NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Building an indigenous coalition for radical resistance to colonialism We talk with Kanaka Maoli David Maile about indigenous coalition The Red Nation's efforts to unite different native people in radical resistance to colonialism, and how Native Hawaiians can stand in solidarity with other native peoples.  From Will Caron in Indigenous issues in Hawaiian Sovereignty April 07, 2015 03:24 P The Hawaii Independent     Yesterday, indigenous rights and decolonization coalition The Red Nation issued a statement of solidarity with the Native Hawaiians currently protesting the development of the massive Thirty-Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea. This statement of solidarity is in line with The Red Nation’s goal of building unity between indigenous peoples around the world and teaching these people effective methods of radical resistance to colonial-capitali

Guam should think for itself, and should understand better its position in relation to the United States and the world around it. Just accepting an "American" ideological point of view for everything means pretending we live a different reality in a different part of the world. It also means we prevent ourselves from understanding the benefits and dangers that we get by virtue of our geographic position. This is not something that I would advocate solely because of the North Korea issue. So long as Guam remains a non-self-governing territory, an unincorporated territory, its relationship to the United States should be of great importance, but not define the island, its present or its future. To accept that this relationship is central is to keep the fantasies alive and rather than seek any real sovereignty or real inclusion, you end up eating the air of your fantasies and slowly starving yourself into non-existence. Part of the weakness of this island is its eager willingne

Guam’s colonial experience is frustrating. Given the way the island and its relationship to the United States have developed since World War II, Guam is in so many ways already “American.” The island gets so many benefits and has prospered through its relationship to the US. Although Chamorros were treated in terrible ways before World War II, that seems to have changed now into simple disrespect, ignorance and disinterest. It is important at points like this to remember that colonialism is not about positives or negatives. You do not define colonialism based on whether or not the people colonized benefit or not. You do not define colonialism based on whether or not the people suffer worse than anyone else in history or at that time. You define it based on the type of relationship that two entities have. You define it based on whether or not there exists a democratic relationship between the two. What are the legal cases or precedents that bind the two toget

“Adios Tony” by Michael Lujan Bevacqua 2/6/13 The Marianas Variety From Guampdn Many people assume that since Guam is a small island, its history can be known relatively easily. Someone who reads a book or spends some time on this island can become an expert, since there cannot be that much to know about this tiny rock in the Western Pacific right? This is not how human communities work however. The smallness has no relevance to its complexity, the depth of its experiences or the contradictions that give it meaning. We here on Guam don’t often recognize this. We see more value and potential in someone who studies the history of larger place, than someone who studies the history of Guam. But for those who know the history well, there is far more to this place than you can discover in a lifetime of study. Tony Palomo, who passed away this past week was a testament to that. He is someone who lived and breathed Chamorro/Guam history for decades.  

This was written Saturday, November 19, 2011, before the "We Are Here" protest of President Obama during his short visit to Guam. *********************** Pau fatto magi Si Obama lamo'na hun. Supposedly President Obama is stopping in Guam tonight. People estimate he will be here at around 10 or 11 pm tonight, and only stay for at most two hours. He was scheduled to stop in Guam last year, but his pit stop was cancelled at the last second because of the Health Care Reform debate. We Are Guahan led a petition drive requesting that when he come to Guam he hold a townhall meeting to hear concerns about the buildup. They collected over 10,000 signatures in less than a month. Although the urgent momentum from the buildup process is for the most part evaporated, and now people see it more as stalled than going anywhere, the self-determination process appears to be picking up new speed. Gof likidu este na momento, ya magof hu na gaige yu' guini gi hilo' tano' p

After the Record of Decision was signed, the Pacific Daily News  collected responses from Senators in the Guam Legislature, detailing their thoughts and concerns on the military buildup finally being officially declared "begun." I have pasted them below for people to read and reflect on. I have heard so many people over the past few months speak with some satisfaction that the rhetoric of so many of our political leaders have changed, that the efforts of so many who were critical of the buildup have helped make it so that no potential political leader who wants to be taken seriously can be 100% supportive of the military buildup, but instead has to hover around 50% - 70% good and the rest bad. This is a very real shift in rhetoric since for the first few years of the buildup, politicians would try to convince people that the buildup was a boon, that it was great and that the problems were minor and not such a big deal. That was how the public was shaped back then, in such a

One of the best things about the 2010 Conference Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs is that they take the Pacific very seriously. I attended so many academic conferences at the states and interacted with various antiwar and peace groups, but the Pacific was always something which you had to struggle to incorporate, or struggle to bring into the discussion. Even if it was an Asian American Pacific Islander event, the emphasis was always on Asians or Americans and the Pacific was always sort of brought in as a cute, exotic or ill-fitting footnote. When talking about these fragments from the Pacific, the equality or horizontal nature of the space would quickly be revealed in its dimension of vertical hierarchy, as the Pacific presence would be dealt with through recognition primarily, as something that needs to be seen, and brought into meaning or existence. The way that you can “recognize” this is if your value to the discussion is all cursory, as if what matters is that we have heard or

I complain regularly on this blog about how, despite the incredible similarities that the people of Guam (mainly Chamorro, but others who call it home as well) have with the people of Okinawa, we barely know each other. Long colonial histories, shared experiences of military destruction and dispossession after World War II, and contemporary statuses as lynchpins to America's strategic posture in Asia. That is one of the reasons why Okinawans see Guam as a possible solution to their problems(to get rid of the US military), and many on Guam see the problems that Okinawans have with the US presence there, as a solution to Guam's own economic problems (bring them to Guam instead). People on Guam think of Okinawa as a US military base, or simply just another part of Japan, while people in Okinawa see Guam as a US military base and just another part of the US. We are ridiculous caricatures to each other, caricatures which serve the interests of those who claims our seperate but int

Annai hu taitai este na tinige' " Indian tribes buy back thousands of acres of land " gof sinilo' yu'. The article discusses a centuries old injustice and violence committed against hundreds, perhaps thousands of different Native American groups, and is a perfect case study in how injustice operates and is perpetuated and maintained over time. Native American tribes tired of waiting for the U.S. government to honor centuries-old treaties are buying back land where their ancestors lived and putting it in federal trust. Native Americans say the purchases will help protect their culture and way of life by preserving burial grounds and areas where sacred rituals are held. They also provide land for farming, timber and other efforts to make the tribes self-sustaining. The article begins with these sentences, describing how from 1998 - 2007, Native American tribes put close to a million acres in trust. These acres are all purchased in the hopes of rebuilding the land

I attended a meeting on two weeks ago of individuals who are concerned about the Environmental Impact Statement for the impending military buildup of Guam, and who are all interested in working together to read the document and then organize some sort of response to it. The meeting went very well. The EIS , which for those of you who don't know, documents (according to the military, its consultants and certain regulatory agencies) what sort of adverse impacts will take place over the next five years, due to the different projects, activities and populations that the military is proposing to bring to Guam. The meeting went very well, because there are lots of people out there who feel daunted and scared by this document and the future it proposes to describe to us. The idea that it would take anywhere from 8,000 - 11,000 pages in order to chronicle the potential negative impacts that Guam will have to shoulder by 2014 is horrifying. It seems like more and more people are showing co