A file photo of Donald Mendiola at an Amut Walk held earlier this year. Mendiola was asked to teach a group of community members about local medicine.
The second Åmut Walk was held at Paupau Beach.
THE second Åmut Walk on Sunday, Sept. 3, brought dozens of community members and off-island visitors to Paupau Beach to learn from noted yo’åmte or local healer Donald Mendiola as well as create new connections between Saipan, Tinian, Rota and Guam.
The event, organized by the Micronesia Climate Change Alliance and Our Common Wealth 670, coincided with the 6th Marianas History Conference whose theme was “Healing the Wounds of History.”
The walk began with a prayer ceremony led by Mendiola. After an opening blessing, one representative each from Saipan, Tinian, Rota and Guam poured water and coconut oil from each island into a coconut shell. Mendiola then brought the water and oil to each participant at the Åmut Walk.
Later, Mendiola led participants around Paupau Beach, pointing out which plants were medicinal and how to use them to treat ailments.
Event organizer Moñeka De Oro said the event was a way to heal historical divisions between the islands.
“In our 500-year history of being colonized, and especially more recently with the division between Guahan [Guam] and…the Northern Marianas, there hasn’t been any place where we come together to not compete with one another, to just unite and feel united,” De Oro said. “We’re intentionally building a team of Taotao Marianas to really design this effort.”
Former Rep. Sheila Babauta, who helped De Oro organize the event, said the space was an opportunity to grow personally.
“We have a long history of trauma and this is a wonderful way to take that experience that transfer trauma and create,” Babauta said. “Instead of focusing on victimization we are creating from all that we’ve learned from all that we know around colonization and the impacts it’s had on our community, on our land and on ourselves.”
“Everything that we’re doing here — the entire experience of gathering around traditional food, learning from our elders — this whole experience is a healing experience,” Babauta added.
Dalrissa Castro is a freshman at Kagman High School who has an interest in local medicine. Castro said her grandmother has made local medicine for body aches. Castro used the medicine and said it made her feel better.
“Some days she’ll teach me, but mostly she teaches me when someone’s sick. I’ll sit next to her and watch her make it,” Castro added.
Aside from her interest in local medicine, Castro said learning Åmut Chamorro is a way to preserve local culture.
“I’m noticing how some of [the youth] are forgetting our culture and it really does break this island because a lot of us need to learn about it,” Castro said. “Most would say they don’t care or they don’t know how and it hurts a lot of older people that us children don’t know our culture.”
Donald Mendiola leads a prayer ceremony at Paupau beach, where island residents from Guam, Rota, Tinian, and Saipan took part in the second Åmut Walk.
Donald Mendiola leads dozens of residents around Paupau Beach as part of the day’s activities.
