A constant hum surrounds the revitalization and preservation of CHamoru culture and traditions. While peering into the community, Indigenous artists like Monaeka Flores, Lia Barcinas, and Roquin Siongco are found utilizing their platforms to activate safe spaces for CHamorus and locals alike.
The westernization of indigenous land and minds has left little time for the people of Guam to honor themselves and their opportunities to be creative as much as they desire. Instead, most of the population finds themselves locked into a cycle of survival mode. From making sure the bills are paid, to ensuring there is enough food to get them through the week– CHamorus and locals alike are preoccupied with maintaining the Western lifestyle that they work so hard to enjoy.
This stems from the prevalent militarization of Guam which has caused significant loss of many indigenous lands, values, and traditions. However, artists are shining a light on a new reality by showcasing their talents as a way past the loss through CHamoru art and expression of self.
Monaeka, or Naeks, Flores is a queer CHamoru activist and artist who comes from a family that has lost native land due to displacement by the U.S. Military occupation. The U.S. Department of Defense has invested billions in ramping up military operations, as it competes for dominance in the Western Pacific region. The U.S. currently occupies one-third of Guam’s 212-square-mile island.
Despite the grief and despair of displacement on the island, Monaeka shares her ideology on how she uses art to cope.
“The colonial way of life conflicts with who we intrinsically are is CHamoru peoples of the Marianas,” Flores said. “For me, making art is a way to really examine how colonization has impacted me and that’s something art does, it does allow us to say; okay, what kind of future do we want?”
Like Flores, Roquin Siongco and Lia Barcinas are artists who are acting with intentions to shape modern CHamoru culture as a means to express themselves.
Siongco is a local weaver and artist. He dabbles in some illustration work, and visual arts by way of photography but identifies primarily as a weaver and he uses his art as a form of, “reimagining the past.” He calls it “Pacifika Futurism,” and believes that it can act as a form of therapy and a tool to heal. Siongco offers a question to the art community that was offered as food for thought by a friend:
“What is indigenous art that is not just a response to colonialism,” he asks.
“I feel like it can acknowledge the pain. It can critique these greater structures that we find ourselves in. But indigenous art that’s just existing for itself, by the people for the people, is really where the healing lies.”
Before the war, almost every CHamoru utilized weaving as a tool of survival. Although the practice continued after 1944, the growing availability of modern items replaced the ones woven in the past. In fact, many traditions and survival tools have almost disappeared in the face of Western life.
Barcinas is another local weaver. She works solo and as an apprentice under master weaver, Philip Sablan, along with her sisters. Barcinas has done work all over the island and continues to share her work with the community. But for Barcinas, colonial occupation has not only suppressed the need for the traditional practice of weaving but it has also diminished the resources of this tradition. Barcinas shares,
“Sourcing coconut leaves even for making a couple of hats has taken days. It can be very emotional. It’s heartbreaking. We watch our coconut trees very closely, we harvest from them and watch them as they get attacked by rhino beetles. Sometimes they recover, which is hopeful, but sometimes they don’t, and they’re gone forever.”
Rhino beetles are invasive species that have killed many coconut trees across Guam. Because of invasive species that have been brought to Guam like the brown tree snake, which has killed the native birds on the island, it has led to the evolution of Rhino beetles. Efforts like management strategy and pesticide methods are underway to address this problem by government officials.
In the face of these challenges, more are seeing island traditions clashing with Western modernization and its developments here. Siongco believes that the preservation of cultural practices that were once lost, like weaving, is possible.
“Weaving is a conversation between people and their environment. environments change, people change. The art and the tradition in it of itself does not exist within the item being made, but in the practice of the item being made.”
Both Siongco and Barcinas grew up learning how to weave from their elders. A practice they find extremely important, amid growing modernity. By keeping these practices relevant and alive, these artists have been able to share indigenous knowledge with the community. Amidst all of the modern developments and Westernization of the island’s lands and culture, indigenous practices continue to thrive through artists like Barcinas, Siongco and Flores.
“We’re actively negotiating our indigenous identities and actively renegotiating our spaces where we feel comfortable to be our truest indigenous self versus, what do we have to do in order to be in these spaces with very Western values or mindsets. A really important thing is our exposure to actively reclaim those spaces where you can be our indigenous selves.”
Indigenous art for her isn’t for decolonization, it’s for the culture. Along with Siongco and Flores, these artists are taking the knowledge passed down to them and modernizing it to maintain its relevance, here’s Barcinas again.
“I try to amplify the voice of my grandparents or my elders. My Nana always told us, that if you have two coconut trees, you have everything that you need to survive. Part of honoring that legacy is to be very innovative because that is what our weaving tradition is.”
Despite the medium, whether it be weaving, cooking, or performing, these CHamoru artists believe the practice itself, is preserving indigenous art, and the indigenous self. As they continue to grow and share their talents and beliefs, it continues to fuel the community inside and outside of just the art.
