NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Celebrate Freedom, Liberation and Decolonization, Join Independent Guåhan for its 5 th  Na’lå’la’ Songs of Freedom Concert on July 4th   For Immediate Release, June 27, 2021 –  Since 2017, each July Independent Guåhan has hosted a free concert,  “Na’lå’la’: Songs of Freedom.” This event is a chance for the community to connect to conscious and empowering messages for social change and decolonization through music, poetry, art and dance.  Independent Guåhan invites the community to tune in Sunday, July 4th from 7 to 9 pm on KUAM TV 8 for “Na’lå’la’: Songs of Freedom Vol. 5.” The concert will also be livestreamed on KUAM News’ Facebook page.   This year’s concert is a collaboration with Tåhdong Marianas, an up and coming collective or artists, musicians, scholars and activists that is dedicated to the promotion of music and storytelling from the Mariana Islands. Artists to be featured this year are: Microchild, Ma’lak Mo’na, Jonah Hånom, Rachel Esteves, Sinahi Benavente with Pedru Blas a

Around there world there are others desiring political status change, not just Guam.  Some are worried about changes independence might bring, just like we are, but that shouldn't keep us colonized.  Turks and Caicos is another Non-Self-Governing Territory, just like Guam. It is in the Caribbean and has a population of around 46,000. The United Kingdom is its administering power.  Here is a recent article from their newspaper talking about this from their perspective.  The author quotes the Ghanaian revolutionary Kwame Nkrumah, “It is far better to be free to govern or misgovern yourself than to be governed by anybody else.” ******************     Political Independence – It Is Time To Talk About It By Drexwell Seymour April 19, 2021 The Sun   There are seventeen (17) countries in the world that have yet to become decolonized. One of those places is the Turks and Caicos Islands where we have been politically governed by the United Kingdom (UK) for hundreds of years.  This article i

10 years ago the cultural arts group Inetnon Gefpågo premiered "Fanhasso, Fanhita, Fanachu" a musical journey through Guam History and Chamorro issues written by Michael Lujan Bevacqua and Victoria Leon Guerrero, with choreography by Vince Reyes. The musical was directed by Clifford Guzman. The cast was made up of island youth in the group Inetnon Gefpågo.  Next Tuesday, December 8th, Inetnon Gefpågo and Independent Guåhan are holding a webinar to reflect back on the 10 years anniversary of this performance, which eventually was transformed into the play Pågat in 2014.  The webinar will be live on the Facebook pages of Independent Guåhan and Inetnon Gefpågo from 10 am - noon on December 8th. To say that I'm excited about this webinar would be an understatement. I am elated to the point where words are starting to fall short of expression.  The musical Fanhasso... was something I worked on with Victoria less than a year after starting teaching at UOG full-time and finish

In light of COVID-19, Independent Guåhan moves their annual Na’lå’la’ concert on air and online this Saturday on KUAM For Immediate Release, July 8, 2020 –  Since 2017, each July Independent Guåhan has hosted a free concert,  “Na’lå’la’: Songs of Freedom.” This event is a chance for the community to connect to conscious and empowering messages for social change and decolonization through music, poetry, art and dance. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to social distance, this year’s concert is going online and on-air.  Independent Guåhan invites the community to tune in Saturday, July 11 th  from 7 to 10 pm on KUAM TV 8 for “Na’lå’la’: Songs of Freedom Vol. 4.” The concert will also be livestreamed on KUAM News’ Facebook page. The concert is held each year close to the Fourth of July or Independence Day in hopes of opening up the holiday up to a new more locally focused interpretation. Independent Guåhan encouraged the island as a whole and beyond those attending the

I left the University of Guam in January, after teaching there for more than 10 years and probably teaching more than a 1000 students during my time there. Some students I can definitely say I had an impact on because they have told me as much and I've seen them blossom into professional careers. A few of my former students have become elected officials in Guam and some have PhDs of their own now. For some, maybe the impact was less obvious or pronounced, but there may have been something. Something said. An assignment required. Something gleaned. Who knows what, but somewhere in my scattered approach to how I would hold a class, something stuck with them. Sometimes I find students, who years later refer to something I said, or a space I created and how it really changed their view of certain things. One thing that former students from UOG would regularly tell me is that they liked that I seemed to care about the island. This, according to them, was a contrast with most of th

Throughout the year, Independent Guåhan organizes "Håle'-ta Hikes," aimed at bringing the community into the island's historic and culturally sacred sites, in hopes of helping them understand the need to protect them. The last hike happened earlier this year to Litekyan. We had a huge crowd of people show up. Here are some of my pictures from the day. Gefpågo na ha'åni, esta gof annok gi litråtu siha.  *************************************

An interesting discussion on the possibilities of a "third" option when thinking about decolonization in the Pacific. In Guam, I have written about the risks or dangers of "fourth kinds" or "fourth options," but I still found this article to be enlightening.  In Guam, I refer to the fourth kind as potential political status traps. Decolonization in the most general sense is about achieving a genuine level of self-governance. There are, as we can see in the world today, a wide variety of arrangements whereby a colonizer or administering power can call a place self-governing, while still maintaining colonial control.  For example, when looking at the United States, Puerto Rico is a "commonwealth" and isn't supposed to be a colony or non-self-governing territory anymore. But if you compare the status of Guam and Puerto Rico, their level of self-governance, they are almost in the exact same position, with only a fancy title separating th

Recently at the Fanhita: Our Continuing Quests for Decolonization, I and the several hundred other attendees received updates on Puerto Rico from Wilma Reveron-Collazo. Her presentation "Puerto Rico Actually" provided a powerful genealogy of Puerto Rico's movement for decolonization, as well as American attempts to keep the island colonized or to hide its continuing colonization.  Puerto Rico occupies an interesting place in the imaginary of Guam. It is a place very distant from us in geographic terms, but we nonetheless share a similar history of Spanish colonialism and a similar present of American colonialism. At a time when Puerto Rico and Cuba were developing their own nationalist and revolutionary movements, the same movements, albeit on a smaller level, were also developing on Guam. Both Guam and Puerto Rico exist in territorial/colonial relationships with the US, although they have different names. Puerto Rico is referred to as a commonwealth, although you wo

Share Your Vision of Guåhan’s Future at Independent Guåhan’s “Na’lå’la’: Songs of Freedom Vol. 3” Concert on July 4 th .  For Immediate Release, June 21, 2019 –  Each July 4 th  the island commemorates the Independence Day of the United States, despite the fact that Guåhan remains its colony. For the past two years Independent Guåhan (IG) has organized an annual concert on the Fourth of July to reflect on the colonial history of Guåhan and the need for a decolonized future. IG is proud to announce its third concert, “Na’lå’la’: Songs of Freedom Vol. 3” set to take place Thursday, July 4 th  from 4-7 pm in the front field at Adelup. This event is free and open to the public.  Independent Guåhan is an organization that is committed to educating the island community about the importance of Guåhan’s decolonization and the possibilities should it become an independent country. The organization has spent the past three years organizing General Assemblies, village meetings, teach-i