NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

  2025 was the 10th year of existence for the Guam Bus , a creative company that my brother and I started to publish Chamoru language books, comics, flash cards and other products for learning the Chamoru language and telling Chamoru stories.    Our first book released in 2015, written by me and illustrated by Jack was "Sumåhi and the Karabao" featured my oldest Sumåhi hearing karabao stories everytime she rides Siñot Aguon's karabao at the Chamorro Village. Although it wasn't the plan to always have the children of the Guam Bus be the stars of the books, that is how things have evolved in the decade since.    "The Adventures of Akli'e'" followed in 2017, and featured my second oldest Akli'e' as the star of the book, learning about traditional Chamoru tools from his great-grandfather and Chamoru legends and history from his great-grandmother.    Sumåhi, Akli'e' and then my third oldest Lulai would be the main characters in "An Tå...

Recently the Guam Cultural Repository, which is located on the campus of the University of Guam, officially became a part of the Guam Museum and the Department of CHamoru Affairs. We have been preparing for this transition for a while, and despite some bumps in the road, it remains exciting in terms of what it will means for the museum and also allowing the many collections and artifacts from our island's past to be rediscovered and researched anew. Last month, we welcomed one such collection to the Guam Museum that really exemplified this.       On June 2, 1690, the Spanish treasure galleon Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Zaragoza y Santiago sank in the lagoon near Cocos Island, off the coast of Malesso’. All on board survived, and despite some conflicting accounts, nearly all the treasure on board, which included perhaps 2 million silver coins, was assumed lost.   In 1991, a salvage operation began, seeking to recover the galleon’s lost treasure and any artifacts...

Recently I visited the Faniyakan Sinipok or the Guam Department of Education Immersion school to hold a storytelling session with the families of the program's students.  Similar to the families for I Maga'låhen Hurao Charter School, while the children may progress and show great development in the Chamoru language, unless the parents are fluent or are working hard to learn Chamoru on their own, they will fall far behind and not be able to support the learning of their children.  I've seen it many times in the Hurao school where children begin to develop fluency, but they hit a ceiling because first, the limited amount of peers that they can speak and identify with, and second, because their family can't match their fluency or learning level. While their families are interested in having them learn Chamoru, the parents themselves are often not fluent or not actively committed to learning, and so their children will quickly hit a ceiling.  It is for this reason that when...

   Maila guinaiyå-ku Achokka’ chatangmak Sa’ esta mumamaigo’ i neni siha Pega i ilu-mu gi pecho-ku Ya bai hu chiku i gaputilu-mu   Maila guinaiyå-ku Achokka’ mumamaigo’ yu’ Na’suha i alunan siha Maila hålom gi guinife-hu Ya un toktok yu’   Maila guinaiyå-ku Achokka’ bula hulu yan låmlam Gi puengi Åsson gi fi’on-hu gi katre-ta Ya bai hu nginge’ i tiyån-mu

  My grandfather, the late Joaquin Flores Lujan or Tun Jack, dedicated half of his life to displaying, demonstrating and teaching about Chamoru blacksmithing. He taught more than a dozen apprentices and presented a hundreds of fairs and schools. He was recognized as a Master of Chamoru Culture for his dedication to the trade that he was taught by his father from the age of 9, and received many awards for his work in promoting it.   For years I would take grandpa to the Chamorro Village where he had a shop to display and sell his tools. He had on the walls photos, certificates, newspaper articles about himself. He also had tools from his father and examples of the tools a blacksmith uses and the stages different tools go through in their creation. He also had his many awards. On shelves and tables he had the several Governor's Art Awards, which later became the Maga'låhi Art Awards that he had received during the tenures of Governors Ada and Gutierrez.    For about 20...

I matai ha’ na taotao ti mangguiguife” or only a dead person does not dream. Not a common Chamoru wisdom saying, but one with profound meanings on two different levels. In the first, more practical way, everyone, from the richest, to the poorest, to the happiest, to the saddest, wants something more out of life. There may be dramatic differences, and what they want may be big or small. It may rip the fabric of social reality or do nothing more that create a minute ripple. Only those who have passed away are not capable of imagining themselves or the world differently. This saying is meant to nudge someone or remind them that the point of life is change, growth, evolution. That there will be plenty of time for the opposite in death. But the saying also holds extra, critical meaning for Chamorus people as a colonized people, where not just their lands, language and culture have been stolen or hijacked, but even their ability to dream for themselves or their people. Over centur...