NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

ISSUE 18: Sustainable Islands While sustainability is often associated in the mainstream with the practice of “going green,” for island communities, it means much more. Sustainability includes a multi-tiered system of people, resources, legends, heirlooms, land, traditions, and practices. In this 18th issue of Storyboard, writers and artists are invited to draw inspiration from all elements of what sustainability means to islands and island peoples. Possible topics to explore include, but are not limited to: •Traditions • Land Ownership • Land Development • Ocean Practices • Fishing • Planting •Money/Currency • Health • Religion • Resources • Recycling • Reusing • Materialism  •Legends • Stories • Degradation • Consumption • Balance • Inheritance • Ancestral Connections  •Traditional Healing Storyboard: A Journal of Pacific Imagery is accepting submissions of previously unpublished work from the original writer or artist for Issue 18 until Monday, December 10, 2018. The journal’s missio…

In my Chamorro Studies class last week we were discussing the concept of inafa'maolek, which has become canonized as a central value of Chamoru culture as of late. The term fa'maolek has long been in use, it even occurs in the Garrido Manuscript from 18th century Guam. Inafa'maolek most likely was used as well, but not necessarily as a primal or central concept for defining Chamoru identity or culture. That comes about much more recently, primarily through the work of Robert Underwood when he uses the terms in the 1970s, while trying to define what the Chamoru cosmology of the 19th century was, and what of it had persisted up until the 20th century. 

Inafa'maolek has many meanings, all of them however focus around expressing community through interdependence or through cooperation. It is about working together to sustain a society. It is about humans sustaining nature, sustaining their families and so on. It is a collective concept that is focused on building sustainabl…

It is strange to study and document the impacts of colonization. There are always incredibly obvious ways that colonization affects a community, but there are always more minute and less perceptible ways it happens. One way that we can see colonialism in very dramatic but almost invisible ways, is how Guam, because of its attachment to the US, often times imagines itself to be somewhere else on the planet and something else entirely, whether it be politically, economically or environmentally. Colonization makes it possible for people on Guam to conceive of this island in the Pacific as not really an island, but an imagined extension of the US, therefore not capable of having its own interests or its own limitations, advantages and so on, but simply accountable or a beneficiary of whatever the US contends with. Just because the US flag flies over the island, doesn't mean that Guam is like California or Wyoming or Nevada or Alabama. It is an island in the Western Pacific and to ima…

I've been working for a few months on an article for a book on discourses on sustainability. I reached a number of deadends in my writing, but eventually, finally found a breakthrough last month in terms of how I wanted to craft my argument about how we an see discourses on sustainability in terms of discussions and critiques on the US military buildup plans for Guam.

I'll be presenting some components of my draft at the upcoming Academic Research Conference sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) at UOG. I just submitted my abstract for it, which I've pasted below:

"Situating Sustainability: Disrupting Military Buildup Fantasies"
In 2009 the USDOD announced their intention to dramatically increase their military presence on the island of Guam. Although this “military buildup” was predicted to cause severe damage to the island in environmental, social and economic terms, discourse from island leaders and media reports focused primari…

I will be in Saipan for the next few days at this conference, the first annual Marianas Indigenous Conference. Here is the draft schedule for the event. I'm sure I'll be writing more about it in the coming week.

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A NORTHERN MARIANAS DESCENT CORPORATION (NMDC) SPONSORED EVENT
”Lessons Learned and A Way Forward”
2014 1st Annual Marianas Indigenous Conference Multi-Purpose Center, Saipan September 29th& 30th, 2014 7:30 AM – 4:30 PM

NMDC Vision:A Self-Sustaining, Self-Governing Commonwealth whose destiny shall continue to remain in the hands of the Indigenous Chamorro and Carolinian people of Northern Marianas descent, in close partnership with other persons who are residents in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
NMDC Mission:Empowerment of the indigenous Chamorro and Carolinian people in the CNMI’s economic, social & political development and the preservation & promotion of its language and cultural identity.
Purpose: To bring about increase…

Cleaning Up for an Independent Guam Guam’s Independence Task Force to Clean West Hagåtña Beaches Sat.
The Independence Task Force Committee and the Hagåtña Mayor’s Office are working together to clean the beaches along the Liberation Day parade route this Saturday morning.
The cleanup will begin at 6 a.m. at the beach across from the GCIC building. It is one of the first community events the recently revived Independence Task Force has organized, and it reflects an important goal of the group – to work toward a sustainable future for Guam.
“Our group is concerned about the well-being of our community,” says Jon Guerrero, who organized the cleanup. “This beach cleanup will not only help beautify our community, but it will also be a great opportunity to learn more about our right to self-determination, and to learn what independence for Guahan would look like for our community.”  
The Independence Task Force is inviting members of the community to join them in the cleanup, and to learn mor…

Mensahi Ginnen I Gehilo’ #4 “Summer Plans”
Earlier this month the Independence Task Force for Guam met to make plans for Summer 2012. Although we have no budget and there is much uncertainty in the formal decolonization process at present, we have decided that this won’t derail our efforts at consciousness-raising. We are determined to continue to promote decolonization and independence for Guam even if the actual self-determination has yet to be finalized, as such activities can be important in and of themselves. The more Guam becomes familiar with ideas of decolonization and independence the better off the island is, because both of these concepts are built around ideas of sustainability and empowerment.
Our summer planning meeting was a great success. We laid out the following actions for the summer and will be finalizing everything at our next meeting on July 1st.
1.We will hold one community service event over the summer. By July 1st we will choose the location and the date and…