Local skills
Participants gained repeatable methods for documenting and monitoring underwater sites.
Underwater archaeology · 2010–2012
Guam fieldschools.
The programme
Local capacity for a complex maritime past.
CIE worked with the Guam Preservation Trust, the Micronesian Area Research Center at the University of Guam and Flinders University to create a staged underwater-archaeology curriculum.
Participants learned to document sites while examining how traditional fishing practices, colonial encounters and Second World War remains contribute to Guam’s cultural landscape and public memory.
Three learning stages
Methods, interpretation and management
2010
First fieldschool
Seven students train on an American landing craft at Agat and build a foundation in underwater recording and team practice.
2011
Advanced survey
Participants document the Seabee Junk Yard, landing craft and aircraft, then address management and tourism around the SMS Cormoran and Tokai Maru.
2012
A wider cultural landscape
The curriculum includes traditional fish weirs—gigao—alongside wartime sites, connecting living knowledge to archaeological practice.
Programme outcomes
A fieldschool designed to continue
The staged format moved from practical recording to project design, heritage management and public interpretation.
Pacific partnership
Local institutions and international educators shared responsibility for the curriculum.
Multiple histories
Traditional maritime knowledge and wartime remains were read within one island landscape.
Public value
Management and tourism questions connected research to broader island audiences.