On Thursday, March 1, 2018, 6:00-7:30 p.m., the Dean of the School of Business and Public Administration at the University of Guam will host a CHamoru-language panel from the Commission on Decolonization to discuss the status options for Guam/Guåhan: Statehood, Free Association, and Independence. The event is called “Decolonization gi Fino’ CHamoru” (in the CHamoru …
Aside from blithely reducing the fate of actual people to a matter of casual “interest,” Lilla’s premise displays shockingly little interest or familiarity with the ways in which dictators use their most vulnerable populations — LGBT people, women, ethnic/religious minorities — to advance larger state projects. Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and current President Abdel …
Originally posted on K.I.N. Knowledge in Indigenous Networks:
Defining, measuring and labeling indigenous groups is an intensely political and debated process. On one hand Native peoples are glamorised, objectified , sexualised , romanticised and endlessly imitated. On the other we are victimised, or vilified, as impoverished, imprisoned, addicted, pagan, fatherless, overweight + diabetic,…
For two days last week, Victoria Leon Guerrero and I, as co-chairs of the Independence for Guam Task Force worked as guest hosts for K57. As “Independent Guahan on the Radio” we spoke with guest attorney Mike Phillips, we took more than three dozens calls, and explained why we both support independence as Guam’s next …
I will be live-blogging from the University of Guam for this final decolonization debate. Hamyo ma’åse’ to LisaLinda Natividad, Lisa Baza, Teresita Flores, Edward Duenas, Jose Garrido, Victoria-Lola Leon Guerrero, and all who helped make this a reality. The Festival of the Pacific Arts is a time for celebrating Pacific art and culture, but it is also, …
Final Keynote Speaker – Indigenous Languages Conference Inaugural Session, Festival of the Pacific Arts, Guam, 2016 I Unibetsedåt Guåhan Notes by Isa Kelley Bowman Rev. Dr. Upolu Luma Vaai (Pacific Theological College, Samoa) The cosmic community everyone and everything included, not just people saluations and respect, tåno’, ancestors, spirits, sea, Chamorro people, etc. We are in …
We all just finished the Indigenous Languages Conference at UOG. I’m sure my fellow bloggers may post about it more in depth. For now, a few quick posts. Today I got to sneak in for a bit to famed Chamorro scholar Dr. Laura Torres Souder’s presentation, in between finding buses for delegates and counting folding chairs. Below, …
I’m (very slowly) making my way through the Dune prequels written by Frank Herbert’s son and a well-known science fiction novelizer, from the famous author’s notes. The novels do not share the epic sonorousness of Herbert’s language in Dune, but they do cover interesting topics. The human race is struggling to survive against an empire of robots, yet, …
“The moment a man enlists in the United States armed forces, his chances of being sexually assaulted increase by a factor of ten. Women, of course, are much more likely to be victims of military sexual trauma (MST), but far fewer of them enlist. In fact, more military men are assaulted than women—nearly 14,000 in …
Movement One (Spanish): Somos feministas, nietas de las brujas que nunca pudiste quemar, y sobrevivientes del genocidio machista que históricamente hemos vivido y seguimos viviendo las mujeres. Queremos invadir el espacio de la opinión pública analizando la realidad desde nuestros feminismos. Porque es en la esfera política en la que se recortan nuestros derechos y …
Matai si Sinot Jose Mata Torres gi ma’pos na mes. Desde 2013 hu ayuyuda si Sinot Torres gi i lepblo-na. Dumångkolo gui’ antes di gera ya gumai’idat gui’ gi duranten i gera, ya gof malago’ gui’ muna’fitme i hinasso-na siha gi un lepblo, ko’lo’lo’na i estoria put anai i Chamorro siha gi sengsong-na manachu ya …
Manhami mañasåga ham yan si nanå-hu biha. Guiya pumulan gui’ sa’ machocho’cho’ si nanå-hu yan si tatå-hu ya annai mana’hålom yu’ gi famulanan famagu’on, sigi ha kumåti yu’. Hu hasso na un diha gigon matagam yu’ ginen i famulanan-hu famagu’on, hu faisen si bihå-hu kao ha chatli’e’ yu’ sa’ ti malago’ ha pulan yu’. Ginen …
It has almost been two years since of the passing of my grandmother, Elizabeth De Leon Flores Lujan. Last Christmas, close to the one year anniversary of her passing (when my grandfather was still with us) family and friends held a gathering to remember her and celebrate her. As part of the gathering we sang …
In my academic and activist work I often used “militarism” as a negative term. As a concept which describe things na ti ya-hu, or that I don’t like, or that I would actively like to see less of in the world. Lao gi minagahet, the term, the processes it describes are not inherently wrong. The …
Its that time of year on Guam, where perceived Chamorro debts to the United States balloon out of control and Chamorro attempts to prove their understanding and love for their debts and subordination appear to reach such maddeningly levels that what they owe to the United States seems to become infinite and eternal. Sina ta …
When the protest group Nasion Chamoru first emerged decades ago it created a conflict in the minds of people on Guam. On the one hand you had a group of people who were emphatically embodying “Chamorro” things. They were speaking Chamorro, fighting for Chamorro lands and Chamorro rights, and even sometimes sported ancient Chamorro jewelry. …
I found this old poem I wrote in 2012 for a literature class I took at the University of Guam and thought I would share it with you. Este ha’ minalago-hu na hu sanggra hao (My only desire is to drain your blood) Un na’bubu yu’ ni guinaiya-mu (You made me angry with your love) …
Yesterday the world saw Jose “Pepe” Mujica step down from his 5-year tenure as the President of Uruguay, a man who is a misnomer to what we expect from modern leaders. A leftist Guerrila leader back in the 60s who later served in all 13 years in prison for his political activities, he was part …
According to The Chamorro Dictionary by Donald Topping, “mumun linahyan” is a way of saying “revolution.” If we break it down we can see the genesis of this rarely used term. Mumun derives from mumu meaning fight. Linahyan means crowd, group, masses. Mumun linhayan is an idea of revolution as being a large scale uprising, …
Takekuma Shinohara (Samuel T. Shinohara) – family descent Continue reading
As Lou Leon Guerrero’s testimony against Bill 195-32, the “Infant Child’s Right to Life Act,” comes back into public prominence during this campaign, I’d like to share a very personal story that affects how I view this question. My earliest memory is from age three or four. I am standing at the foot of a … Continue reading
For some odd reason, I find myself today thinking about the way powerful old men tend to respond to claims of rape or sexual harassment. They ask for tangible evidence, laugh at you, tell you they’ve been accused themselves, tell you false accusations ruin men’s lives, threaten you with libel, tell you “that’s just the … Continue reading
Agent Kahet? Isa na Klasen Herbicide Siha? Continue reading
The Guam Daily Post, no less, the same newspaper whose editors so disdained my column yet keep publishing coprolites like Arnold Davis, just released into the world an incoherent and ill-conceived editorial (copied below as well) attacking the FSM government, painting it as “sit[ting] on a pile of cash” while Guam struggles because of COFA migrants. … Continue reading
“I wasn’t brought up with Māori in my house,” says Johnson, “so part of that typeface for me is part of my philosophy as a designer, to try to design these Māori objects that connect to our rich visual culture and bring them into our daily lives and the spaces we live.” This Font For … Continue reading
I was brought on over a year ago by the previous editor-in-chief of The Guam Daily Post, formerly the Marianas Variety, to write a weekly column, “Mikilot na Isa.” The current editor-in-chief has repeatedly pressured me (to the extent that she has held back some columns from publication with no notice to me) to stop writing in Chamorro … Continue reading
