I Tano Yan I Tasi

Land and Sea: Ecological Literacy on a US Pacific Island

Throughout its long history as a US territory, Guam has experienced great environmental change that has altered much of its historical, cultural and natural landscape. Many of the cultural beliefs and practices of the island’s indigenous Chamorro people that were based on the use of natural resources and principles of conservation were abandoned. Importantly, much of the cultural knowledge and skills associated with local food production have also been lost.  Given how this change has adversely affected the overall health of island residents, the Guam Humanities Council through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities is implementing a multifaceted project entitled, Land and Sea: Ecological Literacy on the US Pacific Island of Guam, to promote literacy around the principles of ecology and sustainability in order to better “grow democracy.”

Today, roughly ninety percent of the food supply on Guam is imported, with the local diet based mainly on fast, processed foods that are high in fat, sodium and sugar. Healthy and better quality foods, including local fish and produce are often expensive. 

Within the local population there are alarming rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Much of this illness is associated with unhealthy food consumption, high rates of smoking and a highly urbanized environment that lacks sufficient green space for recreational use.  In addition, the large amounts of hazardous waste produced and stored on the island by the US military have raised concerns about their long-term effect on the community’s health and local environment

Presently, a major military expansion is planned for Guam with the relocation of military personnel and their families from Okinawa in 2014.  This expansion will profoundly impact the island’s environment, culture and society.

Exploring the important connections between food, health, culture and the environment will be the central focus of the project. The Council will bring together national, regional and local scholars, writers, educators, activists, artists and policymakers working on various facets of sustainability to participate in several public programs throughout the length of the project.

The programs will include: a documentary film and discussion series and lectures featuring experts in the food movement, ecological literacy, and social and environmental justice; training workshops for teachers on “schooling for sustainability” or “the edible schoolyard;” historical and cultural hikes and farm and garden tours with discussion to promote physical activity, civic engagement and cultural and ecological awareness; and a weeklong “food democracy” tour featuring a leader in the movement who will conduct workshops, give presentations and participate in an interpretive cooking event with local chefs centered on fresh, local and healthy foods.

Seeds of Health lecture by Lois Ellen Frank School presentation with Lois Ellen Frank & Walter Whitewater Paul Kerner, Peter Duenas, Lois Ellen Frank, Walter Whitewater and Geoffrey Perez at interpretive dinner event

Eat Your Heritage Tour

The I Tano Yan I Tasi project launched on September 24, 2011 with the Eat Your Heritage tour, a weeklong tour which kicked off with the Council’s 4th Annual Y Tinaotao 5k Run, followed by a series of cooking presentations at select schools, a lecture, and concluding with an interpretive dinner presentation. As part of the project, the Council brought to Guam Native American chefs Lois Ellen Frank, PhD and Walter Whitewater. The two chefs own and operate Red Mesa, combining Native American culture and cuisine to provide patrons an educational and culinary experience. Dr. Frank is a Santa Fe, New Mexico-based chef, author, Native foods historian and photographer who has spent over 18 years documenting foods and life ways of Native American tribes from the Southwest. Her book, Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations, features traditional and contemporary recipes, and was the first Native American book to win the James Beard Award. She recently received her doctoral degree in anthropology from the University of New Mexico with a dissertation that examines the ways contemporary Southwestern chefs use indigenous ingredients in their cooking and how this is representational of their own identities. Her continuing research also focuses on medicinal and spiritual plants, as well as the importance of traditional foods amongst indigenous communities throughout the Americas, as sustenance and in ritual.

The Council hosted a total of 8 school presentations with Dr. Frank and Chef Whitewater giving cooking demonstrations. Those schools included Price Elementary School, the Guam Community College, George Washington High School and Simon Sanchez High School.

The Council also presented a community lecture by Dr. Frank titled Seeds of Health: the Return to the Ancestral Diet on Tuesday, September 27 at Government House with a diverse audience of Chamorro language teachers, college students, humanities scholars and farmers.

The two chefs concluded the weeklong tour by teaming up with award-winning local chefs Peter Duenas of Meskla Chamoru Fusion Restaurant, Geoffrey Perez of Proa Restaurant, and Paul Kerner from the Guam Community College Culinary Arts program, for the Eat Your Heritage interpretive cooking event held on October 1 at the Hyatt Regency Guam. Other partners included the Guam Farmers Cooperative. The interpretive dinner incorporated a menu featuring Native American and local foods and highlighted Guam’s natural resources and unique cultural heritage.

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“The Micronesian Question”: Issues of Migration, Identity and Belonging on Guam

View details on the upcoming film and discussion events here

The migration of Micronesians to Guam over the past twenty years has presented a number of perceived challenges to the larger Guam community that have focused on such complex, and oftentimes contested issues as adaptation, discrimination and identity.

Through the multifaceted project, “The Micronesian Question”: Issues of Migration, Identity and Belonging on Guam, the Council examines the many issues surrounding the migration of islanders from other parts of Micronesia to Guam. The lives and experiences of Micronesians in their new island “home” are also explored. The project includes the Council’s Motheread family literacy program, a series of film and discussion and reading and discussion events, a youth-centered photography and creative writing project and community conversations. Given the anticipated migration to Guam of several thousand people largely from
the US mainland, Hawaii and Asia as part of the planned military
expansion that is set to begin in 2014, the project is especially timely.

