NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Over the past few years I have been on many hikes here on Guam. I have seen so many beautiful things on these hikes. I have found artifacts that hundreds had probably walked by, but never noticed before. I have found latte stones that may have gone unseen for centuries before I stumbled upon them, literally. I have seen sunsets sitting on rocks that seemed to be created strictly for the purpose of allowing ones eyes to swallow the sky in massive gulps. I have seen the ocean in so many types of blue at a given moment that it both looks like one massive solid color and a multitude of disagreeing blues at the same time. Throughout these hikes the history and beauty of Guam has come alive in so many ways. I feel not only a stronger connection to the present day Guam, but also to so many versions of its throughout the past. Walking amongst latte stones where Chamorros walked hundreds of years before. Exploring caves where Chamorros and Japanese soldiers huddled hiding from American bo

Sometime last year I spent a morning with some members of We Are Guahan preparing for an upcoming round of Heritage Hikes that we hoped would visit Spanish Steps, Tweed's Cave, Pagat and Haputo Beach. Our initial round of Heritage Hikes featured places that are open to the public, but have some relationship to Guam's militarization, either in a contemporary or historical sense. For later rounds we tried to choose sites on bases in hopes of testing to see how sincere the US military is that the public have good and regular access to historical and culturally significant places. That morning we went on a tour of the historic sites that can be found on Navy Base Guam, including a walk around the area where songsong Sumay used to be. In a way, a historical tour around Naval Base Guam is actually a depressing trip. It is a tour of absence. Almost a tour of nothing, a tour of the long gone traces of something. There is plenty of recent history on the base. It has only existed s

From We Are Guahan : This year was an eventful year for We Are Guahan. The organization helped organize over 11 hikes to historic sites on Guam, announced a high school scholarship program and enjoyed a historic legal victory against DOD in the lawsuit to save Pagat Village. We Are Guahan would like to extend a dangkulu na Si Yu’us Ma’ase for your continued support of our efforts. Special thanks to Dr. Miget Lujan Bevacqua for coordinating and assisting in the organizing of the Heritage Hikes, Alissa Eclavea for her efforts to raise funds for the GAPSS scholarship program, all of the artists who have volunteered their time and creativity for the Prutehi yan Difendi campaign and everyone else who supported us this year. We look forward to being involved in more things in the year to come. Below is a chronological summary of just some of the activities We Are Guahan was a part of in 2011: February 2011 •2/14: Sticker-up day to spread awareness about Pagat Lawsuit. •2/25: Relea

“The Meaning of Pågat” Michael Lujan Bevacqua 11/23/11 The Marianas Variety The social and political meaning of the word “Pågat” has changed so dramatically over the past two years, it has been truly inspiring to behold. Before the military buildup Pågat was a place for select families to fish and to gather plants for natural remedies, and although it has always been a beautiful hike, it was known to most people as a dumpsite. The first few hundred yards of the hike was littered with all imaginable and some unimaginable forms of human refuse. At one point I remember seeing an entire set of front yard Christmas decorations dumped there. When it first became apparent that Pågat was in the (pun intended) crosshairs of DOD as a site for them to put five live firing ranges, the meaning of Pågat started to change dramatically. When I first began teaching at UOG prior to the whole DEIS comment period, if I had told my students I was taking them on a hike to Pågat, I would have most like

 

This is a picture of me about to get hit by a wave. So many different cultures have ways of saying that you should never turn your back on the ocean. They say this for very good reasons. Regardless of the many ways that humans have developed to tame nature or to make it obey or serve their needs, the unknown, the limitlessness, the infinite and the alterity of the natural world persists. The ocean may look lovely and friendly one moment, but can in what appears to be just an instant, turn on you, and become violent and angry. I am standing on the lamasa or limestone shelf at Pagat Point in this picture. I have been there many times over the past year while exploring the Pagat area with Halomtano', and by this point I should have learned not to turn my back on the ocean. The first time I came to Pagat Point with Halomtano', we were hit by a massive rogue wave, which surprised us as we were walking on the shelf, slamming us against the cliffs before dragging us over the rocks

This article is from last week's Marianas Variety and so the dates are a bit off, as the hike to Ague Cove took place over the weekend. But for those of you still looking to go on some Heritage Hikes, there are two left. Hila'an is very common hike that people go on, as it is home to Shark's Pit and Lost Pond. What most people don't realize is that if you walk into the jungle just a little bit, you will not just be treated to few latte stones here and there, but you can actually find close to 100 latte . Some of them still standing, some of them still arranged as they might have been centuries ago. You can basically walk through the Ancient village of Hila'an. That hike will take place on October 30th, and start time will be at 3:30 pm at Tanguissan Beach Park. Our last hike will be to Pagat Point, which is much less known than both Hila'an and Pagat Cave. The hike for that will be on November 5th, and we'll be starting at 9 am, start point will be the Pag

