NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

The past week has been crazy and the lack of blog posts reflects that. Between parenting, teaching, writing, film-making, play-writing, endless meetings, interviews, and planning for a summer trip, things have been too exhausting and too hectic. I'm going to try and get back on track with my blog posts about my Nicaragua trip over the weekend. In the meantime I wanted to share this interview I did recently for an undergraduate student about the origins of the Chamorro Studies program at UOG, the program I was proud to help create and even more proud to be a part of today. **************** How did the Chamoru Studies program come about? The initial incarnation of the Chamorro Studies program was developed in the School of Education at UOG. The Government of Guam was mandating UOG to train people who were able to teach Chamorro language and culture in schools and the program was developed under Dr. Bernadita Dungca in order to accomplish that. The

Teaching Chamorro culture in Japan by Jasmine Stole Marianas Variety 2/12/2014 PROFESSOR Kyoko Nakayama’s interest in Chamorro culture prompted her to learn as much as she could about it so she can share it with her students in Japan. Nakayama explained the journey of how her interest in Guam developed into two books, an art show and an ongoing educational tour yesterday when she addressed attendees at the Rotary Club of Tumon Bay. Nakayama’s interest in the island quickly translated into her hope to share the culture with Japanese people. Eventually she met with various local people, including Ron Laguana, Ron Castro and Frank Rabon who would help Nakayama reach her goals. A teacher in the education department at Teikyo University in Tokyo, Nakayama established an educational tour in 2009 which allowed her to share the knowledge she learned from Chamorros with her students. The tour is for her senior-level students who travel to Guam for the tour. It include

This semester I was very excited to offer a new course, Tiningo' Tinifok at UOG, which focused on teaching the basics for weaving. We had 12 students for the class, who learned how to weave a variety of objects in both hagon niyok (coconut leaf) and akgak (pandanus). I look forward to offering more courses like this in the future, which focus on material culture and traditional knowledge and make academic connections between the two. Here are some images from the class: