OIA PRESS RELEASE

Three Wyland Whaling Walls In The U.S.-Affiliated Insular Areas

WW#90A, Palau's Etpison Museum, 2003, Palau [Photo Credit: Nancy Chism]

Upon completion of the beautiful 96th Wyland Whaling Wall in Pago Pago, American Samoa, the insular areas can now boast a total of three Whaling Walls in three of the U.S.-affiliated Insular Areas: American Samoa, Guam and Palau.

The Wyland Foundation’s Whaling Wall murals have been raising environmental awareness about the undersea world for twenty-five years. The 96 life-size depictions of migrating gray whales, breaching humpbacks, blue whales, and other marine life are viewed by an estimated 1 billion people each year, and have become treasured landmarks in cities from Chicago to Nice and now in Koror, Hagatna and Pago Pago of the U.S.-affiliated insular areas.

WW#90B Palau's Blue Corner, 2003, Palau International Airport (Credit Wyland Foundation)

In February 2003, Palau President Tommy E. Remengesau, Jr., and the people of Palau became the proud new recipients of Wall #90A & # 90B painted by artist Wyland. At the request of President Remengesau and Shallum and Mandy Etpison of the Palau Etpison Museum, the world renowned muralist of monumental undersea landscapes, known simply as “Wyland,” spent four days in February 2003 donating his time to paint walls at Etpison Museum and the entrance to the newly constructed terminal at Palau International Airport. Wyland’s brilliantly painted scenes depict the watery world of dugongs, turtles, and other endangered Palauan creatures of the sea and mirror his message of environmental awareness to all.

WW#91 Guam's Ocean Life, 2004, Governor Camacho and Wyland Dedicate to People of Guam (Credit Wyland Foundation)

A year later in February 2004, Governor Felix Camacho dedicated the 91st Wyland Whaling Wall entitled Guam’s Ocean Life at the Guam International Airport in Hagatna, Guam.

WW#96, American Samoa, 2008 International Year of the Reef, (Credit Tialuga Vincent Iuli, AS Gov't.)

In February 2008, the members of the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force invited Wyland to create a painting in honor of the 2008 International Year of the Reef. While at that U.S. Coral Reef Task Force meeting that February in Washington D.C., Governor Tulafono Togiola of American Samoa invited Wyland come and do a mural in American Samoa.

The result? The 96th Whaling Wall in American Samoa which was also done in honor of 2008 International Year of the Reef and the 10th Festival of the Pacific Arts to be held in Samoa in June 2008.

WW#96, American Samoa, 2008 International Year of the Reef, (Credit Tialuga Vincent Iuli, AS Gov't.)

For more about the Wyland Foundation, please visit their website. (http://www.wylandfoundation.org/index.cfm)