NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Towards the end of last month I spent two nights in a row editing this video with  Edgar Flores in response to the protests and public hearings that had been taking place. Both Edgar and I were at the public hearing at the Liheslaturan Guåhan on a Friday where we heard dozens speak about their concerns and frustrations about the US military buildup and in particular the use of Litekyan for a firing range. We were both there the following day when a group of youth organized a demonstration in front of Andersen Air Force Base and witnessed their act of civil disobedience as they temporarily blocked the gate. The video is meant to help people understand why people were willing to undertake such an action, by using the testimonies of two young passionate and articulate student members of Manhoben para Guåhan.

--> Independence for Guåhan Task Force launches Fanhita Campaign Continues educational outreach by discussing security threats to Guam and Singapore as a possible model for independence. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, SEPTEMBER 27, 2016 – The Independence for Guåhan Task Force held its second General Assembly on September 22 nd at the main pavilion of the Chamorro Village in Hagåtña. More than 70 people gathered to listen to information presentations, pay tribute to a Chamorro educational pioneer and also help coordinate small family and organization-based conversations meant to diversify the ways in which we educate our community about decolonization and independence. The meeting opened with a tribute to Dr. Bernadita Camacho-Dungca, the Chamorro linguist and indigenous rights activist, best known for her writing the Inifresi who passed away earlier this year. The Inifresi calls on the people of Guam to pledge to protect and defend the precious natural and cultural r

For those wanting to learn more about decolonization and independence, the Independent Guåhan is offering Faninåyan meetings or small discussion groups in the community. If you, your family or your friends want to get more information, we'll work with you to set up a meeting date and we'll bring information and resources. The term faninåyan comes from the word "ina" which means to shine a light on something, but can also be used in terms of purification and enlightenment. Check out this video for more information or email independenguahan@gmail.com if you'd be interested in hosting a faninåyan.

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.

Since I can't speak Japanese, I have to rely on translators and interpreters to learn more about recent protests in the country. I'm grateful for a growing group of people who have been helping me understand more and more about continuing and recently developing protests. Videos on Youtube, some thankfully subtitled with English have also helped. I wanted to share some of them below, to help others understand more about life in Japan in terms of peace and protest.

This video is very inspiring. It captures well a type of native nationalism, born from culture and heritage, but containing political elements. The relationships between the cultural and the political is something that I have written about endlessly on this blog. I even featured some discussion on it in my dissertation because so much of the way I see Chamorro life and the lives of so many indigenous people operating today revolves around the relationship between that which is deemed political and that which is deemed cultural. When the world was cut into pieces with meat sucked from the bones of so many native peoples the new world born from that violence was divided in fundamental ways, usually conceived in binary ways, which the positive being the purview of those with guns, steel, crosses and flags and whatever was left sticking to those who lost land, language, culture and lives. In the world of today, this "modern" world, those who lost that carving up of the world ar

--> Tonight the Chamorro Studies Program through the wonderful work of the Chamorro language instructors at UOG held Puengen Minagof Nochebuena, a night for celebrating Chamorro language and culture in the context of Christmas. The event was a great success, with over 250 community members showing up to see the bilens made by Chamorro classes, to sing along to Chamorro Christmas songs and to taste a dozen different kinds of bonelos. Chamorro language is the most popular language course at the University of Guam. Far more students take it than take Japanese a language that everyone feels has more economic value. But even though it is the most popular language and so many students and community members expect that UOG be a place where the language can be learned and preserved, there is currently no tenured full time faculty who teaches Chamorro. The same goes for the new Chamorro Studies program, which is already doing great work both on campus and off, but has no facu

A question that more people should ask themselves on island, "Are you down for the movement?" You shouldn't downgrade this question to simply asking are you on the side of the people singing, or are you a part of an activist group or a chant group. Although the people who will ask you those things may be avowed members of groups, and may be the one to assert very forcefully and openly that they belong to something, este na kinalamten, ti iyon-niha ha'. This movement is larger than them alone. It is something that has been so long in coming, and has always been here as long as Guam has been a colony. It has taken so many forms, but it is always nurtured forth by the discontent of being ruled by another, being lied to by another, being taken advantage by another, and not getting the basic respect or dignity you deserve. Colonization comes with fictions, it comes with dichicheng na mames na dinagi, it comes with so many sweet little lies. When your house is on fire

