NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

I have been working for about two years now on a social studies textbook for UOG Press. This is a part of a project that aims to create locally and regionally focused social studies textbooks for each elementary school grade. In the past there have been a few different social studies textbooks, but often times they were aimed at multiple grades or were focused more on Guam History as opposed to being solid social studies texts. This project is exciting and challenging on many levels.  The grade I am working on is fourth grade, which is fortunate for me, since it is the grade when students are supposed to get their first focused taste of Guam History. It is, gi minagahet, very exciting. I get to use everything from Guam History, to Chamoru language, to legends and local parables to get students connected to the world around them and understand how to be an effective, productive and critical part of your community.  In the first two units, one thing that I have tried to use alot of are l

When talking about legends many people become focused on what is true and what isn't true? What is authentic and what really happened? What can be determine from the story that is real and what isn't? These types of discussions may have some importance within a historical context, when trying to understand it from the perspective of aligning stories with a particular history or historical context. For example there are ways that you can look at the story of the Iliad from a historical perspective. There are ways you could try to draw out historical truths from it, and even if some of the details may not be real, you can nonetheless see larger societal dynamics at work in the poem. This is something to keep in mind when we look at Guam or Chamoru legends. Is that there are some ways to examine, analyze or understand them from a historical perspective, but this misses the larger point of their purpose. Legends serve a social or a culture purpose. They aren't meant to be p

I've been involved in some form or another with the issue of indigenous fishing rights for Chamorros since 2009. I've attended dozens of meetings, worked on dozens of documents and talked to hundreds about the issue. It has been a largely frustrating endeavor, as the issue is so heavily laden with ideology, that even before you have said anything, people, often with little to no thought or information have already determined their response. What is so strange about Bill 160, is the way it seems to avoid or ignore what progress we've made on the issue of indigenous fishing rights, while creating another layer of government, which could conflict with existing layers of government resource management. I'm supposed to write up a response to Bill 160 and the discussion around it, and so I wanted to share some of the recent articles about it. ***************** Contentious public hearing for fisheries conservation legislation by Sabrina Salas Matanane KUAM November 17

Fihu manmaleleffa hit na guaha dos na ofisiat na lenguahi para i isla-ta. Unu sen hongga pa'go, sen oppan, ayu i Fino' Ingles. Lao i otro, mas tahdong, mas umaya gui' yan i estorian i isla yan i mismo taotao-na, ayu i Fino' Chamoru. Gi i 1970s, i difunto Paul Bordallo ha chalani i Liheslaturan Guahan para u fama'tinas lai put este na asunto. Sigun ayu na lai, guaha dos na ofisiat na lenguahi. Impottante ayu na bidan-niha, sa' para noskuantos na siklo, i mismo lenguahi-ta ti ma respepeta ni' taotao sanhiyong. Humuyongna, i Chamorro lokkue' (ko'lo'lo'na gi ma'pos na siklo) ti ma agradesi i bali-na i lenguahi, ya despues di i Tiempon Chapones ma yute' i lenguahi, ya ti ma fa'na'gue maolek i halacha na henerasion. Ya-hu este na video, sa' gi un mas kabales na tano'-ta, siempre taiguihi i fina'tinas yan i nina'huyong i Gobetnamento. Para u fama'tinas todu gi i dos na ofisiat na lenguahin Guahan.

While in Kobe I watched the film Akahama Rock and Roll, a documentary about the Akahama area of Otsuchi, which was dramatically affected by the 3/11 tsunami in Japan. It gave me a interesting introduction to the area that I've been visiting this past week. Akahama was home to a strong fishing community, which was devastated by the tsunami. The village itself suffered incredible human damage with 1 in 10 residents perishing in the waters and fires. The tsunami in the area reached more than 60 feet in height and easily devoured the seawall and almost everything else. The documentary showed how people are rebuilding and also disagreement over certain proposals meant to help keep the community safe from future tsunamis, namely the rising of the land on which new buildings will be erected and the creation of new, higher sea walls. I haven't posted anything this week on my blog because I've been so overwhelmed with the stories I've been hearing as my research study group

I'm in Japan for one month and the issue of peace, pas, minagem is all over the place. Part of the reason is because my guide while I'm here is Professor Ronni Alexander who teaches International Relations/Peace Studies at Kobe University and is the head of the Popoki Peace Project. The main thrust of her work is helping communities, a diverse range of communities across Asia and the Pacific, young and old, to imagine peace in new and interesting ways. To get to see what in their life creates peace and what limits peace. As a result of my connection to Ronni, my mindset here is actively been shaped by peace and non-peace. For example: I'm teaching a course on US militarization in the Asia-Pacific region and various peace movement, antiwar and demilitarization movements are all over the curriculum. I'm in Japan at a time when protest movements are evolving around the Prime Minister's attempts to pass new security laws that would fundamentally change Japan's

--> After months of waiting and speculating, the military has finally released their plans for Pagan and Tinian. Read the articles below to learn more. Five years ago the mood in the CNMI was one very supportive of militarization. The leadership there seemed willing to offer Pagan and Tinian and anything else on a plate to the DOD, especially in the context of resistance to military increases on Guam. It is good to see that this has changed. *************** Government should focus on homestead program: Aldan By Cherrie Anne E. Villahermosa  Marianas Variety 4/15/15 Northern Islands Mayor Jerome Aldan’s message to the military is to "pack up and leave Pagan alone." Aldan was among the public officials who were in the House chamber yesterday to hear what the representatives of the Marine Corps Forces Pacific had to say during a meeting that lasted for more than three hours. Aldan in an interview said he has not changed his position and is still op

I haven’t done this in a while, but I’m traveling this week and so it gives me quite a bit of down time on planes, with little to do other than get airsick. A few years ago I was watching quite a bit of anime and one thing I really enjoyed doing was taking anime theme songs, from shows like Gantz, Naruto and Cromartie High School and then translating them into Chamorro. Each translation was an interesting experiment, since although many of these shows are considered to be low-plebian culture, pop culture animated shadows on the cave wall for the masses, the lyrics to the theme songs tend to have a very epic and sophisticated feel to them.   These songs presented interesting challenges since translating them directly would be difficult and not necessarily match well with Chamorro. But finding ways of expressing similar epic thoughts in Chamorro, while trying to maintain a sense of the language would be fun and worthwhile. I still read manga regularly even if

More on Pagan. Hopefully one of these days I'll be writing on this blog about how I am gonna make a trip up there.  **************************** Beautiful Pagan paradise PUBLISHED ON FRIDAY, AUGUST 02, 2013 00:00 BY JENNY SANTOS - FOR VARIETY WHEN I was growing up I always wondered what it was like 5,000 years before I was born. My parents were raised on an island with vegetables, fruits of different sorts, local produce and wild animals. There were few worries and they had everything including food from the sea and birds, fruit bats not to mention giant coconut crabs. I was 16 when I first went to Alamagan and it was an experience that I never could have imagined. A long and breath-taking boat trip from Saipan, passing three other islands before reaching, the island of Alamagan was worth every hour it took. Along the way I saw dolphins riding the blue waves and surfacing alongside the boat as we sailed up to the Northern Islands