#Guåhan

[elea-mar]

From Laos

To Palestine

[whenua-and-moana]

The po'ouli was one of ten "American" bird species declared officially extinct by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2023. Eight were from Hawai'i, one from Guåhan, and one from the mainland USA.

(A note: the drawing of the Maui 'ākepa is actually a Hawai'i 'ākepa, a separate and still living species. The Maui 'ākepa was green.)

Also declared extinct were the little Mariana fruit bat (of Guåhan), two species of mainland USA fish, and eight species of mussels.

From the Wikipedia article on the Kaua'i 'ō'ō:

It was the last surviving member of the Mohoidae, which had originated over 15-20 million years previously during the Miocene, with the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō's extinction marking the only extinction of an entire avian family in over 500 years.

The last po’ouli died in an unusual nest. Too weak to perch, the brownish-greyish songbird rested in a small towel twisted into a ring. He was the last of his species, the last in fact of an entire group of finches, and occurred nowhere on Earth outside his native Hawaii. For weeks, as scientists tried to find him a mate, he had been getting sicker. The only remaining po’ouli had just one eye. Alone in the towel, alone in all the world, he closed it.

Extinction Obituary for the quiet and beautiful Hawaiian po’ouli

[keeeyneni]

Little dump from work.

[kingskrazzyart]

"--And with the utmost of my strength / I offer myself to protect and to defend the beliefs / the culture / the language / the air / the water and the land of the Palestinians." -Guåhan's (Guam's) Inifresi modified in solidarity with Palestinians.

A while ago, I saw videos of palestinians throwing stones at IDF tanks and soilders, however what surprised me was that some used slingstones. I am indigenous CHamoru and in our culture the slingstone is our signature weapon. So much so that the stone itself, the åcho’ atupa, is what inspired the shape of the Guam Seal.

It is the responsibility of indigenous people everywhere to fight against genocide and ethnic cleansing. When one of us are attacked, we must lend our stones in solidarity. If you can't attend protests, call your politicians. Can't call your politicians? Then donate. Can't donate? Then Boycott. Can't Boycott? Then spread the word. Can't spread the word in person? Then do it online.

Colonization is painful. Losing ones culture is painful. March is Mes CHamoru/Pulan CHamoru (CHamoru heritage month). Matå'pang was a måga'lahi (male village leader) who fought against Spanish colonial rule. All Indigenous people are owed their freedom from their oppressors.

CEASEFIRE NOW.

FREE PALESTINE.

[fatehbaz]

The archipelago of uplifted coral that is my mother’s homeland surfaced during the earth’s ancient cycles of glaciation. The early people came in sakmans, carried by wind and seas, guided by stars and clouds and bioluminescence, the fragrance of flowers, the flight paths of birds. Settlers lived and fished and farmed in this part of Oceania for thousands of years, but the naming history issues forth at the moment of subjugation. Islas de los Ladrones -- the Islands of Thieves -- they were called by the first Europeans who came. Then Islas de las Velas, the Islands of the Lateen Sails. Then the Mariana Islands, in honor of Spain’s queen regent. Before it was Guam, Guåhan was known, under Japanese rule, as Omiya Jima, the Great Shrine Island. [...] Elsewhere, settlements recall the body of the creation god Puntan: Tiyan, his flat stomach. Hagåtña, his blood. Toto, his resting back. Mongmong, his beating heart. [...]

These small islands have grown crowded with denotations, I try to tell a friend, except it comes out as detonations. [...]

---

I am reading from a passage on CHamoru history and culture. Kåntan Chamorita is an ancestral form of call-and-response, a spontaneous sung dialogue. [...] Thumbing the texts, I brandish our histories: the brutality of Japanese rule; the architectural colonization that drove the CHamoru from los antiguos, their dwelling places in latte houses; the violation of natural resources brought about by American occupation.

She [mother] tsks, waves impatiently. Hekkua’. An expression that means at once “I don’t know” and “Forget it.”  [...]

In 1917, the U.S. Navy banned the CHamoru language in the Mariana Islands. A few years later, by order of U.S. naval captain Adelbert Althouse, all CHamoru dictionaries were burned. The language was said to represent a cognitive deficiency. The adoption of English would ensure, among other things, mental well-being.

The ban has since been lifted, but my mother hid her language for so long, it’s become hard to find.

What is the word for sky? I ask her.

She shakes her head. Nothing word for sky. Only heaven: långet. [...]

