HONOLULU — Chamorros from Guam, the CNMI and the diaspora held a special community ceremony on Saturday at Bishop Museum here in Honolulu to honor three latte sets taken from the Marianas and are now displayed at the museum campus.
The gathering, which comprised dozens of people, some of them delegates to the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts and Cultures, marked the beginning of the Celebrate Micronesia Festival.
According to Sarah Kuaiwa, the curator for Hawai’i and Pacific cultural resources at Bishop Museum, two of the latte sets were taken from Guam during the Hornbostel expedition to the Marianas in the 1920s.
One of the Guam latte sets was taken from Urunao while the other was taken from Ypao.
The third latte set was taken sometime in the 20th century from Rota, Kuaiwa said. It was originally housed at the Honolulu Academy of Arts in 1951, and then moved to the Bishop Museum in 1979. Kuaiwa said research is still being conducted regarding the Rota latte set’s journey from the Marianas to Hawaii.
The ceremony on Saturday featured chants in the Native Hawaiian language and opening remarks from Dr. Faye Untalan, a Chamorro professor at University of Hawaii at Manoa and author of “Finu’ Chamorro.”
Also featured in the program was Erlinda Naputi, director of Joeten-Kiyu Public Library, who shared how she and her husband Martin first encountered the Rota latte set while at the Bishop Museum for a meeting of the Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Museum Institute in 2022.
Speaking in Chamorro, she said, “As my husband looked at the lattes, he realized that they were incomplete. … Martin said if there is a latte stone, the haligi and the tasa should be together. As he approached a particular area at the back, he felt as if someone guided him to where the tasa was located. He could hardly see the tasa since it was upside down and was covered by overgrown vines, flowers, and other debris.”
She said the latte is a symbol of strength, and should be taken care of.
“To all our Chamorro brothers and sisters from the beautiful Mariana Islands present here today: let’s continue to remain strong and stand for what is right for our people and our land,” she said. “Just like our latte stones, we, Chamorros, are strong people. Let us unite and continue to guide the Bishop Museum to do what is right for our artifacts.”
Donald Mendiola, a yo’amte/suruhuanu from Saipan, then led a chant that invoked ancestral spirits.
“I was summoning the paramount spirits, the clean spirits, the angelic spirits — our ancient Chamorro and the ali’i spirits here in Hawaii,” he said. “I was calling them to be as one and to enter into our realm and to bring with them goodness, to bring wisdom, knowledge, truth, so that they can inspire, so we can all have a successful gathering. And to help guide [the Chamorros and the Bishop Museum] in the endeavors that they’re doing in whatever they’re working on and to help them achieve their goals.”
Participants at the ceremony provided floral offerings and coconut oil to the ancestral spirits.
Heidi Chargualaf Quenga is a fa’fa’nague or Chamorro dance and chant instructor who lives on the U.S. mainland. As part of the ceremony, she led a group of diaspora Chamorros who chanted and danced alongside the latte. She spoke about how the event helped bring the Chamorro community together.
“I’m feeling reenergized, feeling very humble to be here with all of our family from all of the Marianas and coming together ‘ginen san lagu with the guma’ from Long Beach, the ‘guma’ from San Diego, from Texas and Washington, D.C.,” she said. “Bringing them together, letting them see our people come together — there are just no words.”
She said FestPac and its activities like the latte ceremony are one way to help her students feel connected to their culture.
“We do this work not for ourselves, we do it for those who have yet to come, and it is important that we continue to build the legacy and ensure that the preservation of our language and our culture is done in any way possible,” she added.
Jonathan Perez, a Guam performing arts delegate, said when he first saw the Hornbostel collection and the latte sets a few days prior to the ceremony, he and other Guam delegates experienced “pain and sadness.” But he said he experienced different emotions during the gathering of Chamorros on Saturday.
“Today is a different feeling because today we see all of our people here gathered, and now we are aware, and we know that we are one step closer to bringing our latte home,” he said. “When everything is quiet and we’re all chanting in unison to our ancestors it kind of gives us time to clear our minds and it’s a good way to connect to our ancestors. We might not know exactly which one of our ancestors built this latte, but we are one people and these belong to all of us and it’s a way to connect to them through song and chant.”
Diaspora Chamorros pictured in the foreground perform a dance in honor of three latte sets displayed at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Joeten-Kiyu Public Library Director Erlinda Naputi speaks in Chamorro at the ceremony.
Youth participants lay offerings on the latte stones.
FestPAC performing arts delegates from Guam perform a chant.
Participants touch the latte stones during the ceremony.
Participants touch the latte stones during the ceremony.
Donald Mendiola calls on the ancestral spirits.
