Darlene Keju's
courageous story of growing up on islands downwind of the 67 US nuclear
tests conducted at Bikini and Enewetak, as told by her husband Giff
Johnson.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Item: 8340
By a special correspondent
MAJURO (Pacific Media Watch / Marshall Islands Journal): The powerful story of a woman from the Marshall Islands who championed the cause of nuclear weapons test survivors when others were silent, and who implemented innovative community health programmes and services that gave hope to a generation of troubled youth is detailed in a just-released biography, Don’t Ever Whisper - Darlene Keju: Pacific Health Pioneer, Champion for Nuclear Survivors.
MAJURO (Pacific Media Watch / Marshall Islands Journal): The powerful story of a woman from the Marshall Islands who championed the cause of nuclear weapons test survivors when others were silent, and who implemented innovative community health programmes and services that gave hope to a generation of troubled youth is detailed in a just-released biography, Don’t Ever Whisper - Darlene Keju: Pacific Health Pioneer, Champion for Nuclear Survivors.
Written by Keju’s husband of 14 years Giff Johnson, editor of the Marshall Islands Journal,
the weekly newspaper published in Majuro, the 443-page book has been
published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing and is available through
Amazon.com.
The new book on Darlene Keju's life.
“This book is a story
of a personal transformation of a young lady who once knew little
English to an advocate for her people, the victims of the weapons of
war,” writes Fr Francis X. Hezel, SJ, in the foreword to the new book.
“Then the further
transformation to educational innovator, whose programme had
far-reaching effects throughout her island nation.”
'Courage to dream'
Hezel, who founded the Jesuit think tank known as the Micronesian Seminar in the early 1970s and is now based in Guam, says the book is the “tale of a woman who loved her people, seeing them as so much more than victims of nuclear irradiation and colonial despoilment.
Hezel, who founded the Jesuit think tank known as the Micronesian Seminar in the early 1970s and is now based in Guam, says the book is the “tale of a woman who loved her people, seeing them as so much more than victims of nuclear irradiation and colonial despoilment.
"For those of us who
have cheered on island Micronesia through the years, it is a welcome
change to read a tribute to someone who is home grown.
"Although no saint or flag-waver, Darlene shared with Mother Theresa and Greg Mortenson (of Three Cups of Tea
fame) the courage to dream daringly along with the commitment and
patience to settle for one step — one family, one atoll — at a time.”
The book tells of Keju
growing up on islands downwind of the 67 US nuclear tests conducted at
Bikini and Enewetak, and then narrates Keju’s struggle as a teenager
moving to Hawaii with little English ability.
She ultimately earned a
master’s degree in public health, and used her US education first to
expose to the world a United States government cover up of its nuclear
weapons testing programme in the Marshall Islands, and later to inspire
young Marshall Islanders to make changes in their personal behavior to
transform the health of their communities.
Global stage
Keju took to a global stage at the World Council of Churches Assembly in Canada in 1983 to tell the world about the health impact of the American nuclear tests, and of the US Army’s discrimination against Marshall Islanders at its missile-testing base at Kwajalein Atoll.
Keju took to a global stage at the World Council of Churches Assembly in Canada in 1983 to tell the world about the health impact of the American nuclear tests, and of the US Army’s discrimination against Marshall Islanders at its missile-testing base at Kwajalein Atoll.
“Darlene’s speech in
Vancouver opened many people’s eyes, particularly in the churches, to
the suffering of the people of the Marshall Islands and other parts of
the Pacific in the wake of nuclear testing,” said Rev Ekkehard Zipser,
an official with the Protestant Church in Germany, who is quoted on the
book’s back cover.
“The consciousness of people in Europe concerning the Pacific only really began to awaken after that speech.”
“So that people can
watch Darlene’s riveting speech at the World Council of Churches
Assembly, I recently posted a video of her talk on YouTube,” said
Johnson.
“Thirty years later, it
is still one of the most powerful presentations ever delivered by a
Marshall Islander about US nuclear testing here.”
Her contention that
many more islands than the four acknowledged by the U.S. government were
exposed to nuclear test fallout was controversial at the time.
But formerly secret US
nuclear test-era documents that have come to light in recent years — and
are detailed in this biography — confirm Keju’s contention of
widespread fallout contamination in the Marshalls.
Marginalised young
Don’t Ever Whisper also tells the inspiring story of how Keju went to bat for marginalised young people in the Marshall Islands, a largely ignored population with low self-esteem and a penchant for expressing their frustrations by suicide and other anti-social behavior.
Don’t Ever Whisper also tells the inspiring story of how Keju went to bat for marginalised young people in the Marshall Islands, a largely ignored population with low self-esteem and a penchant for expressing their frustrations by suicide and other anti-social behavior.
She established the non-government group Youth to Youth in Health
that empowered young people and their communities to take control of
their own health and economic well-being through work that was praised
as a model for the Pacific by the US Public Health Service and the
United Nations Population Fund.
Keju died of cancer at age 45, but Youth to Youth in Health, now in its 27th year of operations, continues programmes and services for at-risk youth that Keju pioneered.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
Pacific Media Watch
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Pacific Media Centre | Te Amokura
D-63 School of Communication Studies
WG1027
Communications Precinct
2 Governor Fitzroy Place
AUT University
Private Bag 92006
AUCKLAND 1142
Aotearoa/New Zealand
www.pacmediawatch.aut.ac.nz
Editor: Professor David Robie david.robie@aut.ac.nz
Contributing Editor: Daniel Drageset pmedia@aut.ac.nz
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