SAHUMA

Ya-hu mama'tinas. Este na blog para todu i fina'tinas-hu. I love to create. this is a blog for all that things I create.

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Yanggen Ti Hita Tumuge', Pues Håyi? If We Don't Write It, Then Who?

A writer and writing focused event at the Guam Museum I organized sponsored by the Guam Bus and the Guam Museum.

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I mås påtgon na patgon-hu as La'yak, kana sais meses gi este na litråtu.

My youngest La'yak, almost six months in this picture.

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Sumåhi learning to sail a traditional canoe in Hagåtña Bay with Rob Limtiaco.

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Chamoru dancers from Guam join hands as part of the welcoming ceremony for the 2025 Amis Music Festival in Dulan Village, Taitung, Taiwan.

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Tom Torres (right) joins with families from the Hurao Chamoru language immersion school at the Latte Return Ceremony held last month behind the Guam Museum. Latte Stones taken from Guam more than a century ago to the Bishop Museum in Hawai'i were returned to Guam in October 2025. More than 200 people attended the ceremony in Skinner Plaza.

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Latte stones, taken more than a century ago and placed in the collection of the Bishop Museum in Hawai'i, were returned to the Chamoru people and Guam in 2025. Last week, a ceremony was held to welcome home two complete latte sets and four tåsa (capstones). More than 200 people attended, gathering around the latte, singing, chanting and then providing offerings atop the stones.

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Independent Guåhan is holding a Teach-In focusing on Chamoru resistance across 350 years, from Hurao to Fanohge, this Saturday (9/20) from 2 -4 pm at Angel Santos Latte Stone Park.

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Inalåhan Bay, Guam

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I lamasan Pågat

Pågat Point in Northeastern, Guam

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Pågat Cave, Guam

The area was a site of protest over planned US military expansion.

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Saipan Sunset, April 2025

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Chamoru youth fishing in Guam's waters in the late 1940s.

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Every year I do a few dozen readings or storytelling sessions on Guam. Sometimes I read the books I've written and my brother has illustrated through The Guam Bus. Sometimes I just tell stories from Chamoru history. Sometimes they are in English, sometimes in Chamoru. This is from my most recent reading at the Guam Public Library in Hagåtña sharing our book "Hu Guaiya Hao Taiguihi."

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The first episode of the Fanachu podcast (which I produce each week) for 2025 will feature as guest Ciara Leina'ala Lacy, the director and writer of the wonderful animated short film "The Queen's Flowers."

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For three years now, my second oldest child and I, have been digitizing Chamoru/Chamorro vinyl records from my record collection and uploading them to the Fanachu YouTube page. As of this Christmas we've uploaded more than 400 songs. We do this to help keep alive and promote the Chamoru language, the indigenous language of the our people, Chamoru people from the Marianas Islands in the Western Pacific.

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My family and I made a Chamoru language flash card set for the birds from the Marianas. Many of the native birds are no longer found in Guam and in the wild (such as this one the sihek) and so this is an important way we can pass on knowledge of the animals and their importance to our people.

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Sunset, Saipan, CNMI (2023)