NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

During last month's HITA Talk at the Guam Museum focusing on expressions of Chamoru identity across time, my four year old Lulai walked up on stage and asked that I hold her while I was presenting.    I had already started to talk about my section of the talk which focused on the pre-World War II version of the Guam Museum which was started in 1932 and destroyed during World War II.    Before I had gone up on stage and started presenting, I had asked Lulai, "Håfa malago'-mu? Kao para un såga guini gi siyå-mu pat kao malago'-mu hao tumattiyi yu' gi piso?" (What do you want? Will you stay here in your chair or follow me to the stage?) Lulai was insistent in that moment "Bai hu såga guini, maolek ha' yu'." (I will stay here, I'm ok)   Part way through my presentation, she started walking up onto the stage, arms out, indicating na malago' gui' mahoggue. I knew it would mean that my focus would be divided, but it also made me happy.   ...

There is an wonderfully engaging and educational free exhibit at the Guam Museum right now titled "Yanggen Ti Hita Pues Håyi?" which chronicles the movements for self-determination and decolonization over the past century in Guam. While the exhibit is up, community groups are taking advantage of the space and the history on the walls, to hold events and talks. It is wonderful to be in the space, surrounded by the work, voices and reminders of so many who have gone before. The Guam Bus and the Guam Commissionon Decolonization are holding one such workshop tomorrow titled "Yanggen Ti Hita Tumuge', Pues Håyi?" meaning "If We Don't Write It, Then Who?" It is free for all to attend and will take place tomorrow night, (6/3) in the Guam Museum's rotating gallery from 5:30 - 7:00 pm.   As part of the event, some local writers will share their work, Victoria-Lola Leon Guerrero, a writer and head of UOG Press will offer some tips on how to get your wo...

  2026 is the 100-year anniversary of the dream of the Guam Museum for the Chamoru people, at least as far as we know. What does that mean historically and what does that mean for this year? The October 1926 edition of the Guam Recorder, featured an article titled “Guam to Have a Museum.” It discussed how the Guam Teachers’ Association has taken up the issue of Guam’s culture and history disappearing at its September meeting, and that a call to the community would be made for the collection of artifacts and other materials. Ramon M. Sablan who would later to become the first Chamoru medical doctor was put in charge of organizing the collecting. The article mentions that the island’s 3,000 school children and also the Guam Militia would also be utilized to help stir up community interest and donations. It is unclear today how effective this effort was because the Guam Museum itself wasn’t started until several years later and under very different circumstances. But nonetheless t...

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 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...

If you are looking for articles, essays, poems, and other random things written in Chamoru, about a wide variety of topics, then you should definitely check out "I Sakman i Fino'-ta." It was started in 2022 by Benny Anderson as a means of promoting Chamoru language and writing. Anyone can submit for the website, which is filled at this point with hundreds of short pieces written in Chamoru. The inspiration for the name is that the website is a vessel for the language in the same way the såkman was a vessel for the Chamoru people the past, using it to travel and transport. If we continue to use our language on a daily basis and pass it on to the next generation, it will continue to evolve and grow as we grow. It will stay with us on this journey. The published pieces come from active, current learners of Chamoru, first language speakers of Chamoru and second language learners of Chamoru. They are free to write about whatever they are interested in. You will find plenty of ...

Since I began working at the Guam Museum, repatriation of human remains, of artifacts, or cultural materials, has gone from being something that was just on a list of things that indigenous people struggle with in general, to something that is literally part of my job description.  For those unfamiliar with the term, since it can be used in different contexts, repatriation as I'm thinking of it here means the return of cultural properties, ancestral remains to their countries, their peoples, usually from museums, universities or other institutions. As the curation for the Guam Museum, part of what I do deal with seeking possibilities for repatriation of Chamoru artifacts and ancestral remains. Whether they have been taken away a few years ago or decades ago for research or some other reason.  (Rematriation is something I'll have to get into on another post. Less discussed, but critically important as we see the returning of artifacts, as less the end of a process, but an impor...