Making Mwar Mwars with Fokai Familia's Adrian Diaz

Youve seen her work in weddings,fiestas,  parades, and Holiday exhibiits from In Saipan and Guam. From north to south , if an event was ever decoratively mind-blowing, theres a good chance she had something to do with it.

A jack of all trades and a master of many--Long time wedding decorator, interior designer and event-planner Adrian Diaz has been expressing culture through her work since ever since. On January 17th at the Fokai Shop in Tumon, we were lucky enough to catch a lesson in craft and culture how to make the Carolinian Culture's iconic wreath of hospitality, thanks, and well wishing--the infamous Mwar Mwar...

Throughout the islands of the Pacific, it is commonly known that women and men alike wear Crowns and Flowers adorning our heads as a sign of pride. When you see an individual wearing a mwarmwar from Chuuk, a haku from Hawaii, a nunuw from Yap, or a Pung Ra Btelul from Palau, there is a history. More importantly, there is a pre-history of this floral art tradition, carried on by cultural ceremonies and everyday practices. (Simeon Pinaula) To me, it is not enough that we should just make it for people when we are asked. We should teach others how to make them, so that they can in turn teach others. So that more and more people would wear them more often than just graduations and celebratory events. We should wear them because it’s Friday. We should wear them because we are happy, we are proud, we are strong. We should wear them because the flowers in our gardens are in bloom. We should adorn our mothers and daughters with crowns of flowers as a sign of our love for them. Our brothers and sons should wear them to board meetings and seminars. They should wear them as they paddle board out into the horizon. Men should wear them as they work on our power poles and Crain the containers from the ships that come into our island from abroad. And quite simply, we should wear them to the airport to pick up a loved one that has arrived from the main land, and remove it from our head and place it on theirs, so that they might be touched deep down in their hearts and completely feel what it’s like to truly be home. Adrian Diaz