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Local Guam artists release Protector's Anthem

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HOST INTRO/NAINA RAO: Earlier this month, a team of local Guam artists released a song called Protector's Anthem, which they hope will inspire their community towards resilience as the pacific region faces increased militarization. KPRG’s Gilayna Santos finds out how the artists came together to write it and produce the music video.

GILAYNA SANTOS: Cara Flores of Nihi Indigenous Media was the director of the music video for Protector’s Anthem. It was performed by Shannon McManus, who is one half of the jazz duo Microchild, and local musician Jonah Hånom. The artists released their new song associated with Protect Guam Water’s mission. It’s a youth advocacy group dedicated to preserving Guam’s natural resources. When I spoke with them to delve more into the writing process, they touched on how culture heavily influenced their collaboration. And some of the visuals they got, included old footage of Nasion CHamoru… a CHamoru rights organization from the nineties whose actions irrevocably altered perceptions of Guam’s history, CHamoru culture, and its relationship with the United States.

SANTOS: Cara, you want to talk about how it’s kind of been an idea for you for a while?

CARA FLORES: During COVID, we had some extra funding where we were actually able to engage artists and Shannon and Jonah already are producing music to increase awareness of some of the issues that we struggle with. And we produce media to do the same thing, so it was like a natural collaboration.

SANTOS: Here’s Jonah Hånom.

JONAH HÅNOM: We kind of just had a bunch of different voice memos out. And then we just kept recording back and forth until it became what it became.

SANTOS: Yes, there's a lot of references to things that are happening right now.

SANTOS: Like, why should we value what our Nåna said? Who is our Nåna, by the way?

HÅNOM: Nåna is our matrilineal ancestor.

FLORES: In our creation story, our first ancestor, Fo'na made the earth from her brother's body and her spirit is what gives everything life, right. So in many ways, she is everyone's Nåna. It's really our nånas that hold our families together, it's our nånas that take care of us and, our Nåna is really like the Earth as well. And so in that sense, she has something to say to us, like, our actual Nånas might have told us to take care of each other and to be careful but oftentimes, we're not like tuning into what the Earth is actually telling us and what our island needs in order for it to sustain future generations.

SANTOS: So how did you decide on some of these visuals?

FLORES: It was a nod to the women who shaved their heads and wove a giant net to save Guam, it ended up being like okay, like what story would the land tell. Like, the women who are like look like the såkåti (sword grass) and are telling a story of the land. The intention though behind both scenes was to see that we are not separate from nature.

SANTOS: Some of the old footage, I wanted to talk about that, where did you get all of that footage?

FLORES: A multitude of places, KUAM we specifically requested the dates from the Potts Junction protest of Uncle Ed and Angel Santos and, i mean everyone else who, I wish I had the names in front of me, but who jumped over the fence on that day. All of the rest of the footage we got it from MARC and also just from our own YouTube searches. The initial theme is injustice, and then we move into like, the power of the people and action, and by the end we recenter in the joy of our people.

SANTOS:  Where you see NASION and their activism and how they put their activism into action, compared to how activism kind of works today. Is there a need for that type of overt action, the way that they, did it?

SHANNON MCMANUS: I feel like for us it’s the two go hand in hand.

SANTOS: That’s Shannon McManus.

MCMANUS: What they were doing, I mean, they were doing the same things that we’re doing today, we’re doing the same things they were doing.

HÅNOM: I feel like ultimately who they were, were men of the land. But if there is anything we do, we’re artists, that's what we're best at. So, I feel like we have like this responsibility to not just like be straightforward activist, but use what we're good at, to be active.

SANTOS: So if you weren’t CHamoru, I think people would want to know what Fanhoge means.

MCMANUS: Yeah, to rise or to stand. For a while, we were running around with a different hook. And it was for the longest time it was fakmåta, which is to wake up, which is that same kind of language of like, we want people to, like, wake up to the things that are happening. And then in speaking CHamoru and adding CHamoru in a way that can give listeners an access point to the language. So it's a real active process that we're engaging in on purpose, to learn the language as well as to get other people excited about learning the language. And then opening that call up to the rest of the islands, all of Micronesia and looking at each other and, and making those connections in that we're more than you know, our political affiliations, we are people from the same ancestry from the same lands from the same ocean. And that together we're so much stronger than all of these things that come and try to define us. So it's, there's a lot of power in that unity as well.

SANTOS: Jonah Hånom, Cara Flores and Shannon McManus, thank you so much for joining me today.

HÅNOM: Thank you for having us.

Gilayna Santos is Isla Public Media's former reporter/host.