---

And so did we sail out. For more than ten years [...]. We moved into other countries where other languages had been suppressed and where other people had been made invisible. There were signs [...]. In New Zealand, where I went to kindergarten, Ma¯ori children were beaten for speaking te reo in schools. Bislama was prohibited in Vanuatu, but I only remember the quietness of the bay, the great banyan trees, the malaria pills. In New Caledonia, where I went to elementary school, the Kanak languages were banned from the education system from 1863 until 1984. Gendarmes in Nouméa stood on street corners with machine guns slung across their chests. [...]

My mother is telling us something exciting. She trips happily over the words, her face laughing. [...] My mother did not want me speaking like her. She wanted me to be better than that, which is to say better than her. [...]

Kao piniten hao? -- Have you been hurt?

Hunggan. Mayulang, yu’ -- Yes. I’m breaking.

My mother corrects me: mayulang only applies to a thing that’s broken, not a person. You can be hurt, she tells me, but not broken. [...]

---

The etymology of translation refers to the removal of a saint’s body to a new location, to bearing bones and words, both sacred, across. As if anything can be moved whole [...].

We never heard the end of my mother’s stories. [...] These days, she is happy to let most of her sentences go unfinished. [...]

She raises her eyebrows, juts her chin.

I tell her, You’re a book of lost endings.

Which one? she asks.

---

It’s too small here, I said. It’s boring, hot. It’s too small. [...] We spent two years sleeping on my auntie’s living room floor. Unrolling futons and lying under the weeping air conditioning unit and peeling paint. We ate Spam and rice with ketchup. [...]

Lately, I have been confusing the CHamoru word for flight, malagu, with the word for flee, falagu. [...]

I dream now of the islands and wake with my head barely above water, my mouth filling with salt. [...]

Mamaolek ha’? -- Are you doing okay?

Maolek. I’m doing okay.

---

Text by: Hannah Dela Cruz Abrams. “Moving the Saints: Passages from a deconstructed homeland.” Orion Magazine. Spring 2023. [Some paragraph breaks and contractions added by me.]

[chpasifiku]

Hulio 11, 2023

Yigo, Guåhan 🌧 24°C 30°C 25°C

Surat Thani, Surat Thani, Thailand ⛅ 25°C 39°C 28°C

Hat Yai, Songkhla, Thailand  💧☔ 25°C 41°C 27°C

Jimenez, Misamis Occ., Filipinas  🌥 23°C 31°C 24°C

Okinawa, Ryukyu, Chapan ☁ 29°C 46°C 33°C

Zamboanga City, Filipinas ☁ 26°C 34°C 27°C

Islan Wake, EEUU, Pasifiku ☁ 19°C 31°C 20°C

Bacoor, Cavite, Filipinas ☁ 28°C 41°C 29°C

General Santos City, Filipinas   ☔  25°C 35°C 26°C

Siaton, Negros Or., Filipinas ⛅ 26°C 42°C 27°C

Haruyan/Sungai Buluh, Kalimantan, Indonesia ⛅ 25°C 46°C 26°C

El Chalten, Santa Cruz, Athentina  🌞  -11°C -11°C -11°C

Pejarakan, Bali, Indonesia ☁  23°C 32°C 25°C

Eriste, Huesca, España 🌞 14°C 19°C 15°C

[sunflower-shell]

Also! Free Borikén/Puerto Rico! Free Hawai'i! Free Guåhan/Guam! Free the "Virgin Islands"! So many of y'all usamerican leftists are willing to advocate for freedom from imperial domination until it comes to the US's own colonies!

Don't forget it's still free Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Yemen, West Papua, Tigray, Haiti, Burma/Myanmar, Uyghurs, Syria, Kashmir, Cameroon, Armenia and Kurdistan.

Regardless of who you are or where you come from, if you do not feel outrage, anguish, and grief for these innocent lives lost, something is amiss, and you must consider why you lack the drive to take action.

Their fight should be considered our fight, as it is one for human rights.

[harriswalz4usabybr]

Sunday, September 22, 2024 - Kamala Harris

In Guam to spend some time in the last of the Pacific territories, Vice President Harris accompanied by US Senator Mazie Hirono, Secretary Deb Harland, Governor Jay Inslee, and US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will be spending two days in the territory hosting two events each day. Below is the 'official' schedule for today.

Event #1 Event Location: Roy's Restaurant Event Type: Lunch with Local Leaders Event Time: 13:00-15:30 ChST *The Governor and all 15 members of the Liheslaturan Guåhan (Guam's Legislature) as well as justices of Guam Judiciary and the lone Chief Judge of the Federal Court were invited to share a lunch with the Vice President and campaign surrogates. This lunch was about listening to what is happening here in Guam and what the Harris-Walz administration could do for the territory once in office.

