NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

My testimony give last week to the United Nations Committee of 24 Regional Seminar on Decolonization held in St. Lucia. ***************** A Growing Foundation, but still an Uncertain Future for Guam’s Quest for Decolonization Michael Lujan Bevacqua, Ph.D. Co-Chair, Independent Guåhan Curator, Guam Museum   Si Yu’os Ma’åse na makombibida yu’ mågi ta’lo para bai hu saonao gi este matua na dinanña’. Gi tinestigu-hu på’go, bai hu sangåni hamyo put i halacha na hiniyong gi islå-ku yan i kinalamten-måmi para in gi’ot i direchon-måmi komo taotao.    Your Excellency Chairwoman Keisha McGuire, distinguished delegates, representatives and experts from fellow Non-Self-Governing Territories, I am honored to be here again speaking before you on the topic of Guam and its continuing quest for decolonization. I also want to thank the government and people of Saint Lucia for hosting us on their beautiful island.    In my statements today, I want to provide updates on important w...

Around there world there are others desiring political status change, not just Guam.  Some are worried about changes independence might bring, just like we are, but that shouldn't keep us colonized.  Turks and Caicos is another Non-Self-Governing Territory, just like Guam. It is in the Caribbean and has a population of around 46,000. The United Kingdom is its administering power.  Here is a recent article from their newspaper talking about this from their perspective.  The author quotes the Ghanaian revolutionary Kwame Nkrumah, “It is far better to be free to govern or misgovern yourself than to be governed by anybody else.” ******************     Political Independence – It Is Time To Talk About It By Drexwell Seymour April 19, 2021 The Sun   There are seventeen (17) countries in the world that have yet to become decolonized. One of those places is the Turks and Caicos Islands where we have been politically governed by the United Kingdom (UK) for hund...

At this year's Regional Seminar for the Committee of 24 in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, attendees were treated to two presentations by experts on decolonization from the UN perspective. I'll discuss both presentations through my "Decolonization in the Caribbean" posts, but today I wanted to focus on the remarks from Dr. Carlyle Corbin, from the US Virgin Islands, who is a longtime ally with Guam and the Chamorro people in their struggle for self-determination. He offered a number of recommendations that the Committee could take up in terms of moving ahead with its mission of eradicating colonialism from the world and assisting the remaining non-self-governing territories. What is refreshing in terms of the seminar overall is the way it mixes scholars and experts with diplomats or government reps. The debate or discussions between country representatives and committee members tends to move in familiar and sometimes frustrating directions. Regardless of what is t...

Earlier this month I was on a panel discussion at UOG about the prospect of Guam holding a new constitutional convention and writing a new constitution. I was by far the youngest person on the panel, as I hadn't been born yet when the last Guam Constitutional Convention was held, but I was honored to have my voice included amongst other notable island figures such as Speaker of the Guam Legislature BJ Cruz, Public Auditor Doris Flores Brooks, Guam Attorney General Elizabeth Barrett-Anderson and former Senator Marilyn Manibusan. The discussion ended up being quite rich, with three out of the five panelists (myself included) speaking out against the writing of a Guam constitution. It is not so much that I or the others were against the exercise of writing a constitution, but the issue was, why write a constitution now, while Guam remains a colony of the US? Every once in a while this topic will emerge, usually proposed as an easier path for dealing with Guam's political s...

Over the years I've heard International Expert on Self-Goverance and Decolonization Carlyle Corbin mention Greenland in the context of Guam. For most on Guam, it might seem like the only things Greenland and Guam might have in common is they are both islands and their names start with G. But their possible connections are much deeper than that, as both are homes to indigenous people, both are sites of colonialism and both exist in a political state that isn't considered to be the norm in today's fraternity of nations. Below are some articles that might help make those connections for people. ************************* Greenland, Victim of Denmark's Linguistic Colonialism Noa Agnete Metz Worldcrunch 4/27/17 COPENHAGEN — In the picturesque Danish capital, it's easy to overlook the men lying on public benches with a beer in hand, or assume they're immigrants from Southern Europe. Listen carefully, though, and you'll notice that they speak fluent D...

Two letters to the editor on recent and not so recent activities related to Guam's decolonization. For those who don't know, there are three political status options that are outlined per local and international law for Guam's future, integration (statehood), free association and independence. Each of these status has a task force that is mandated to educate the community about their status. These task forces are volunteer and have always been, although public law does indicate that the Commission on Decolonization is supposed to provide funding and support for their outreach. But there is little written into the law about the structure of these task forces or details about their obligations. They are supposed to have a certain amount of members and they each have a chairperson who gets to serve and vote on the Commission itself, but other than that, they are amorphous and nebulous non-governmental organizations. The business of government usually moves slowly, unless...

In just 50 days, more than two dozen Pacific Island nations will gather in Guam for the 12th Festival of Pacific Arts or FESTPAC. Although geographically Guam's presence in the Pacific cannot be questioned, culturally and politically due to its history of colonization, the island and its native people, the Chamorros are regularly treated differently. As if they are a part of the Pacific, yet also exist apart from it as well. There’s a great website out there for those who are colonialism and political status geeks such as myself called Overseas Territories Review . It features regular updates on different currently-existing-colonies out there in the world (most of which are small islands like Guam in the Caribbean or the Pacific) and some commentary on what sort of challenges they might face as they try to change their colonial status. The website is run by Dr. Carlyle Corbin, an expert on decolonization and the various remaining colonies in the world, who...