IG GA April 2020

As Pandemic Lockdown Continues on Island, Independent Guåhan will focus its April ONLINE General Assembly on the Importance of Sovereignty and honor Chamoru health care pioneer Amanda Guzman Shelton

For Immediate Release, April 26, 2020 - Independent Guåhan (IG) invites the public to attend its April General Assembly (GA), which will take place ONLINE through the group’s Facebook page on Thursday, April 30th from 4:00 – 5:30 pm. 

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread across the world, with to date, more than 2 million sick. From Guam, we have seen a variety of responses to this crisis, from countries that have both effectively combated and contained the virus, and others where the virus has spread and resulted in a significant loss of life. In a crisis such as this, we on Guam are reminded of the importance of sovereignty, or the basic ability to self-govern and seek to dictate our place in the world and relationships to others. 

As the world waits to see if things will soon return to normal or will forever be changed, it is imperative that we in Guam, reflect on our current territorial status, and the advantages and disadvantages it represents in a dire moment such as this. For the educational discussion for its April GA, the group will discuss how being a US territory has helped Guam in terms of dealing with a pandemic outbreak, but what ways it may have also inhibited or restricted potential strategies. As a model nation, the group will discuss Palau’s response to COVID-19. 

As an independent nation, that is also freely associated with the US, Palau has been able to use its sovereignty to work closely with neighboring Asian countries, as well as the US. Palau has received financial support in this crisis from international bodies as well as the US, while working with its allies such as Taiwan in obtaining COVID-19 testing equipment and personal protective equipment. The General Assembly will highlight what Guam can learn from other independent Pacific nations that have been able to use their sovereignty to adapt to dynamic situations and also make up for a lack of health care facilities.

Each month Independent Guåhan honors a different individual as Maga’taotao, because of their contributions to Guam History, movements for Chamoru empowerment or decolonization. For April, Independent Guåhan will honor the late Amanda Guzman Shelton, a prewar nurse and a Chamoru health care pioneer. Shelton played an important role prior to the war in adapting western medicine to meet the needs of the Chamoru community and stole supplies from the Japanese during World War II to help sick Chamorus. Her grandchildren Senator Amanda Shelton and Austin Shelton of the Center for Island Sustainability will join the GA to discuss their grandmother’s legacy. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chamoru Love Sayings

Image
A student from my Zoom Chamoru classes recently asked me for some suggestions for some Chamoru sayings or words of wisdom that she could use for a speech she had to give for a friend's wedding.  I get this type of request pretty frequently and so over the years I have a number of lists of ways to say "I Love You" in Chamoru. For years that was one of the my most visited pages on this blog, a simple page that had more than a dozen different ways to say "Hu Guaiya Hao" ranging from the poetic and deep, to the silly and sexy.  When I looked at many of those lists, I realized that the majority of the ways love was expressed, was indeed written in Chamoru, but not necessarily rooted in Chamoru. What I mean by this, is that alot of the sayings were simply translated from English or variants of ways that love would be expressed in English.  For me, I am definitely in support of these sorts of things, I love having our language adapt and take on new forms, especially wh
Read more

Chamorro Public Service Post #15: Pues Adios, Esta Ki

A lot of people end up visiting this blog because they are searching around the internet for lyrics to Chamorro songs. Over the years I’ve pasted a couple here and there, but haven’t really kept up with it as much as I should. I complain all the time about there not being enough internet presence for the Chamorro language and for Chamorro thoughts and so I feel bad when I inadvertently contribute to that absence. På’go, gaige yu’ gi i gima’ iyo-ku grandfather. Desde i ma’pos’ña na mes, kumakatre gui’. Kana’ hineart attack gui’, ya sumaga’ gui’ gi i espitåt para tres meses. Mana’huyong gi i ma’pos na mes, ya sumåsaga’ gui’ gi i gima’, lao ti ha hulat tumohgue sin ayuda. Kada na puengge måtto yu’ gi i gima’-ña para i tetno-hu pumulan gui’. Gi este na tiempo, tåya’ internet, pues siña hu usa este para bai hu fanhasso. Manhasso yu’ put i lina’la’-hu pat i guinife-hu. Buente i chinathinasso-ku siha lokkue’. Tonight, I was trying to figure out what would be the best song to share the lyrics
Read more

Tuleti

Image
I was racking my brain recently to determine what was the first ever Chamorro song that was featured in a motion picture. Noon Sunday was the first every motion picture to be filmed primarily on Guam, prior to that some minor filming had been done on Guam for World War II and Godzilla films but nothing substantial. Noon Sunday was not set in Guam, but it was the first film to feature extensively the island of Guam. Guam was the locale for a fictional Pacific island that was being taken over by a menacing Asian power. Almost all the speaking roles went to people from off-island (from the US or the Philippines), and Chamorros ended up playing most of the "extra" roles. As a result the film didn't feature any Chamorro music. You do find documentaries and television programs, all locally produced that feature Chamorro songs of at least Chamorros singing songs. Guam's History Through Songs, made by the late Carmen Santos is a perfect example of this. For those of you u
Read more