NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

English is my mother tongue, in the sense that it is the language that I grew up with and speak most comfortably. It is my first language. It is however not my favorite language, not the best language and certainly not i mas takhilo' para Guahu. I am a non-native speaker of the Chamoru language as I learned to speak it when I was 20 years old. It is natural for me in some ways, but still unnatural in others, primarily when talking about things that are difficult in general to express in a Chamoru lexicon. This is not only something that I struggle with, but as the Chamoru language has become more and more limited in how and where it is used, many people find themselves constantly switching to English since a potential part of their conversation is something few people have actually used the Chamoru language to convey. What makes speaking, thinking and writing easier is if the topic fits easily within some existing framework or lexicon for carrying meaning. If that framework...

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...

One of the most exciting gifts that I received last year, right in time for Christmas was from longtime singer and musician Joe Taimanglo. He sent me a box filled with Chamoru music lyrics books and tapes, since as the curator for the Guam Museum I am always interested in collecting, preserving and then educating about things from our past, but also as the producer for the Fanachu podcast, we've been digitizing and collecting Chamoru music for several years now. To date we've uploaded more than 400 songs to the Fanachu YouTube page .  I've had Siñot Taimanglo on the Fanachu podcast twice as a guest where he has been such a wealth of information on the history of contemporary Chamoru music. He keeps lists of Chamoru musicians, sometimes shares Chamoru music on his social media, still performs, and also writes posts remembering Chamoru and Guam-based musicians who have passed away.    Sumåhi filmed and edited a video of me unboxing this special box from Siñot Joe, filled wi...