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photo by Nancy Bo Flood
Cinta Matagolai Kaipats career bridges the fields of law, politics, and filmmaking. While she was in law school, Ms. Kaipat Co-Directed, Co-Produced, Co-Wrote and Narrated the documentary film "LIEWEILA: A Micronesian Story," in collaboration with Dr. Beret E. Strong. This video, which traces Ms. Kaipat's Carolinian ancestors emigration from the Caroline Islands to the Northern Marianas in the 1800's, also explores the rich histories the Carolinian people shared with their Chamorro brothers and sisters under the Spanish, German, Japanese, and, presently, American colonial rules. LIEWEILA has been shown in film festivals all over the world, and it has been adopted into and made a regular part of the CNMI Public School System curriculum. It is also currently being used in several American mainland universities.
Ms. Kaipat is currently serving as an elected representative in the CNMI Legislature. Previously, she worked as a Hearing Officer for the CNMI Department of Labor. She received her Juris Doctor degree from The University of Minnesota, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Arts Studies from DePaul University in Chicago. Ms. Kaipat has been called a "community activist," and she is currently spearheading an effort to return displaced islanders to their homes in the CNMIs Northern Islands. Ms. Kaipat has also worked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Greenpeace, the CNMI's Department of Environmental Quality, and residents of the CNMI community to urge the United States to acknowledge the U.S. military's PCB contamination of Tanapag Village, Saipan, and to clean up this formerly held defense site.
Ms. Kaipat is a 1999 recipient of the CNMI Governor's Award for Excellence in Humanities Studies. She also received a Resolution presented by the CNMI House of Representatives recognizing her achievements in becoming the first Carolinian lawyer, and in becoming the first CNMI resident to produce a historical/cultural documentary film in LIEWEILA.
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