For years, Indy’s Global Village Museum on the west side has celebrated the city’s diverse immigrant population.
About one out of every 10 residents in Marion County was born outside the U.S., and, according to the museum’s executive director, Mary Clark, more than 100 different languages are spoken in the 2.5 square-mile International Marketplace neighborhood.
The museum has a permanent exhibit with items donated by Indianapolis residents from countries around the world, including Afghanistan, Haiti, Scotland and Turkey.
It also has a winter exhibit called the World of Trees that lets the city’s immigrant residents showcase their countries of origin by decorating a tree this holiday season — even if they don’t celebrate Christmas.
Until Jan. 17, Ukrainian tridents, Korean buchaechum fans, Chinese knot art, Norwegian straw ornaments, Cameroonian elephant masks and a lot more reminders of home will be on display at the museum.
Hanako Gavia, assistant director of Butler University’s Center for Citizenship & Community, saw the exhibit as a chance to tell the world what she’s learned about her own identity.
“My mom is half Okinawan and half black, and my dad is half black and half Mexican,” she said.
Okinawa is an island about 400 miles southwest of the Japanese mainland. It’s a part of Japan today, but it has its own distinct culture and history.
Her grandfather, a U.S. Army soldier, met her grandmother, an Okinawan, while he was stationed on the island during the Korean War. They fell in love, got married and had kids before moving to Indianapolis.
Gavia’s grandmother passed away before she was born, so she wasn’t able to learn much about Okinawan culture from her.
But over the years, she’s visited the island several times. She became president of Okinawa Yuyukai, a nonprofit organization that works to share Okinawan traditions with Indiana residents. The group’s name means “fun and friendship association.”
Gavia and other Yuyukai members decorated three trees with ornaments featuring aspects of Japanese and Okinawan life to teach people about the culture they love.
One ornament is shaped like a pineapple, a signature Okinawan crop. The island produces a majority of the pineapples available in Japan, and the fruit has become a star on the island. Restaurants make dishes with the fruit, like a sweet and sour pork dish called subuta. There’s even a theme park dedicated to the fruit, called Nago Pineapple Park.
Other ornaments feature a Japanese paper lantern, called a chochin, that were used in formal ceremonies in the past but are commonly used in advertising today, and shisa, mythical lion dogs that protect people from evil spirits.
“That’s a part of you. That’s a part of your family. That’s a part of your history,” she said. “Understanding that helps you understand yourself a lot more. Learning about others and seeing those connections is really important, and it kind of just makes us more of a community and more connected.”
If you go
Admission to the World of Trees is free. Indy’s Global Village Museum is located at 4233 Lafayette Road.
For more information, call the museum at 317-751-5229 or email executive director Mary Clark.
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Mirror Indy reporter Enrique Saenz covers west Indianapolis. Contact him at 317-983-4203 or enrique.saenz@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on Bluesky at @enriquesaenz.bsky.social.
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