NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

  In June of last year, the Marianas lost one of its most influential musical pioneers with the passing of Tun Candido “Candy” Babauta Taman. Over the years, I had the honor and privilege of working with Tun Candy on several projects, conduct interviews of him and sometimes just sit and chat and listen to him tell stories. Each year, I usually got a call from him in late November or December, checking in with me and letting me know how he is doing. If he had some of his music or CDs to sell, he would also let me know that they would make great Christmas gifts. When he called in late 2022, I eagerly bought a copy of everything he was selling and gave them as gifts to different friends. Tun Candy was born to a CHamoru mother from Sumay, Guam and a Carolinian father from Saipan with roots in Chuuk. Across his life he worked to promote and develop a Marianas musical sound as well as cultural consciousness. Because of the way his roots, his heritage represented ...

Ever since I first began learning Chamoru my interest in Chamoru music has continually grown.  I grew up sometimes hearing Chamoru music, but couldn't understand it and didn't really connect with it.  But from the first time that I sat down with my grandmother at the dining room table and had her help me translate the CD "Chamorro Yu'" from Johnny Sablan, kinenne' yu'. I have been hooked.  To this end I have been collecting Chamoru music, whether in CD, cassette or vinyl form.  I've collected whatever I can from newspapers, magazines and scholarly sources related to Chamoru music.   I have also been fortunate enough to sit down with many musicians and talk to them about their experiences and why in a world where English dominates, they chose to record and release music in Chamoru. Last month I was very very luck, gof suettettette, to be able to pick up the album "Ai Saun Diroga" by Chamolinian II while searching for Chamoru music online.   Fr...

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, ...

  For Immediate Release October 7, 2020   SENATOR MARSH (TAITANO) CONTINUES HER CRUCIAL CONVERSATION SERIES, BREADFRUIT  AS A MEANS FOR FOOD SUSTAINABILITY AND SECURITY Senator Kelly Marsh (Taitano) authored a bi-partisan supported bill to capitalize on Guam’s lengthy history of reciprocal intraregional relationships which have been part of the region’s traditional approach to surviving and thriving within the Mariana Islands, Southeast Asia, and Micronesia. Her bill would develop a Guam Intraregional Commerce Commission, which will spearhead efforts to strengthen regional resiliency and rebuild and re-envision our economy in the face of the current global pandemic era.  With this focus on the need for greater regional economic collaboration in mind, Senator Marsh (Taitano) this Friday continues her Crucial Conversation Series, highlighting ways that we can build more sustainable industries while preserving our environment and culture. This week’s episode will d...

Next month I'll be back in Washington D.C. to resume my research about federal territorial relations that I began last year. Much of my focus last year was on Guam and its commonwealth movement, but as I conducted interviews and sifted through files, I also found more and more references to the commonwealth of the CNMI as well and found its evolution and devolution to be even more fascinating. Even just the contrast of reading about what has taken place there for the past few decades in federal documents versus local government is striking. Take for example when a number of sovereignty provisions that had been negotiated through the commonwealth were lost about ten years ago. This process was referred to the in CNMI as a "federalization," akin to a takeover by the federal government. Within the federal government however it was referred to as as normalizing of a relationship, whereby those provisions were considered to be only temporary and would eventually be done away...

Since the start of the year I have been working on an article about militarization in the Marianas Islands. It is for a special edition of Micronesian Educator edited by Tiara Na'puti and Lisa Natividad. I'm excited at the prospect of writing it, but my schedule over the past year has been tough, in addition to family drama and other setbacks. I've been coming back and forth to it in my notebooks every month, but until now I haven't been able to really try to finish it. I spent Christmas Day typing up my scattered notes and drafts. The article is an attempt to talk about militarization, military increases, military strategy in a Marianas wide context, and the ways it divides, unities, takes and stimulates. One of the most interesting sections is on the CIA training that took place in Saipan from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. The facility was known as the Naval Technical Training Unit or NTTU and it trained anti-communist operatives to destabilize and sabotage r...

Ngai'an na para u mababa i nuebu na casino giya Saipan? Hu taitaitai este na attikulu siha, lao ti siguro yu'. På'go na mes hun? Guaguaha ha' inetnon giya Guåhan. I na'ån-ña "Lina'la' Sin Casino." Sa' mandanña' siha para u kontra i binaban un casino giya Guåhan. Lao ti apmam para u tutuhon i tiempon Lina'la' GaiCasino giya Saipan. Ta li'e' kao maolek probecho este na hinatsa. ************************  Saipan casino set for March opening amid investor fears by Daniel Beitler Macau Daily Times March 3, 2017 T he USD600 million Imperial Pacific casino-hotel in Saipan is scheduled to open by the end of the month, though the company responsible for operating it, Best Sunshine International, has analysts and investors concerned over the accuracy of reported revenue from its temporary casino, which it claims measures in the billions. Last year the company report...

Film-making was something I never really imagined myself doing, even though I've always been drawn to films as a media. Gof ya-hu manegga' mubi siha. Lao gi minagahet taya' nai hu konsidera na sina mama'titinas yu' mubi siha. Over the past few years I've been able to work on several projects, sometimes as just a consultant, sometimes as a supporter and a few times as one of the primary filmmakers. It has been exciting and naturally time-consuming. Here is one film that I did a small amount of consulting for, with the help of Ken Gofigan Kuper who is attending graduate school at UH Manoa. ****************** Q&A with Filmmaker Hiroshi Katagiri by Ben Salas II The Sunday Post November 6, 2016 Throughout the years, Saipan has long been associated with many things: World War II, tourism, garment factories, commonwealth politics, Chamorro and Carolinian culture, and as a Pacific island paradise. And while various media entities have used Saipan as a ...

The book Micronesian Blues is supposed to be made into a show for Cinemax. Given the articles below, it has nothing to do with Governor of Guam Eddie Calvo's recent "deportation" of criminals from the FSM. I wonder what a show titled Chamorro Blues would focus on or look like? Would it focus on the drama in the Catholic church? I halacha na yinaoyao gi halom i gima'yu'os Katoliko? Or perhaps it would focus on the drama between Chamorro dance groups? Hekkua' ti hu tungo' I wonder, even more so, what a show like Guamanian Blues would be? Båsta, mungga yu' tumungo'. ********************** Cop's memoir 'Micronesian Blues' to be adapted into Cinemax show by Amanda Pampuro Guam Daily Post 10/23/16 “It was slam down and flaps up, braking all the way. We landed so hard the oxygen masks fell down and several of the overhead storage compartments popped open. Babies squalled, while most of the adults just sat there in stunned sil...