Event #2 Event Location: Capitol Kitchen Event Type: Dinner with Troops Event Time: 18:00-21:00 ChST *The campaign invited troops stationed in Guam to swing by Capitol Kitchen to have dinner with them. We had several discussions with the troops about their service and what it means for them to be stationed in Guam and what they think a president should be doing to support the US troops.

~BR~

[ayquebella]

Vintage Guam Guåhan Great Seal of Guam Island Bamboo-Style Framed Sterling Silver Pendant Charm

Gorgeous and sophisticated, sterling silver pendant charm representing Guam, Tano I’ ManChamorro (“the Land of the Chamorros.”) Guam is the largest and southernmost island of the Mariana Islands chain and because it is the easternmost point and territory of the United States, along with the Northern Mariana Islands, and because of its proximity to the International Date Line, the beautiful island is often referred to as “where America’s day begins.” Due to Guam’s remarkable history and the resilience, strength and innovation of the Guamanian people, the island’s population enjoys a rich, multicultural, modern, and urban diversity.

This stunning and petite pendant charm is of the Great Seal of Guam which portrays Agaña Bay near Hagåtña, a local sailboat and a coconut palm tree with the beautiful name of GUAM. A bamboo-style frame border surrounds the outline of this gorgeous pendant charm, and it has an undisturbed, natural patina that enhances its beauty tremendously. It will be a very elegant conversation starter when worn!

[eowyntheavenger]

Free West Papua

Free Guåhan (Guam)

Free Kanaky (New Caledonia), French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna

Free Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

Free Hong Kong

And free Taiwan

Free Palestine.

Free Congo.

Free Sudan.

Free Armenia.

Free Hawaii.

Free Tigray.

as i’ve seen someone state online today & i agree:

“liberation for one, means liberation for all”

[conceptualtree]

January 24, 2019

Harmon, Guam

[indio-politics]

Biba CHamoru! Tungo’ i Hale’-ta!

[ramonssalas]

Sunday funday in beautiful Malesso’ #guåhan ☀️🌴 🌊 (at Malesso, Guam) https://www.instagram.com/p/CbTwwxZLdz5HvpZ2BpUSJHuNcqvGgNxuB3_7x80/?utm_medium=tumblr

[chpasifiku]

Måyu 11, 2023

Yigo, Guåhan ☁ 26°C 29°C 27°C

Surat Thani, Surat Thani, Thailand ☁ 23°C 42°C 28°C

Hat Yai, Songkhla, Thailand  ☁ 25°C 43°C 27°C

Jimenez, Misamis Occ., Filipinas ⛅   24°C 32°C 26°C

Okinawa, Ryukyu, Chapan   ⛅   17°C 28°C 18°C

Zamboanga City, Filipinas ☁ 27°C 43°C 38°C

Islan Wake, EEUU, Pasifiku ⛅ 21°C 30°C 22°C

Bacoor, Cavite, Filipinas ☁ 28°C 40°C 29°C

General Santos City, Filipinas   ⛅  24°C 46°C 28°C

Siaton, Negros Or., Filipinas ⛅ 27°C 42°C 28°C

Haruyan/Sungai Buluh, Kalimantan, Indonesia ☁ 25°C 46°C 26°C

El Chalten, Santa Cruz, Athentina   🌞 0°C 4°C 1°C

Pejarakan, Bali, Indonesia ☁  25°C 46°C 26°C

Eriste, Huesca, España 🌞 -1°C 10°C 0°C

[goldpeninsula]

A crowd formed on a damp field overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It was Labor Day morning in Hagåtña, the capital of Guam, and the mood was both celebratory and defiant as residents gathered to show support for the local indigenous community, the CHamoru. It had been a frustrating summer for the CHamoru on the island: Activists had reignited a campaign to claim some political power from the United States, the island’s administering authority. But with the US government in the process of annexing more of their land, they had made little progress. So they summoned this crowd—more than 2,000 people—to voice their discontent, express solidarity with one another, and demand “CHamoru self-determination.”

As the demonstration commenced, activist leaders and CHamoru elders took to the stage to denounce imperialism and call for island unity in the face of repression. CHamoru youth blew kulu shells and danced in grass garb. Families unfurled Guam flags and raised signs declaring support for the movement. Then, everyone marched.

[reflectivestardust]

Happy 75TH Liberation Guåhan! #Biba #Guam #Guåhan #75thguamliberation #ILoveMyIsland #OurIsland (at Guam) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0KlJfjldmQ/?igshid=s9gsw0f8khao