NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

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...

  European museums often contain collections filled with ancestral remains and cultural belongings stolen from peoples across the globe. These historical acts of dispossession are constantly being contested by local and indigenous communities. This work is often difficult however due to great distances between communities seeking the return of the items and the institutions that hold them. For the past three years, Chamoru researchers Samantha Barnett and Andrew Gumataotao have worked on locating and learning the histories of Chamoru ancestral remains in European museums, while organizing efforts alongside the CNMI and Guam historic preservation offices to formally request their return home. The remains of over forty indigenous Chamorus, along with numerous cultural belongings, are currently held in Berlin’s Ethnological Museum. In Spain, the National Museum of Anthropology holds 9 Chamorro and Carolinian ancestral remains, taken from Guam, Saipan, and Ro...