NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

For the entire month of July, I'll be in Hawai'i at the East West Center for the first ever Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Museum Institute. This is an incredible opportunity for me to work with museum professionals and scholars from across the Pacific and network with people from museums, galleries, arts councils and cultural centers from a dozen different island communities.We just finished the first week and it has already been amazing on so many levels. I'm sure I'll be writing more about my experiences over the course of the month Here is the full list of all of those who are attending.  Roldy Ablao, Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum, California Archie Ajoste, Northern Mariana Islands Museum, Saipan Pamela Alconcel, Lānaʻi Heritage Center, Hawaiʻi Wilbert Alik, RMI Ministry of Culture and Internal Affairs, Marshall Islands Meked Besebes, Internal Affairs, Palau Michael Lujan Bevacqua, Guam Museum, Guam Mina Elison, Donkey Mill Arts Center, Hawaiʻi Ailini Eteuati, ...

The Festival of Pacific Arts and Cultures takes place in a different island in the Pacific every four years. This is considered to be the most important event in the Pacific in terms of culture and regional solidarity. It is a chance for each island to showcase their own culture and artistic expression, while meeting with others across the Pacific.  Recently there has been some negativity in Guam around FESTPAC 2020 and the idea of the Government of Guam funding 100 delegates to travel there. There is a significant amount of misinformation floating around, which is unfortunate, since it threatens to tar this important event.  To learn more about the value of FESTPAC and its role in Guam’s cultural renaissance and movement for decolonization, Independent Guåhan is holding a Teach-In on the topic on Thursday, January 16th at 6 pm at UOG HSS 106.

A few years ago two of my poems were featured in a creative/scholarly anthology titled The Space Between edited by Marata Tamaira. It was one of my first academic publications and I was honored to be included in it. I recently came across this interview that noted Chamorro poet and scholar Craig Santos Perez did with Marata following the release of the anthology. Craig recently asked me if I'd be willing to have one of the poems that was featured in the anthology, "My Island is One Big American Footnote" to be included in a new Micronesian anthology that he is co-editing. In many ways, this poem fit the theme for the overall anthology, as that concept of the space between can be used to understand the liminal place of something, the marginal and confused positionality. Yet it also can evoke an intimacy, as close of connectedness and love. ***************************** Anthology Spotlight: The Space Between Interview with Marata Tamaira By Craig Santos Perez The Poe...

Given recent developments in North Korea, new missile systems out of China and the Trump administration trying to both disengage from the world militarily and bomb the hell out of it, I would love to see an update of this article, which is from 2015. The resistance continues, scattered across many islands. ******************* Islander Unite to Resist a New Pacific War by Koohan Paik Common Dreams November 4, 2015 Last September, I attended a remarkable gathering in Okinawa of impassioned young people from all over the Asia-Pacific. They convened at a critical moment to urgently discuss ramped-up militarism in their region. Thousands of hectares of exquisitely wild marine environments, peaceful communities and local democracy are now under extreme threat. Participants hailed from: Taiwan; Jeju (South Korea); the Japanese Ryukyu islands; Indonesia; New Zealand; and the Japanese Ogasawara islands. I was invited to represent Hawaii, where the headquarters for t...

Gaige yu' giya Albuquerque, New Mexico para este na gefpå'go na dinanña', i fine'nina taiguini un "Indigenous Comic Con." Gof excited yu' put este na oppotunidåt, sa' gi este na såkkan, hami yan i dos che'lu-hu in na'magåhet un hagas na guinifen-måmi anai in na'huyong i fine'nina na kamek yan lepblon-måmi. I na'an i iyon-måmi na kompañia, "The Guam Bus." Siempre ti meggai na taotaogues Pasifiku gi este na dinanña', lao malago' yu' maneyak meggai put taimanu i otro na klasen natibu ma cho'cho'gue este na bonito lao makkat na cho'cho'.

After the Cold War ended, conservative philosopher/political theorist Francis Fukuyama penned an argument about "the End of History." His basic thoughts boiled down to the idea that with the United States victorious in the Cold War, and with Communism and Marxist thought and governments disappearing, the dialectics of history were over. The United States would never have another worthy antagonist, who could challenge it, and that liberal democratic capitalistic ideas would become the norm and nothing viable could ever appear again beyond it. There are many ways that we can see some truth to this argument. Very few people would ever openly argue nowadays that democracy isn’t the best possible for of political government. Capitalism appears to be the happy norm, after all, who could openly argue against the making of money and spreading of wealth? Whereas technology seems to constantly shifting and changing, making previously unthinkable things feel very ...

