NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

A few times each year I testify publicly on Guam about something.  Usually it is at the Guam Legislature over a bill or a resolution or as part of a hearing.  Regardless of what the topic is, I try to do it in Chamoru, especially if I have time to prepare my written comments ahead of time, so they go into the public record.  Chamoru is a national language for Guam, which means that it can be used regularly for public activities and public representations.  Official documents can be in both Chamoru and English. Signage around the island can be bilingual.  The fact that Chamoru is an official and national language of Guam is something that many indigenous groups around the world might be envious of, since it provides for a far amount of existing legitimacy and social/political power.  You don't have to fight for recognition, since the law already accepts it. But sadly we don't do more to build off to this.  It could begin in simple ways, such as public signage and go from there. 

Independent Guåhan to discuss veteran’s issues and decolonization and honor the late Tony “Submariner” Artero  For Immediate Release, November 24, 2019-  Independent Guåhan (IG) invites the public to attend their upcoming General Assembly (GA) to take place on Thursday, December 5th from 6:00-7:30 pm at the Main Pavilion of the Chamorro Village in Hagåtña. For this GA, the group will honor as  Maga’taotao the late Tony “Submariner” Artero, who was a US Navy veteran and also a strong community activist in pushing for political status change in Guam. In honor of Veteran’s Day, this GA will also feature an educational discussion on the voices of Chamoru veterans and decolonization.  Tony Artero was a veteran, a war survivor and an entrepreneur, who was part of the Artero family that helped hide US Navyman George Tweed during the Japanese occupation of Guam. Although his father received the Congressional Medal of Freedom for the risks he took, soon after the US military condemned

“Tinestigu put Resolusion 294-34” November 22, 2017 Michael Lujan Bevacqua Buenas yan Håfa Adai, mansenådot yan mansenådores guini gi este na gefpå’go na ha’åni, pi’ot hågu Senadot San Nicolas. I na’ån-hu si Michael Lujan Bevacqua. Profesot yu’ gi Programan Inestudion Chamorro gi Unibetsedat Guåhan yan gehilo’ yu’ para i inetnon kumunidåt “Independent Guåhan.” Lao guini på’go gi me’nan-miyu ti hu kuentusisiyi ayu siha. Tumestitigu yu’ guini på’go komo un Chamorro yan taotao Guåhan. Hu agrådesi i oppotunidåt para bai hu fata’chong guini på’go ya bai hu sangåni hamyo ni’ didide’ ginen i hinasso-ku put este na resolusion yan i meggai asunto ni’ pinapacha.   Put resolusion 294-34, ti hu sapopotte gui’. Ya para bai hu na’klåru i pusision-hu put este na asunto gi este kuatro na punto: Fine’nina: Gi tinituhon este na resolusion, guaha infotmasion put NEPA, i National Environmental Policy Act. Mafå’tinas este na lai para u na’siguro na i gubetnamento

Testimony to the Fourth Committee of the United Nations From Michael Lujan Bevacqua, Ph.D. Co-Chairperson, Independence for Guam Task Force October 3, 2017 Buenas yan håfa adai todus hamyo ko’lo’ña si Maga’taotao Rafael Ramirez Carreño i gehilo’ para i kumuiten Mina’Kuåtro, gi este na gefpå’go na ha’åni. Magof hu na gaige yu’ guini på’go para bai hu kuentusi hamyo yan kuentusiyi i taotao Guåhan put i halacha na sinisedi gi islan-måmi. (Hello to all of you on this beautiful day. I am grateful to be here now so that I can speak to you, in particular H.E. Rafael Ramirez Carreño, Chair of the C24, and speak on behalf of the people of Guam about recent events that transpired in our island home.) My name is Michael Lujan Bevacqua and I am a professor of Chamorro Studies at the University of Guam. I am also the co-chair for the Independence for Guam Task Force, a community outreach organization tasked with educating our island about the possibilities should

My testimony from earlier today at the Guam Legislature. I made it a point to write and deliver my testimony gi Fino' Chamorro. Crafting this testimony was difficult in Chamorro as these are all ideas and concepts I am used to articulating in English, but rarely in Chamorro. I figure though that for each time some important issue is discussed at the Legislature in a public hearing, I should try my best to testify in Chamorro and hopefully others will follow suit, even if just mixing Chamorro and English together or saying part of their remarks in Chamorro. It was very inspiring to see so many people gathered for a resolution sponsored by Senator Telena Nelson calling for a halt to the construction of the firing range at Litekyan. I was fortunate to be the second person to speak, as others waited for hours. ************* --> Buenas yan Håfa Adai, I na’ån-hu si Michael Lujan Bevacqua. Hu tutuge’ este na tinestigu-hu komo taotao gi kumunidåt. Ti hu kuentusisiyi i i

The UN C24 Regional Seminar in St. Vincent and the Grenadines was my fourth occasion to testify as an expert in this setting. My first invitation was in Ecuador in 2013. This was followed by twice in Nicaragua in 2015 and 2016. After going through my old testimonies in preparation for this year's seminar I did not cringe, as I normally would when reviewing old work or writings. I noticed in my first instance of testifying that I was very general and almost theoretical. I was using elements of the dissertation in Ethnic Studies that I had just finished a few years earlier. In the years since I have shifted to providing more updates to the C24 and more facts about what is happening and the impediments that Chamorros and Guam face.  As a bit of nostalgia, I'll post here my testimony from the regional seminar in Quito, Ecuador. ************************ Statement to the Regional Seminar on the Implementation of the Third Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism Quito

Several years ago, there was a small but significant spike in Guam/Chamorro based activism around the announcement that rather than Pågat, the US military not intended to build their firing range complex for their military buildup near Litekyan or Ritidian as many know it on Guam. For those unfamiliar with the long, winding road for this the US military buildup to Guam, they created a DEIS around their intent to build the firing range complex in Pågat. After push-back from the community, lawsuits and also problems at the US federal level, this was withdrawn and a SEIS or supplementary environmental impact statement was conducted, identifying the area above Litekyan in Northern Guam as the new location. I attended the public comment meetings, participated in protests and demonstrations and also helped organize teach-ins and forums to educate the public about the military's intended use of this very important cultural and historic area for Chamorros. The level of public outrage nev

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