The youth-centered component of the project, which was partially funded through a grant from the Guam Council on Arts and Humanities Agency, has the objective of giving voice to youth of Micronesian communities through the visual medium of photography and the writing of personal and/or community narratives. Fifty-seven youth participated in the workshops conducted by professional photographers Victor Consaga and DL Lasrithammavan and humanities scholars Dr. Sharleen Santos Bamba and Carol Simpson-Warner to learn to tell their stories visually and in writing about making Guam “home.” The culmination of their work was presented at an interpretive exhibition that opened May 13, 2011 at the Agana Shopping Center. The exhibit then traveled to five Guam public high schools as well as the Micronesia Mall.

As part of the reading and discussion series, in August 2011 the Council brought to Guam Micronesian scholar and poet Dr. Teresia Teaiwa. Dr. Teaiwa is a Senior Lecturer of Pacific Studies at Victoria University of Wellington in Wellington, New Zealand. She is a native of Banaba Island in Kiribati and was raised in Suva, Fiji. Dr. Teaiwa’s research interests include gender and militarism, globalization, native Pacific cultural studies, women’s history and native feminisms, Pacific history and identity and diaspora. She is also a poet whose poetry and short prose have been published in a range of international literary journals. Her first collection of poetry, Searching for Nei Nim’anoa (1995) has been taught in courses at the University of Hawai’i, and the University of the South Pacific. She has two CDs of poetry, Terenesia: Amplified Poetry and Songs by Teresia Teaiwa and Sia Figiel (2000), and I can see Fiji: poetry and sound (2008).

The reading and discussion series launched with the In-Sights youth exhibit and reading presentations by Dr. Teaiwa at the Cars Plus Showroom on August 22 followed by a week of events that included a presentation entitled Pacific Islander Migration and Identity – readings by Dr. Teaiwa and Emelihter Kihleng. The event was held at the Outrigger Resort Guam on August 24 and included a community conversation. Additionally, readings and discussions were presented through out the week at several Guam high schools, the Guam Community College and the University of Guam.

In December 2011, the Council hosted a Youth Empowerment Workshop at the Outrigger Guam Resort. Twenty-two high school students participated in the workshop that focused on themes of leadership, citizenship, empowerment and self expression.

In early 2012, the Council will host a series of film and discussion events. Please stay tuned for upcoming details on these events by visiting this website or visit our facebook page at:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001502809279&sk=info

Picturing America, Picturing Guam

Picturing America, Picturing Guam explores our richly diverse national and local history and culture through signature works of art—painting, photography, decorative and cultural art, sculpture and architecture. By viewing great art, we as citizens—students, teachers and the public—gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the character, ideals, aspirations and larger story of our nation and island. The Council presented the exhibition component of the project at Isla Center for the Arts at UOG in January 2011 for a three-week venue.

Picturing America, which was developed by the National Endowment for the Humanities, consists of forty museum-quality reproductions of America’s most noted masterpieces. The purpose of the project is to make the reproductions, along with a Teachers Resource Book and companion website, available to schools and public libraries in every state and territory across the country.

For Picturing Guam, the Council highlights the work of sixteen local masters, including Jose Babauta, Monica Baza, Tan Elena Cruz Benevente, Jill Benevente, Sal Bidare, Segundo Blas, Ric Castro, Ron Castro, Manny Crisostomo, Mark Dell’Isola, Judy Flores, Al Lizama, Tun Joaquin “Jack” Lujan, Adriano Pangelinan, Lewis Rifkowitz and Kie Susuico. Also presented are images of ancient Chamorro pottery and historical reproductions from the Spanish Documents Collection at the Micronesian Area Research Center (MARC), University of Guam and the Guam Museum.

The local pieces that were reproduced for Picturing Guam, and which appear in the Teachers Resource Book, were selected based on their quality, range of media and resonance with the overall themes of Picturing America and the ways in which these themes are relevant to Guam. Through Picturing Guam, residents are able to examine our own artistic heritage in relation to America’s art traditions, and to link Guam’s past with our national history through visual art.

As part of the project, the Council worked with local scholars Ron Castro, Velma Yamashita and Ric Castro to facilitate educator workshops for public school teachers to learn how Picturing America, Picturing Guam can be used in the classroom as an effective educational tool.

Picturing Guam was made possible through a grant award to GHC from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

http://picturingamerica.neh.gov

Download Teachers Resources Below:

• Picturing America Teachers Resource Book
• Picturing America Classroom Presentation
• Picturing Guam Teachers Resource Book
• Picturing Guam Classroom Presentation

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“8,000 How Will It Change Our Lives?” Community Conversations on the Military Buildup in Guam is the Council’s effort to encourage island residents to examine the impact of the relocation of military personnel and their families to Guam in 2014, through humanities-based conversations on related themes of service, leadership, community, identity and power.

The Council selected the “civic reflection” model to convene community conversations with diverse groups of residents in a variety of settings around the island.  Civic reflection is an innovative approach that has been successfully implemented by humanities councils across the country to engage citizens in discussions of important issues that affect civic life.

• The project uses “civic reflection” to conduct community conversations throughout the island.
• A series of six 90-minute conversations will be held among a small group.
• Conversations begin with a focused discussion of a selected reading, poem, film or other text.
• Trained facilitators guide the participants through a reflection process that encourages critical analysis, asking questions, and self-expression.
• Through civic reflection, individuals are invited to step into a hospitable space where they may critically think and talk about the values and choices we make while living together as a community.

Here is a look at who has participated in the conversations to date:

• Sociology and other students at the University of Guam
• Municipal Planning Council members and village leaders in the village of Dededo
• Civilians employed by military contractors and members of the local media
• Retired military personnel
• Activists, artists, and writers
• GED students at the Guam Community College
• Larger conversation events with poet Craig Santos Perez, and chanter and artist Jay Baza Pascua

Conversations will continue throughout the island to include members of the business community, volunteer and community based organizations, educators, and more!