Uncharted Waters
Over the weekend I took the kids to a birthday party where instead or horse rides or karabao rides the family was offering proa rides. The party took place on the beach in Hagatna right across the street from the Federal Court Building. Children and adults could take turns riding in the canoe as it went out to the edge of the reef and back. Sumahi and Akli'e' have ridden in boats before but never a canoe like that crafted and manned by Chamorros and other Micronesians. The canoe and the rides were provided by Rob Limtiaco, a former apprentice of Tun Segundo Blas, the late Chamorro Master Carver. Limtiaco studied under Tun Segundo when Chamorros were at a different point in terms of their shifting of consciousness and moving towards a more indigenous context. This was when Chamorro dancing as we know it today did not exist. There were Chamorro activist groups but Nasion Chamoru was still a decade away from existence. Criticism of the military in terms of its form and its sen