[ad_1]
Pago Pago, American Samoa— The Chamorro people are the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands – the Northern Mariana Islands, which are politically divided into Guam and Micronesia.
Today, Chamorro culture continues to be preserved through language and education. Guam Museum.
But the fight to have our own voice and sound as a U.S. territory remains an ongoing struggle.
Chamorro cultural historian and museum director Dr. Michael Bevacqua said Guam’s Chamorro people have a complicated relationship with the United States — they consider themselves Pacific Islanders but also American citizens.
Bevacqua said that after liberation in July 1944, there was a strong desire and pressure among the Chamorro people to Americanize.
This resulted in the Chamorro people no longer speaking their language to their children and being forced to migrate to the U.S. mainland, with thousands of families being displaced so that the U.S. military could establish bases there.
“There was a sense that being Chamorro was worthless. Give it up. Become an American,” he said.
He explained that participating in the Pacific Arts Festival in the 1970s and 1980s was a “very important moment” for the Chamorro people.
This allowed them to see how other islanders coped with and navigated modernization.
“The Chamorros see other islanders being proud to be islanders. They’re not pretending to be something they’re not,” he said.
“They lived through the 20th century in a completely different way. Other islanders were more selective, they didn’t try to completely replace or throw everything away, they tried to adapt and integrate.”
As part of the largest gathering of indigenous peoples, it is believed that this resulted in several different cultural practitioners attempting to study how their people expressed themselves through traditional forms, many of whom are cultural masters in today’s Chamorro communities.
“This helped to fuel a Chamorro resurgence, as Chamorros began carving jewelry again, trying to speak their language again, and sparking a renewed movement for indigenous rights.
“A lot of it has to do with meeting other Pacific Islanders and realising they are proud of who they are. We don’t have to trade our Indigenous identity for a colonial identity.
“We can have the comforts of American life and still be Chamorro. Let’s celebrate our identity.”
Inafa Maulek
Guam’s population is estimated at less than 170,000, of which Chamorro makes up a little over 32%.
Bevacqua said respect and reciprocity are core Chamorro values.
He added that if anyone helps the Chamorro people, then they need to make sure to give back.
“These relationships can sometimes stretch back generations, with family members helping each other, going back to before World War II, and you always have to stay connected to them.
“In the past, people sometimes wrote them down in a booklet, but now people save them in the notes app on their phone.”
But the most important value to the Chamorro people now is the concept of inafa’ maolek.
Inafa’ maolek describes the Chamorro concept of restoring harmony or order and literally means “making” (inafa’) “good” (maolek).
“It’s about a greater interdependence, and that’s the most fundamental principle in Chamorro life. It extends to people to people, but it also extends to your relationship with nature, (and) your relationship with the greater community.”
He said everyone is interconnected and must find a way to work together and take care of each other.
He believes the Chamorro people have been held back because Guam, as a territory, has no international voice.
“The United States speaks for you; you can yell and scream. But as a territory, you should not be taken seriously, you should not be taken seriously.”
He added: “That’s why for me decolonization is so critical, because if you have specific needs, if you’re an island in the western Pacific, you may have the same challenges that someone in West Virginia, Ohio, Utah, Arizona, California may not care about in the same way and may be caught up in all different types of politics.”
“You have to be able to do something about the challenges that are affecting you. What do you do if 350 million people, 10,000 miles away, hear you and most of them don’t even know they heard you? That’s bad.”
[ad_2]
Source link