As I already mentioned in an earlier post on the second to the last day of my trip to Okinawa our hosts held a small party in our honor. The meeting was held in a cafe which will soon be open owned by Midori Teruya. Midori was kind enough to escort Ed Alvarez and myself around Naha and Ginowan on our last day in Okinawa, and took us to several locations including a mall for some last minute shopping, an independent movie theater to watch the film Standing Army, and the Sakima Art Museum . Over our ten days in Okinawa we spent alot of time at Midori's Cafe and the Okinawan language school on the floor above. The school is free for the public and is just getting started. I took some pictures, video and notes while I sat through one of their sessions and will hopefully we writing about it later. As the Chamorro and Okinawan language are in similar not too healthy states, that was something that I had constantly discussed with people. While we were sitting at the cafe sampling

Throughout 2011 I was usually pretty good at blogging about the latest news out of Gangjeong in Jeju Island, South Korea. Things were pretty heated there throughout the entire year, with plenty of protests, arrests and international calls for solidarity. A friend of mine was arrested, as was the mayor of the village, whom I had met when I was there the year before. Both were eventually freed after spending months in prison. The central conflict is over the fate of Gangjeong Village and its beautiful environment. As a small village in Southern Jeju, it was identified as the site for a new joint US-ROK Naval facility. The majority of the people there, not wanting to see their land and their sea life damaged, have decided to protest this action. Incidentally and ironically, Jeju was named several years ago as "an island of peace." The protesters are attempting to ensure that their island lives up to its name. I haven't posted much on my blog, but emails and the reading of

Here is Sumahi performing "Dandan i Panderetas" at her Christmas concernt for her daycare. The lyrics are below if you would like to learn to sing this traditional Chamorro Christmas song too. Lyrics: Dandan i panderetas, na'fampalangpang Todu i profesia, esta munhayan Popble i patgon-ta, gi liyang Bilen Ngasan i asson-na, kulan ga'ga' gui' Dandan i panderetas, na'fampalangpang Todu i profesia, esta munhayan Popble i patgon-ta, nina'fotgon gui' Nu i lago' nana-na, sa' tinangse gui' Dandan i panderetas, na'fampalangpang Todu i profesia, esta munhayan

Not many people on Guam know about Okinawa, with the exception of the major bases involved in the transfer of Marines from Okinawa to Guam. I've discussed it earlier in my posts from Okinawa, the situation in Takae Village in the Yanbaru Forest in Northern Okinawa. I thought that it would be a good idea to post the following below from the website Okinawa Outreach . It gives a very good overview of the stakes involved with the protests in Takae Village. ************************ Save Takae ! Voice your opposition to the resumed US helipad construction ! On November 15, the Okinawa Defense Bureau (ODB) returned to Takae in the Yanbaru forest to resume the construction of six new helipads for US military for the first time in 8 months. According to Yamashiro Hiroji, a sit-in protester, about 70 people including 30 OBD staff members and 30 security guards showed up around 10:18 am in front of the Gate of N-4 Point with heavy machinery, demanding that the local residents and the

The Governor of Guam has his own Youtube Channel . Yanggen ti un tungo' este esta, taya' guaha. It was only created last month, and it has so far only 19 uploads. You can find there some of his weekly messages, some testimonials from people who want their/need their tax refunds, and presentations on his government reorganization plans. I'm waiting to see if the Guam Legislature will create their own Youtube page. They probably won't for a while since they already have their own tv channel where you can watch them in session and when they hold public hearings. Of the videos on Calvo's channel, one in particular caught my eye. It was uploaded three weeks ago, and it was a message to every member of Congress. In it the Governor called on members of Congress to support Guam in a number of ways. Two of his calls might appear to be contradictory; first his call on Congress to make sure the military buildup happens, since they need to take advantage of Guam and its

Recently my friend Sung Hee Choi was released from being imprisoned for holding a banner in front of a construction site for a Naval facility in Gangjeong that she was protesting. The banner stated "Touch not one stone. Not one flower." She was imprisoned for 3 months. I have written several posts about the struggle of the people of Gangjeong against the construction of a base in their small town in Southern Jeju which would destroy much of their beautiful ecosystem. If you'd like to learn more Save Jeju is a great website to start looking at. Earlier today the police entered the village and arrested 5 people including Mayor Kang as construction began of the facility there. The Navy base there is being built by the South Korean Government but will also be used by US forces and the ships that dock there will be purchased from the United States (Aegis Destroyers). When I spoke to Mayor Kang last year when I visited Jeju he had much to say about how he did not approve w

