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Adios Uncle Filamore

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This month Filamore Palomo Alcon, artist, art teacher and owner of the Guam Gallery of Art at the Chamoru Village and an uncle of my through the Lujan extended clan network, passed away. He had been struggling with health issues for some time and his gallery was closed by some of his friends earlier this year after being open for almost three decades. For this reason, he had become less active in recent years as an artist and promoter of local arts, but it is painful is still painful to imagine that someone who was such a fixture in the Guam art scene and so influential in the movement develop Chamoru artistic consciousness has left us. When my grandfather, Tun Jack Lujan had a blacksmith shop at the Chamoru Village, the Fil’s gallery was a regular stop for me or for grandpa to check in with Fil on art, on Chamoru Village business, on cultural politics on island. Sometimes I would go visit him while grandpa would watch the shop and sometimes, I would go visit him while grandpa stayed...
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Lotso Fino' Chamoru Lulai

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  Lulai continues to speak more and more Chamoru about more and more things.    In her third year, I've been  encouraging her more and more to start responding in Chamoru by playing games, providing commentary in Chamoru to movies or videos she was watching on YouTube, telling stories in Chamoru, reading books.    At first most of her Chamoru was blooming in the areas where I was prompting it.    I would say "nihi ta hugåndo este" and she would start speaking Chamoru in response to the idea that Chamoru has to be used for the game we are about to play.    But in the last week, and in particular since her younger sister has arrived, she has started to use Chamoru more and more organically and unprompted, telling stories in Chamoru that she starts herself and even creating her own games in Chamoru that she now invites me to play.   To give you a good example of the language growth in her, take this character, Lotso from the film Toy S...
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Issei, Nisei, Sansei

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 I recently worked on a few different research projects assisting scholars and news teams who were conducting research on the Chamoru-Japanese families in Guam.   Some of these projects focused on the waves of Japanese migration and how Japanese people were integrated or treated by the Spanish or American colonial administrations. Others focused on the Chamoru families that blended with the Japanese migrants and their experiences. Some of this interest was spurred by the publication last year of a book by Master of Chamoru Culture for Playwrighting Peter Onedera "A Borrowed Land."  I remember first encountering the sometimes complicated nature of their history, especially when it came to Guam's World War II period, when I was a young graduate student, just starting to do my oral history research. I was in Micronesian Studies at the University of Guam, traveling around, usually with my grandmother, visiting her friends and relatives, practicing my Chamoru, but also as...
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Magof Ha'ånen Mannåna

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  Put si nanå-hu biha, i puti'on gi langhet-hu, i anghet-hu para i kotturå-ta yan i lengguahi-ta.        Put si nanå-hu, i pilan gi langhet-hu, un chalåni yu' sa' achokka' guaha na biahi echong yan matahlek yu' gi chalån-hu todu tiempo un pupulan yu'.        Put i guinaiyå-ku, un na'kabåles i korason-hu yan i familia-ku. Hu agradedesi i guinaiyå-mu yan i sinapotte-mu mås kada diha gi este karerå-ta.      Magof Ha'ånen Mannånu nu hamyo na tres ya hamyo todos ni' mannåna.
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Surviving Statehood

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  Recently Senator Will Parkinson introduced a resolution to I Liheslaturan Guåhan calling for a full examination of statehood or another autonomous status. In his statement explaining the resolution he equated statehood for Guam with ensuring the island’s survival.   Is statehood really the only choice for Guam’s future?   This Friday, May 2nd from 5:30-7:00 pm at the Guam Museum, Independent Guåhan will be holding a community forum discussing some of the implications of what statehood might mean for the island. This event is free and open to all. Former UOG President and non-voting delegate for Guam Robert Underwood will also offer his reflections as part of the discussion.   Artwork in flyer courtesy of Teihini Davis   **************   Three Things You Should Know About Statehood for Guam 1.         Unlike Independence, where all people have the right to be free and right to self-determin...
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Dancing and Decolonization (Hugua)

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  My third oldest child Lulai has officially started cultural dance.   Twice a week, at the MTM Community Center, she dances with Siñora Max Bigler-Tainatongo and the group Guma' Kinalameten i Taotao Tåno'. She is only three years old, much younger than the rest of the dancers, and literally doesn’t know yet the meaning of the word “discipline.” As such, during practices she more often than not dances to the beat of her own drum, causing chaos and confusion, rather than following the lead of others. Lao gof ya-ña sinembåtgo. But she likes it nonetheless.   For me, seeing one of my children in Chamoru cultural dance, is a beautiful moment of decolonization. For many people, they might connect decolonization to being political status change, such as Guam becoming independent or a state or a freely associated entity. Others might hear decolonization and think of it through some of the misconceptions out there of the idea. They might think of it as being, trying to go...
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IndepenDANCE

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 Maila ya ta fambaila! Independent Guåhan is having an IndepenDaNCE fundraiser this Friday, March 28th from 7-11 pm at Good Company. There will be a Cha Cha Competition with prizes, raffle and silent art and book auction and mångnge music by Ma’lak Mo’na.    Tickets are just $15 and it includes a drink.    We are fundraising to support art and community projects that we have planned for the rest of the year.  Having an IndepenDANCE fundraiser is something Independent Guåhan has been talking, joking and dreaming about since we first started 9 years ago.  This will be a nice way to end Mes Chamoru this year and also hopefully get us primed for some important, creative community collaborations on the horizon. 
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