Call for Papers Amerasia Journal's latest call for papers PACIFIC LANGUAGES IN DIASPORA Guest Editors: Professor Serge Tcherkezoff (Anthropology, French Institute of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences) Professor Luafata Simanu-Klutz (Samoan Language and Literature, University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa) Dr. Akiemi Glenn (Te Taki Tokelau Community Training and Development) Publication Date: Issue planned for Spring 2017 publication. Due Date: Paper submissions (up to 5,000 words) due June 1, 2016 Change is native to the world of Epeli Hau‘ofa’s “sea of islands,” where the ocean has historically connected people and served as a thoroughfare for the flow of resources, culture, and ideas. The Pacific is home to the richest linguistic diversity on our planet and yet many of the native languages of the region are under threat and many more have been lost. As the currents of colonization, globalization, and climate change carry Pacific people far beyond their homel...

Earlier this year, as part of the annual Guam International Film Festival or GIFF festivities, longtime juror and supporter of the festival Tom Brislin, who is a professor of film at University of Hawai'i, Manoa gave a presentation on the need for Chamorros to join the larger conversation in the Pacific about preserving cultural intellectual property and also developing an infrastructure to help make future film project in the region more accountable to the lands and the lives of which they are making use. He referred to a number of issues in Hawai'i, New Zealand and Australia, where traditional culture was being snatched up and copyrighted by corporations such as Disney, and how the cultures of the Pacific continued to be portrayed in racist and orientalist ways, which can end up teaching those inside and outside of the Pacific terrible lessons. I really enjoyed his presentation and I'm hoping some students caught onto the conversation he was attempting to start locally...

Normally decolonization discourse at the UN is fairly focused. This doesn't mean that it is focused in a way that it becomes more efficient or effective. I mean it is focused around certain territories only. That certain territories out there, especially those over which there is a territorial dispute between various sovereign nations, they get the attention. They receive the focus of discussion and intervention. In contexts such as the UN, the words of support you offer your allies is your primary currency. It is the main way you show your friendship and solidarity to others. That is why, for example, in the UN the neighboring Micronesian islands around Guam, tend to vote against Guam when it comes to decolonization. Palau, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia all tend to vote against Guam, because it is one of the few ways they can throw their support behind their sovereign ally of the United States. The discussion becomes a nexus of thes...

This would be a great idea to have in the Pacific. A conference that focuses on the remaining official colonies and the near colonies. Amongst the last colonies in the world there is sometimes discussion about solidarity work, but there are so few venues for it to form. So few mechanisms for it to actually be forged and sustained. The United Nations was for a long time one such space. On the internet the Overseas Territories Review run by Carlyle Corbin (featured in the image below) provides a wealth of information on all the world's remaining colonies. Part of the problem, and this is very true for Guam, is that as a colony we are conditioned to see the world through the eyes, the media, the history, the political possibilities of our colonizer. So if the colonizer connects us in some way, we accept and privilege that, but any other way seems outlandish or difficult. For instance, the peoples of Guam and American Samoa are more likely to see each other as American minoritie...

It is the summer, but my schedule is still packed. The Pacific Islands Bilingual Bicultural Association (PIBBA) is having their annual conference this month in the island of Luta (Rota). Gos malago' yu' mohon na bai hu hanaogue, lao chatsaga' yu'. The PIBBA Conference falls at the same time as the opening of the Guam Humanities Council exhibit "Sindalu: Chamorro Journey Stories in the US Military." I worked as the writer and researcher for this project and so I have to be on island for when it begins. But if it wasn't for this I would submit an abstract and go to Luta for sure. As I often say, any excuse to travel to Rota is a good excuse. Sen gefpago na tano'. Achokka' dikike' i mineddong-na sen dangkolu' i ginefpago-na. Below is the call for papers with other info on the conference. If you are interested please submit an abstract or at least just attend. **************** --> I Lingguåhi, I Kuttura, I Halige...