The Dream of the Guam Museum Turns 100

 

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 this call, led by Chamorus in recognition of how changes to their island, their culture, to the world around them, was necessitating the collecting of items to help preserve, to help tell the story of the past is important.

The Guam Museum has undergone so many changes over the years since and grown from being a building that was for many decades just a single room, to being cases in libraries, to being a collection with no home, to being just temporary displays in malls, to now the multi-exhibit facility in the heart of Hagåtña.

As the curator for the Guam Museum, what makes me happiest is not just that the museum is larger, but how we have become a hub for the island community. For all types of activities.

There are many things being planned for 2026 to help commemorate the 100 years since the start of the dream of the Guam Museum, especially by the Guam Museum Foundation, but even before any of that is announced, this past week alone was action packed.

On Saturday, January 3rd, our first art exhibit opened in the Guam Museum Café Gallery titled “I Tutuhon” a group show, featuring work by artists such as Monica Baza, Judy Flores, Keiko Flynn and others.

On Wednesday, January 7th, Offices of the Governor and Lt. Governor hosted a forum on some of the potential risks of deep-sea mining in the Marianas at the Guam Museum

This week we also put out a call seeking loans and donations for an exhibit that we are helping the Guam Girl Scouts with to help celebrate their 90th anniversary. If anyone has uniforms, patches, photos, newspaper articles, letters, or anything else that can help tell the history of the Guam Girl Scouts, please reach out to me at michael.bevacqua@dca.guam.gov or call the museum at 671-989-4455. We are accepting submissions until March 6, with the exhibit opening here at the museum in April 2026.

Finally, this Saturday on January 10th, another exhibit is opening in our rotating gallery, “Ta Nå’i Animu: Sacred Waters” curated by Micronesia Climate Change Alliance and Hita Litekyan. 2025 was definitely a year in which threats to our water, whether from deep-sea mining, Dieldrin or military firing ranges all loomed in our minds. This exhibit features more than two dozen artists using a variety of media and recycled materials to talk about the dangers that we face, but also the importance of keeping our water resources safe. 

The Guam Museum has transformed across that century from being a place created to house the remnants of a people, ravaged by history, being left behind by progress, and needing a space to store what is left from their culture. It has instead become a place that lives and breathes alongside a community. It holds heirlooms for the Chamoru community, but also memories for the Chamoru community. It moves beyond just a place that marks their impending demise, but instead welcomes each new generation to join hands and connect with those that came before. 

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