Buenas todos hamyo!
This is my first blog for the course, so hopefully I can get some feedback from all of you and utilize this blog to its maximum potential. As we all know, this month is Mes Chamoru, or Chamoru Month. We are supposed to be using this month to perpetuate and promote the indigenous culture and language of our beautiful archipelago, but it seems that most of the students don't see it as an opportunity to to just that, they see it only as an excuse to have a fiesta and "party out."
This is rather disheartening because living the culture and language is something that should be near and dear to all of our hearts, but we do live in a very colonized and American society, so its understandable. I'm trying hard to get the students to understand the importance of learning the language and culture, but some of them don't seem to care because they see no economic value to it.
I've shown examples of cultures who have completely lost their language and indigenous practices and how we do NOT want to be like that and it has gotten through to quite a number of them. Also, during lunch time I showed the movie, "Avatar", and used it as an example of outside nations coming into a peaceful and stable society and taking over. I compared the humans to Spaniards, Japanese, and American soldiers and forces who controlled us, and the Navi people as the indigenous Chamoru race. I found that doing this really made a difference and kind of rallied a sense of pride amongst my students because they now saw what was taken from them and how hard our people had to fight for what little we still have left.
Please educate your students this month on the importance of celebrating Mes Chamoru!
Good movie choice to drive home the point! You're right about how Chamorro month is seen as a time to have a fiesta. I mean if the school doesn't value Chamorro month then why would the students. Every content area should do some kind of lesson on Chamorro month. This way the students can establish a relevance and attachment to the topic.
ReplyDeleteHow hard is it to get "rid" of the "colonized mind" right? And It is an obstacle that is worth facing.
ReplyDeleteKudos to you for educating students on the ills of colonization and instilling a sense of the necessity to eradicate it! A lot of my undergraduate work has focused on strengthening the spirit and mobilizing the will for change in a direction toward decolonization for Guam. That's actually one of the main reasons I chose to be a teacher, so I can break the cycle of generations who are not informed about the negative impact of colonization on Guam.
ReplyDelete