Gi Matan Guma’ wraps up its cultural immersion camp with CHamoru youths today at an event in Southern California, where Kutturan CHamoru Foundation will be celebrating its 32nd anniversary while providing an opportunity for the youths to showcase what they learned.  

At the Homeland Cultural Center in Long Beach, “you'll see the students activating the teachings and the creativity that that we're facilitating this weekend,” said Dakota Camacho, co-founder of Gi Matan Guma’. “That is a fundraiser for the Kutturan CHamoru Foundation, and it's a great way to get an insight into how we work and what can happen when we pass our culture on to the next generation.”

Afterward, they immediately head to Seattle, where they will conduct workshops on Aug. 19 and 20 for all ages on weaving, printing ancestral designs and more. The following day, Gi Matan Guma’ hosts a community event at Waterfront Park on Aug. 21 that “re-imagines Mali'e' (Kantan CHamurita) a Matao-CHamoru poetic tradition, as an inter-cultural cypher ceremony,” according to the event flyer.  

They’ll then head south to Vancouver for the Marianas Festival, where they will offer a workshop on lålai (chant) and other cultural practices for those interested in healing, spiritual development, indigenizing practices, honing artistic expression, and/or fino' håya (our ancestral language), according to the website. 

Throughout this tour, they’ve connected with CHamorus throughout the diaspora who are drawn to their programs and events, which they hope speak to everyone, from manåmko' to famagu’on.

“We're really intentional about creating intergenerational spaces, because that's reflective right of of our ways of being and inafa'maolek,” said Lourdez Velasco, a multidisciplinary artist who is participating Gi Matan Guma’s three-week, bicoastal tour. 

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“I think that our parents can often look at what we're doing and be like, ‘Hmm, that's different, yeah,” Dakota said. “What's been really beautiful you know about our work, both here gi sanlagu and also at home, is that I think that the older generation … sees something in what we're doing, and they hang out and they stay curious. They may not say anything, but, but they'll be there.

“Like my parents - my parents came to the activation that we did last year, and my dad just said (nods head silently and gives a thumbs up) …  and you know, the yo’amte  that I mentioned earlier, you know, they see the value in what we're doing too. They come from the older generation. And of course, you know, they bless the work and see the beauty in it.” 

In turn, members of the Gi Matan Guma’ cohort are experiencing the beauty and value of their work directly through the community, particularly the young CHamorus who travel from afar to try to connect with their heritage. 

“I had an experience of that, and it was really beautiful,” Alethea Bordallo recalled. “When we were doing the sound healing session, I was sitting down with a young CHamoru person who heard about us through social media and just shared that they may know certain family names that they have in their ancestry, but they really don't know … the actual people in the families unless they come out to Guahan. So, like, our group is sort of like an entry point towards that journey.” 

Lourdez speaks eloquently about their own personal journey with Mali'e' to “deepen and believe in my own CHamoru-ness.”

“I think we have a lot of loved ones … not feeling CHamoru enough, maybe even if they were born in Guahan, or maybe they haven't lived there, and like really wanting to find that sense of belonging. 

“Even speaking to my mom herself, like growing up in Guahan, she's like, ‘wow, you're learning a lot more about like, our creation stories and our language that I didn't have the opportunity to learn.’ And I know that stems right from colonization and and she was part of the generations that were not encouraged to speak CHamoru. 

“And so a lot of my own mahålang, I see and feel through my mother. And I think Mali'e' has been like has allowed me to feel not just compassion, but have more understanding of my parents’ stories, and maybe the stories they haven't told us, maybe the stories that my grandparents, my Nana and Tata haven't told me, you know? And I think there's a lot of healing that we all get to experience, because it is very spiritual. …

“I know that on a personal level and an intergenerational level, there's some deep, deep healing that we're accessing. And sometimes it's not easy, sometimes a chant will like, pull on a heart string, and you're like, ‘whoa, where did that come from, right?’ 

‘And sometimes it's not even our own grief. It's like, related to the grief we come from. And so I think a lot of the things that we're doing have been really integral to my own healing, and I know for so many of us in Mali'e', and for me, the storytelling is such a big part of that, I think it helps us to also really challenge the silence that many of our families have around our stories due to trauma. 

‘But I think that Mali'e' allows us to really center in our joy of what it means to be CHamoru and what it means to move and love and care … so many of us talk about belonging, but I think of all those things in relation to the ways that we are creating community and really wanting to invite people, no matter if …  you're mamåhlao or whatever, we're like, no please, please come because you are not alone in that, and we are all reaching for each other.”

If you would like to connect with Gi Matan Guma, here are upcoming and ongoing opportunities:

Programs and events

Aug. 19-20: Mali'e' Taotao workshops 1-6 p.m. at the yəhaw̓ Indigenous Creatives Collective at 9666 51st Ave. S in Seattle, WA

Aug. 21: Mali'e' Taotao community activation 3-5:30 p.m. at Waterfront Park’s Pier 62 at 1951 Alaskan Way in Seattle, WA

Aug. 22: Hinasson Nina'huyong Matao - CHamoru Self-Actualization Through Art,

Ceremony, and Lålai workshop 2-5 p.m. at Heritage High School, 7825 NE 130th Ave. in Vancouver, WA. Cost is free, but you must register at MarianasFestival.com/2025 workshops.

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