Humanities Guåhan

Country: Guam
Communities: Chamorro
Grant Awarded: 2013
Website: humanitiesguahan.org

The Guam Humanities Council is a small, independent non-profit organization that provides foundational support and educational resources for the people of the Pacific Island of Guam through the public humanities in order to foster community engagement and dialogue, inspire critical thinking, celebrate diversity, and enrich the quality of life of island residents. Throughout its long history as a U.S. territory, Guam has experienced great environmental change that has altered much of its historical, cultural and natural landscape, and transformed indigenous knowledge and skills associated with local food production and consumption. This grant supported the Guam Humanities Council's 'I Tano yan I Tasi' project, which seeks to promote literacy around the principles of ecology and sustainability, and to explore the important connections between food, health, culture and the environment in order to better “grow democracy.” Funds were used to support the participation of GHC in the 2013 Bioneers conference, where they gave a presentation about the traditional cultural and ecological knowledge of the Chamorro people, and how it has changed and been reclaimed over a century of colonialism and militarism in Guam.