NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

On April 7, 2017, more than 800 people gathered in the field in front of the Ricardo J. Bordallo Government Complex in Adelup, Guåhan for the “Respect the Chamoru People Rally.” The event, organized by a grassroots collective of volunteers, aimed at celebrating the culture of the island’s indigenous people, the Chamorros, and at helping remind the Guam community about the need to maintain a respectful relationship to them in their island homeland. The event was non-partisan, backing no political candidates or agendas. Over the course of the event’s 2 ½ hours, 15 speakers shared stories of the struggles of Chamorros in the past and the need to protect their island and heritage for future generations. Cultural groups offered blessings. Poets and musicians delivered inspiration through powerful words and melodies. Community organizations manned tables providing information on the military buildup, decolonization, and cultural preservation. The Håya Foundation, which seeks to preserve

The United Nations is a strange beast in Guam in turns of its place in the movement for decolonization. Prior to the failure of Commonwealth in 1997, the UN was always a quiet force in the background, but held little authority or played a very minor role in the consistency of arguments or political positions. Even when Chamorro activists were successful in getting people on Guam to recognize the Chamorro people as being indigenous, even though activists were successful in defeating a Constitutional movement on Guam, which would have trapped the island within an American framework, and both of these things rely heavily on discourses which find great potency in the UN and its history, they were not strongly international movements. The UN itself, although still a quiet presence on Guam, is still interpreted in a very American framework, and so regardless of how Guam's relationship to the UN is fundamentally different (it is a non-self-governing territory), people here tend to see

Fine'nina bai hu na'klaru este, ti hu gogof komprende hafa masusesedi gi i Gima'yu'us Katoliko giya Guahan. Hu tungo' na guaha yinaoyao. Hiningok-hu na meggai na taotao mandesganao nu i Maga'obispo. Ha aguguiguiyi un nuebu na "cult" gi i familian guma'yu'us. Este na cult ha fa'sahnge yan ha fa'takhilo' maisa siha gi un banda. Mannina'layo' i otro siha, sa' este na cult ti para todu i gaihinengge. Kalang para i manakhilo' gi hinegge na i mas fi'et na taotao. Esta mana'suha dos na guaiyayon na pale', sa' ma chanda i Maga'obispo. Estague i tinige'-na Si Peter Onedera put i yinaoyao. Ya-hu i tininge'-na sa' gi fino' Chamoru. ************************ Kao malilingu i respetu tatkumu baluhan kottura? Tinige' Peter Onedera August 5, 2014 Pacific Daily News Piniti yu' na ma huchom i Faninadahen Kosas Katidråt-Basilika. Noskuåntos menhalom taotao siha

FROM WE ARE GUAHAN DOD SELECTS ONLY CRITICAL RECOVERY HABITAT ON GUAM FOR SITE OF FIRING RANGE COMPLEX DOD has released a draft Supplemental EIS or SEIS proposing a site for a firing range complex that impacts over 250 acres of critical recovery habitat at Ritidian.  A bill has also been introduced in Congress allowing DOD to place a “surface danger zone” over the Ritidian Wildlife Refuge.   WHAT IS THE SEIS? The Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement or “SEIS” is a DOD study that announces DOD’s preferred choice for the location of two things: DOD's proposed firing range complex; and DOD's proposed Marine base and housing.   The SEIS also identifies environmental, social, cultural and economic consequences associated with DOD’s preferred choices. WHY IS IT BEING PREPARED? The National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Guam Preservation Trust and We Are Guahan filed a lawsuit against DOD in November 2010 based on DOD’s failure to