000 from 3Arts and $6,000 from the city’s cultural affairs department. "

Culture & CommunityAugust 5, 2025

Scandinavian Film Festival Interview: Sakaris Stórá on protecting culture in The Last Paradise on Earth (Faroe Islands)

Excerpt from thecurb.com.au In a small coastal town on the Faroe Islands, a compact factory thrums away. Inside, a steel-faced Kári (Sámal H. Hansen) toils away amongst other factory workers, gutting fish in time with the rhythm of the conveyor belt. To us it may seem like this cold and calculated work is the result of tortuous boredom. But to director Sakaris Stórá, this couldn’t be farther from the truth: “I used to work in a factory like that myself for three years. I did that instead of going to college, so I wanted the factory to be portrayed very honestly, because it’s very easy to romanticise that kind of work in film. I wanted it to feel the way I felt when working there. Routines almost became a form of meditation.” Kári’s work is a spiritual process, not a cause for his listlessness but a treatment for it. And while other Faroese may want to escape what they believe to be a dying island, Kári believes The Last Paradise on Earth, as well as his relatively simple life there, are not only worth salvaging but protecting.

Culture & CommunityJuly 28, 2025

Shipwreck of historic 18th-century warship uncovered on remote Scottish island

Excerpt from euronews.com When a storm in February 2024 ripped away the sands on a remote beach in Sanday — one of Scotland's far-flung, sea-beaten islands — it revealed something astonishing: the ribs of an old wooden ship, long buried beneath the dunes. The ghostly remains quickly stirred excitement among the 500-strong island community, for whom the ocean is both a livelihood and a lurking danger. “I would regard it as a lucky ship, which is a strange thing to say about a ship that’s wrecked,” says Ben Saunders, senior marine archaeologist at Wessex Archaeology, which helped locals lead the investigation. “I think if it had been found in many other places it wouldn’t necessarily have had that community drive, that desire to recover and study that material, and also the community spirit to do it.”

Culture & CommunityJuly 28, 2025

Island Games close after a week of wins, friendship and memories

Excerpt from bbc.com The 20th Island Games have come to an end after a sensational week for many of the 24 islands competing. The Faroe Islands, who will host the 2027 games, came top of the medals table with Jersey and Guernsey in second and third place. A closing ceremony concluded the event with a short handover ceremony followed by a private celebration for athletes and officials. This year, the 12-sport event returned to Scotland for the first time since 2005, when it was hosted by Shetland. Sunny weather that Orkney could only have dreamed of gave visitors from afar a great first impression of the archipelago. Andrew Inkster, chairman of the International Island Games Association, said the games had been "truly incredible". "I always knew it would be," he said. "I had high hopes for Orkney and the community putting on an incredible spectacle. "The levels of support and the fantastic scenes we've seen all week, it's really been a memorable week and one that will last long in everybody's memories."

Culture & CommunityJuly 28, 2025

Black Heritage Tree Project maps historic trees on St. Croix

Excerpt from virginislandsdailynews.com Many of the baobab, tamarind, and kapok trees on St. Croix are hundreds of years old, and they have been around long enough to witness the island’s history. A new initiative will highlight the importance of these natural culture bearers. The Black Heritage Tree Project, working in partnership with the Crucian Heritage and Nature Tourism (CHANT), aims to map culturally significant trees that stood witness to important moments in Black history. “By building that map, we are building a more connected space across the diaspora, a lens to view this history,” Black Heritage Tree Project Director Alicia Odewale told The Daily News.

Culture & CommunityJuly 7, 2025

Saba celebrates Emancipation Day

Photo credit: [The Daily Herald](https://www.thedailyherald.sx/images/page12d031.jpg) Dr. Gregory Richardson presented Saba Heritage Center Board President Vito Charles with a copy of his book “Sweet Breakaway” during the pre-Emancipation Day celebration at Saba Heritage Center on Monday evening. SABA–Saba celebrated Emancipation Day 2025 under the theme “We know because they spoke, generations remember”. Dr. Gregory Richardson presented Saba Heritage Center Director Sharifa Balfour with a copy of his book “Sweet Breakaway” during the pre-Emancipation Day celebration at Saba Heritage Center on Monday evening.