Hafa adai, We Are Guåhan is pleased to announce its fourth series of Heritage Hikes: Nå’i Tåtte, Chule' Tåtte. The title translates to "Give Back, Take Back," as this series of hikes will deal with the Department of Defense's complex history of land taking and land returns on Guam. The title he upcoming Heritage Hikes will include 2 new sites, Ague Cove and Pågat Point, as well as a Sunday afternoon hike to Hila’an Village. The hike schedule is as follows: · Saturday, October 22, 2011 – Ague Cove (Difficulty: Easy. Duration: 2 – 2.5 hours) Meet at Former FAA property (near NCS Dededo) · Sunday, October 30, 2011 – Hila'an Village (Difficulty: Very Easy. Duration: 2 – 2.5hours) Meet at Tanguisson Beach Park. · Saturday, November 5, 2011 – Pågat Point (Difficulty: Medium. Duration: 3 – 4 hours) Meet at Pågat trailhead along The Back Road. WHEN: The show-time for the Ague Cove and Pågat Point hikes is 8:45a.m. with a go-time 9:00 a.m. The show time for the

I am in this picture, I am the white-t-shirted blur to the left in the background. For me this captures very much my feeling of walking in a sort of dream two weeks ago. After months of trying, myself and 20 others were given access to the Fena area of Naval Magazine on Guam. For those who don't know, Naval Magazine is a site for storing all sorts of weapons and bombs, and so access to the base is very restricted. We went as part of the Heritage Hikes that I help organize for We Are Guahan. While Heritage Hikes are always open to the public, because of base security issues, for those on base, we are always limited in the amount of people who can join and each person has to submit their SS# and sign a waiver ahead of time. I grew up on Guam with very few people in my family who had base access. We rarely ever entered the base and being able to shop at the commissary wasn't something that we seemed to care about, or at least not openly. As such the bases on Guam are often total

This weekend I took twenty people on a Heritage Hike down to Haputo which is on a Navy base in the Northwestern part of Guam. The spot is a favorite of those with military base access and a spot which many who don't pine for the chance to visit. The hike down takes less than 10 minutes, and you are greeted with a secluded, shallow water beach, which is great for fishing, sunbathing and just relaxing. Haputo was once an ancient Chamorro village and the area above the beach to the base of the cliffs is full of artifacts. Some of the most beautiful latte that I've every seen on Guam we found there during our hike. For those who don't know, while the iconography of latte has them looming tall in the sky, most latte were small and stature, especially on Guam. That is why, when you find latte which are six feet tall, and still standing, haligi and tasa intact, it is truly a treat for the historical mind. The past few months of my life have been full of latte. I've written a

It is time again for another round of Heritage Hikes courtesy of yours truly and We Are Guahan. This month we’ll be having three hikes to Hila’an (June 12 ), Haputo (June 18) and Pågat (June 25) and our theme is “I Kantan I Latte Siha” or “the song of the latte.” This is our third set of hikes, and our goal is to offer the community a chance to visit certain places of natural beauty on Guam, get some exercise and also learn about the cultural history of the site. So far we’ve had hundreds attend our hikes and even got an excellent article in the most recent issue of Uno . The first two sets of hikes “Tungo’ i Estoria-ta” and “Un Nuebu na Inatan” focused on exploring and learning about local places that have played a crucial and sometimes tragic role in Guam’s history of American militarization. We visited sites where people were displaced because of strategic military interests and also places where people protested in order to protect Guam’s natural beauty and resources. Despit

We Are Guåhan is pleased to announce its third series of "Heritage Hikes: I Kantan i Latte Siha." The previous 2 series of Heritage Hikes have been a major success with over 240 people showing up to see and learn about Guam’s history. The upcoming Heritage Hikes will include 2 new sites, Hila’an Village and Haputo, as well as a hike to Pågat Village. It also includes We Are Guåhan’s first hike scheduled on a Sunday. The hike schedule is as follows: •June 12, 2011 – Hila’an Village (Difficulty: Easy. Duration: 2 – 3 hours) Meet at Tanguisson Beach Park. •June 18, 2011 – Haputo (Difficulty: Easy. Duration: 2 – 3 hours) Meet at NCS Finegayan. •June 25, 2011 – Pågat Village (Difficulty: Medium. Duration: 2 – 3 hours) Meet at Pågat trailhead along The Back Road. The hike to Haputo is subject to the discretion of the Department of Defense. If you are interested in attending the hike, you will need to submit your Social Security Number to DoD and sign a waiver by June 10.