OPINION Bevacqua: Tu’los mo’na lahi-hu (Paddle ahead, my son)

In this picture, my 19-month-old Makåhna is admiring the Såkman model that is part of the “I Hinanao-ta” exhibit at the Guam Museum.

Earlier this month, the Guam Museum hosted the 33rd annual Pacific Islands Association of Libraries, Archives and Museums (PIALA) conference. It was a great event that brought people from all over Micronesia together for a week-long conference.

As part of the conference, my partner Desiree came to the museum and brought our youngest child, Makåhna.

As curator of the Guam Museum, I have many responsibilities. As a curator, for example, I help with research, writing and sometimes even designing exhibitions for the museum. We are currently preparing for several planned exhibitions in 2025, such as an opening in January that will focus on CHamoru wedding traditions over time. A key part of my tasks is to look after the museum’s collection.

Few people know it, but the museum is responsible for more than 200,000 individual items, ranging from archival documents to historical photographs to archaeological collections.

The Guam Museum is also responsible for guarding the remains of thousands of CHamoru ancestors displaced by construction projects over the past century and collected by archaeologists until the Naftan I Mañaina-ta, or shrine, can be completed and they can be reburied peacefully .

My tasks also include conducting tours and lectures. Sometimes I go to schools and give lectures and presentations, but most of this educational work takes place in the “Hinanao-ta” exhibition, where large and small groups come together through this exhibition, which aims to cover 3,500 years of history of the CHamoru people.

The exhibition is divided into seven galleries, each talking about a different aspect of CHamoru life through time. The Sakman model in this image can be found in the second gallery titled “Ginen i Mañaina-ta,” where the English subtitle is “Our Ancient Heritage.”

I love bringing people to this part of the exhibition where we can see the peculiarities of CHamoru life right at the time of contact with Europeans. We see a snapshot of their religion and culture. We get a glimpse into the weapons they used and the style of warfare they practiced.

There is a large mural that shows us how they fed on the plants and animals that Guam had at the time. There are replicas that show us the lath on which some of their houses were built. And of course there are several panels focusing on her incredible navigation and seafaring skills.

However, this section is always marked by a bit of sadness because the consequences of colonization come to us in the next gallery of the exhibition. One is that the Chamorus have lost their connection to the sea and no longer have the knowledge necessary to navigate the open sea like their ancestors had done for millennia.

As if to underscore this historical reality, a portrait of Ferdinand Magellan appears on the horizon just around the corner leading to the next gallery.

But just like when I see my children playing near this model, hope also arises when you look a little further. CHamorus have been learning how to carve and navigate from others for decades in Micronesia, and the revival is underway in the Mariana Islands and the diaspora.

This canoe was created by the group TASI, which stands for Traditions About Seafaring Islands, whose existence was only made possible by the passionate drive of those from Guam and the Mariana Islands who wanted to know more about what was lost and what was lost from our neighboring islands in Micronesia like Poluwat, who were willing to teach and share.

When I see i lahi-hu standing in front of this canoe, I hope that one day he or one of my other children will take up navigation and seafaring and help us reconnect with the sea and others in the region.

I also hope one of them picks it up because I get seasick pretty quickly…

Michael Lujan Bevacqua is an author, artist, activist and curator at the Guam Museum.