Did you know the colonizer’s education lacks indigenous education? Did you know you’re given a certain right, namely citizenship, but yet you have no rights to form the laws you must obey? Let’s now begin this letter with answers to these questions.
First, the oldest colonized island in the Pacific region. Before the arrival of Western civilization (white race), Guam was the center of Pacific voyages for trade and knowledge among the islands; and yes, Guam is the oldest inhabited island throughout this same region. Upon the arrival of the Western civilization by Ferdinand Magellan in 1521, the way of life came to an end. They came and claimed the lands as theirs without the consent of the indigenous. Culture, language and knowledge were virtually wiped out. Today, a person can obtain a college degree in seeking knowledge to restore and revitalize our descendants’ knowledge! Western civilization believed their conquest was justified! They had no regard for human understanding or respect. On Guam, the effects of Westernization are the greatest when compared to other claimed islands, whether by Australia, New Zealand, the Polynesians or Micronesia. Guam allows itself to be owned by a foreign country, the United States of America.
With these comments, we now move into parts of the colonization mode of education; and for Guam, that education is Spanish, a bit of Japanese, and American.
The colonizer’s goal for education is to remove beliefs, cultural practices and the history of the indigenous and replace it with their own. Didn’t we learn to read the phrase, “We must colonize these savages!” In reality, who really was the savage? The foreigner (Spain, United States of America, Japan), or the indigenous (Samoan, Maorian, Tahitian, Belauan, Chuukese, and of course — Taotaomona, etc.)? Notice the name Taotaomona instead of Chamorro(ru). The word “taotaomona” is indigenous, and Chamorro is Spanish. Who do the indigenous believe? The Spanish!
How about American education. Take citizenship, a title given to the inhabitants of Guam through the Organic Act of 1950, by Congress. Yet all one has to do is read the Constitution of the United States of America. It states the rights of its citizens, mainly the right to vote for Congress and House of Representatives. Does anyone on Guam have that right? In other words, citizenship for Guam is Congress given, not Constitutional. So are we, the people of Guam, truly citizens of the United States of America?
How about the Organic Act, which gave citizenship and created the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government? Did you read and understand that the three branches are directly supervised by the secretary of the Interior, not the voters or people of Guam. So one can say the so-called government of Guam is actually an agency of the Department of the Interior, not a truly Guam government.
Hear ye! Hear ye, people of Guam, especially the indigenous. What happened? Why is it you allow a foreign government to own you? Why do you allow their laws to dictate and control you? When is foreign (Western) ownership to end on Guam, and of course our family to the north? When are you to become the owners of your motherland? Why do our politicians and courts obey these foreign laws in which they have no rights? How about the saying: “Show me a true-blue U.S. citizen on Guam and I’ll show you an honest politician!” In other words, there are none!
People of Guam, only you can reclaim your motherland. Stand up against the laws that you must obey without rights. Take education to the next level — about your own history, beliefs and cultural practices, and you shall believe in yourself to desire reclaiming your motherland. Say no more to foreign ownership. Say yes to independence. Biba to the Republic of the Sinahi Archipelago!
HOWARD A. HEMSING
Yigo, Guam