Esta mas ki un simana desde hu li'e' i lahi-hu. Sumasaga' ham yan i che'lu-na na'ya giya Kalifotna, ya gagaige ha' gui' giya Guahan. Antes di humanao yu', pine'lo-ku na ti para bai hu mahalangi gui'. Mas mafnot ham yan i che'lu-na, Si Sumahi. Ya achokka' hu guaiya i lahi-hu, kalang ti gos mafnot ham. Hunggan bunito na paton gui', sen kinute lokkue', lao put i mampos pumapatgon gui', tataya' ha' substansia. Kalang un mampos kinute na taya' gui'. Ti ya-hu umoppan este na hinasso, lao este i minagahet. Esta ki sina kumuentos gui', ti siguru yu' hayi gui'. Ti siguru na ha hulat kumomprende yu'. Annai hu atalaki i mata-na, kao ha tungo' hayi yu'? Siempre u matulaika este, lao para pa'go, i siente-ku na kalang hu nanangga i lahi-hu, ya ti apmam siempre u fatto. Lao mahalang yu' sinembatgo para i gof kinute yan gof "clueless" na mata-na. Nina'atdet este na siniente

Where I spent my weekend. A cool video from Leevin below.

There has been much talk recently over the cultural and historic properties in the Pagat area of Northeastern Guam, and where exactly Pagat begins and ends. Last weekend and this past weekend I went with members of We Are Guahan into the northern section of Pagat to see what artifacts we could find. Although we weren't the first to find them, we found quite a bit of latte and lusong, which I'm sure I'll be writing about very soon on this blog. The issue of historic relics and cultural artifacts reminds me of the current situation in Gangjeong Village, on Jeju Island in South Korea. Although the villager of Gangjeong have been fiercely resisting the creation of a military dock there which will be used by both US and South Korean Navy forces, the construction and hence the destruction of parts of the coast and the land in Gangjeong have already begun. As usual, the blog where you can find the most update to date info on this (which is graciously translated into English by

Esta ma tutuhun tumutufong i botu siha para i Dos Mit Dies na Botasion guini giya Guahan. Bai hu kekeegga' i tinifong este ki munhayan, puede ha' ti esta chatangmak annai sina ma takfiha hayi manggana'. Before the results are in for the Guam election, I thought I would post below some of the ads from the Democratic and Republican Gubernatorial teams. Some of them were pretty interesting. The Guamanian Dream. This isn't really a political ad, it's just a mashed up collection of stereotypical images and metaphors meant to convey strength, good feelings and the future. Oh, wait, that is what a political ad is. The Carl Gutierrez narrative of him reaching out to help anyone in need is very appealing, unless you actually think about that as a matter of Government policy, where it would lead to bankruptcy and serious government overextension. I don't know what is more painful to listen to. Pandering in Chamorro to voters, or pandering in Tagalog. I under

A few weeks ago, a video went viral on Youtube with Guam as the object of its existence. A Democratic Congressman from Georgia, Hank Johnson, during a hearing made a statement to the effect that, if the planned military buildup of Guam were to go through, was there a threat that the island might capsize and flip over? Although the Congressman later claimed that he meant it as a joke and wasn't serious about Guam capsizing with the addition of 80,000 more people to the island in such a short time, for the next few weeks, videos of him making this remark collected several million views, and he became a favorite target of the mainstream and conservative media. One of the reasons that I didn't pay any attention to this, or write about it on this blog is because, despite the fact that the signifier Guam was being thrown around left and right for weeks, and suddenly appearing in the tweets or mouths of those who otherwise might have gone their entire lives without uttering it, it

I recently hit 300 videos on Youtube. My videos are literally nothing special. Most of them are just random snippets of my life, whether in California or Guam. You'll see my kids, events I attend, my classes, things that I pass by which are interested. They aren't edited, they aren't flashy and for many of them, the camera is so shaky, kulang manunukot gui'. My hope for these videos is that 1,000 years from now, when humanity has been wiped from the face of the earth, as in the movie A.i ., and an advanced alien race visits the planet to try and discover what used to be here, someone, for some insane reason, one of my videos will be the only remanants of human life. And so those alien researchers, archeologists really, will have to conclude that the rules of this world was a cute little girl named Sumahi and that everyone spoke Chamorro with a cute valley girl accent. Anyways, enough silliness. I'm past belowing some of the more interesting picks from the last