Photograph by Carim Yanoria Nåna by Kisha Borja-Quichocho Like the tåsa and haligi of the ancient Chamoru latte stone so, too, does your body maintain the shape of the healthy Chamoru woman. With those full-figured hips features delivered through natural birth for generations and with those powerful arms reaching for the past calling on our mañaina you have remained strong throughout the years continuously inspire me to live my culture allow me to grow into a young Chamoru woman myself. Through you I have witnessed the persistence and endurance of my ancestors who never failed in constructing a latte. I gima` taotao mo`na the house of the ancient people. Hågu i acho` latte-ku. You are my latte stone. The latte stone (acho` latte) was once the foundation of Chamoru homes in the Mariana Islands. It was carved out of limestone or basalt and varied in size, measuring between three and sixteen feet in height. It contained two parts, the tasa (a cup-like shape, the top portion of the latte) and the haligi (the bottom pillar) and were organized into two rows, with three to seven latte stones per row. Today, several latte stones still stand, and there are also many remnants of them throughout the Marianas. Though Chamorus no longer use latte stones as the foundations of their homes, the latte symbolize the strength of the Chamorus and their culture as well as their resiliency in times of change. Micronesian Educator Editor: Unaisi Nabobo-Baba Special Edition Guest Editors: Michael Lujan Bevacqua Victoria Lola Leon Guerrero Editorial Board: Donald Rubinstein Christopher Schreiner Editorial Assistants: Matthew Raymundo Carim Yanoria Design and Layout: Pascual Olivares ISSN 1061-088x Published by: The School of Education, University of Guam UOG Station, Mangilao, Guam 96923 Contents Guest Editor’s Introduction ................................................................................................................ v Articles Comparative Political Development in the United States-administered Pacific Dependencies .............. 2 Carlyle G. Corbin Chamoru Self-Determination and the Rhetoric of Both/Neither in United Nations Testimonies .......... 30 Tiara R. Na’puti An Appraisal of Self-determination Under International Law ................................................................ 57 Julian Aguon Trongkon Niyok - A Symbol of Settlement, Survival, Sustainability and Self-Determination for the People of Guahan .................................................................................................................................... 65 Moñeka De Oro Identity and Self-determination in Guam: A Chamorro Homeland - An American Colony .................... 78 Mary Therese F. Cruz Dies Mit: The Origin and End of Chamorro Self-Determination ........................................................... 100 Robert A. Underwood Poetry ginen fatal impact statements .............................................................................................................. 114 Craig Santos Perez Commentary Estague i Kinahulo' i Manhoben ........................................................................................................... 121 Kenneth Gofigan Kuper Testimonies Statement of the Non-self-governing Territory of Guam to the Pacific Regional Seminar on the Implementation of the Third Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism in Nadi, Fiji, from 21 May to 23 May 2014 .............................................................................................................................................. 130 Edward A. Alvarez Presentations Presentation to the 4th Annual Micronesia Non-Profit Congress on Self-determination, Migration ... 134 Felicidad T. Ogumoro Book Reviews Sinångan ginen i Pachot: Estorian Pasifiku ginen Guåhan (Word of Mouth: Pacific Stories from Guam) .............................................................................................................................................................. 139 Kelley Bowman MICRONESIAN EDUCATOR, SPECIAL EDITION, NOVEMBER 2015 Guest Editor’s Introduction iv MICRONESIAN EDUCATOR, SPECIAL EDITION, NOVEMBER 2015 Guest Editor’s Introduction “New Perspectives on Chamorro Self-Determination” Edited by Michael Lujan Bevacqua, PhD, and Victoria Lola Leon Guerrero, MFA. Over the past century, while the rest of Micronesia has exercised some form of political self- determination, Guam has remained colonized. Other islands in Micronesia have begun the task of representing this part of the world on environmental and natural resource issues, yet Guam remains a place with no formal voice in regional or international affairs. As a colony of the United States, Guam is “foreign in a domestic sense,” or in other words, it brushes up against both spheres but cannot claim to have fundamental power in either. While colonies were once the norm in a world that had been dominated by imperial conquests, in today’s world, to be a colony is to be a relic of a now disavowed past. The United Nations only recognizes that seventeen Non-Self-Governing Territories remain in the world. Moving these colonies toward decolonization represents a fight for justice and human liberty that few around the world seem willing to take up. As educators on Guam, we are faced with unique challenges when making decisions about how to teach our students. We must be students ourselves, ever exploring the unique place Guam has in the world, and seeking a deeper understanding of what it means to teach in a Non-Self- Governing Territory in the 21st Century. How does one educate students in a colony in a world where colonialism is no longer supposed to exist? Furthermore, how does Guam’s reality as a heavily militarized island in the Pacific connect to this colonial status? We must be aware that we are teaching within a colonized framework and that we have the choice to either uphold that framework, or challenge and change it. This special edition of Micronesian Educator takes a very specific focus on Chamorro self- determination in Guam, because we believe that this is an issue educators throughout Micronesia should be more cognizant of, especially when shaping narratives about Guam in their classrooms. One of the biggest obstacles to achieving self-determination on Guam has been ignorance. Students on Guam are simply not taught about self-determination throughout their learning experience. This fundamental part of our historical journey and our contemporary reality is not incorporated into our public school curriculum. Instead, the values of the colonizer(s) are instilled in children every day they attend school This makes it difficult for students to question and face the realities of being colonized, or to value their own unique culture and experiences. Moreover, in classrooms throughout Micronesia, students are taught (without much context) that Guam is a part of America. Thus, Guam is seen as America and not as part of Micronesia, and most definitely not a place where an indigenous people – the Chamorro people – have long been deprived of their basic human rights. Ultimately, this weakens Guam’s power in the region and makes the indigenous people of Guam invisible in the eyes of their island neighbors. As a result, the v MICRONESIAN EDUCATOR, SPECIAL EDITION, NOVEMBER 2015 Chamorro people are not included in regional decision making, even when it pertains to Guam. The rest of Micronesia negotiates with the United States on important issues that affect Guam, but have no obligation to consult Guam’s people. For example, a recent US- Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) treaty, which formalized a maritime boundary between Guam and the FSM, was signed in Palau on August 1, 2014. This treaty officially gave ownership of the deepest part of the Marianas Trench to the FSM. The people of Guam were never consulted, or given a seat at the table when this treaty was signed, or perhaps Guam just did not attend. Prior to colonization, the ancestors of these islands would have determined their ocean boundaries together, because they had to share the ocean and needed to do so peacefully. Today, the people of Guam are no longer seen as relevant in these discussions. As educators, this leaves us to wonder, whether Guam can be taken more seriously if the rest of Micronesia saw in the Chamorro people the aspiration to decolonize? Is the rest of the region aware of the need for Guam to exercise self-determination? By simply making these types of connections in their classrooms, teachers throughout Micronesia could play a critical role in Guam’s movement toward Chamorro Self- Determination. The articles in this special edition seek to explore what Chamorro Self-Determination means today. The writers discuss how this right has evolved (or devolved) on both political and personal levels. They analyze the impacts of identity, rhetoric, international law, and militarization on the Chamorro quest for Self-Determination on Guam. This special edition of Micronesian Educator aims to empower educators by providing them with a variety of perspectives on this topic so that they can use these to inform their curriculum development, regardless of what subject or grade level they are teaching. Self-determination can and should be taught in very practical ways in Guam classrooms. We begin with a piece by international governance expert Carlyle Corbin entitled “Comparative Political Development in United States – administered Pacific Dependencies.” Corbin, from the US Virgin Islands has been involved in decolonization efforts