NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

One project that I have slowly been working on for almost a year is to create a set of 60-second sports for KPRG about Chamorro culture, language and history in the Chamorro language. Last year UOG President Robert Underwood asked me to do something with Chamorro language and media. He made several suggestions, such as creating a Chamorro TV talk show or have Chamorro language radio interviews. All of these were wonderful ideas, but after I investigated them, they would require quite a bit of effort and planning, far too much for me alone. I look forward to trying to create something along these lines in the future. KPRG is right next door to UOG and I already work there for the radio show Beyond the Fence and so for someone whose plate is already overflowing with work this seemed like the most logical and most efficient choice. I met with Chris Hartig the General Manager for KPRG and he said that the best way to start off, and something that he was already

One of the high points of my life was the conference Famoksaiyan: Decolonizing Chamorro Histories, Identities and Futures. It was a gathering, the first of its kind, which I helped organize in San Diego in 2006. Chamorros living in the United States have for long held gatherings and formed organizations to keep their cultural and family ties. These organizations would focus around shared village ties or the Chamorro calendar, and so each year there are village patron saint fiestas and Liberation Day events from California to Nebraska to Florida. While these gatherings would be fun and help families keep their ties even across great distances, they were hardly political affairs. They were meant to celebrate Chamorros as a social, cultural and religious group, and so more serious topics affecting Chamorros weren’t usually discussed. Myself and several other Chamorros attending college in the states decided that we wanted to create a space where Chamorros, esp

I'll have more details soon on this year's trip to the United Nation's, but in the meantime, here's: THE UN report on the Petitioners speaking on The Question of Guam . It contains, summaries of the testimonies presented dealing with Guam. ********************* MICHAEL TUNCAP, of the Pacific Islands Study Group of the University of California, Berkeley, said that as a descendant of a 4,000 year civilization that had existed before the nations of Germany, France, Great Britain and the United States, he requested that the United Nations recognize the inalienable right to self-determination of Guam. The continued occupation of United States military forces in Guam and the Northern Marianas Islands was rooted in a system of racial inequality between European Americans, Asian and Pacific settlers and the indigenous Chamorro people. He said that since initial contact with the United States in 1898, massive pacification and military occupation had prevented the people of Gu

I've never have much luck writing grants over the years, and so humuyongna na mampos ti ya-hu mamangge' grants. I know amongst Chamorros there is a real need right now for good grants writers who can help get public and private monies for alot of community projects, unfortunately as I tell most people, my voice when I write isn't the one you want when a panel is considering who to fund. I can give you all the information and ideas, but chances are the form that I would put them in would scare people off. In my academic work I tend to write in a combination of visceral intensity and abstract philosophical waxing. On my blog, I tend to write, well just read some of the post below, with a firm commitment to the truth, but no real commitment to showing "both sides of the issues" or feigning objectivity. My writing on my blog is explicitly political and I make very few attempts to shroud that. If you've ever been to a grant writing workshop, than you'll know t

Here's a excerpt from a thread on the Chamorro Information Activist message board, FANAHGUE'YAN ( http://messageboard543197.aimoo.com ). Anyone interested in really talking about Guam and Chamorros stuff should head over there. Sahuma: A discussion is brewing in one of the less frequented categories so I just thought I'd bring it up here, where more people post. What is everyone's opinions on Chamorros stateside and on island? Alot of the people in this board are not on island right now, in fact demographically more Chamorros are offisland than on, so what's up? Do you lose a piece of yourself and your culture when you leave? Are Chamorros raised in the states just biologically more annoying and clueless? Can you re-connect to something you've probably never known? These are some of the issues involved. Living in the states for half of my life I can tell you that you can re-connect, but its not as easy as everyone thinks it is. When most people talk about r