Hu senti i man mofona na famalaoan:
I can feel the first women
malalagu gi giga:
flowing through my veins
mong mong mong gi korason hu:
slamming through my heart
masangangan niyu I estorian niha:
telling me their story,
We watched Spanish explorers sail to our beaches,
believed that these foreigners
would honor our way of life
so we welcomed them like family,
took them into our villages,
and showed them, how
we lived in equality.
Like ancient roots
The bond between our men, and women
ran deep.
We nurtured our young
until they were able to bear futures;
our children understood
that strength
was not determined by gender.
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Together,
Chamoru men and women
held up our homes;
supporting households like towering latte stones
Male chiefs stood for generations,
,but they could not exist
without their female counterparts.
The Magalahi and Maga’haga stood side by side
like mountains,
but these colonists cowered at the strength in our women.
and As if our thighs were ocean floors,
they anchored themselves inside us.
They defiled our blood
and raped our status out of existence.
-----------
We were as mighty as their Kings
So they demanded our tongues be silenced
forced our power to bow at their feet
like peasants,
Their swords and bullets pierced our skin,
and we were reduced from mountains to rubble
We saw our sons and daughters
slaughtered for our way of life.
We knew that saving our children
meant saving our culture.
So we wove health into our villages
suruhanas, healers who inhaled disease
and exhaled life back into the bodies of our sick.
We were legends
reduced to stories of struggle.
Tales of women who endured.
Our survival was more important than our names,
and so our identities remain lost
like our 4,000 years of equality.
Generations of peace;
burnt and broken
like the bond between our chiefs.
like the bond between our men and women,
the bond between our people...
the bond between our past and our present
is broken by the spanish blood that now flows within us.
We are descendants of our own conquerors.
Some Chamoru men, no longer see us as equals,
and most Chamoru women don’t know
what it means to be Maga’ Haga.
Today, We’re still trying to understand
how our matrilineal ancestry
was lost;
making us venerate founding fathers,
while forgetting our foremothers:
the strong Maga’ Haga,
who braved through tides of change.
We are living in a world where sexism is a form of colonization.
and like generations before us,
we will fight
so our people will again understand
the true worth of women.
We may be living in a colonized society,
but we are never to be silenced.
We will not be forced into submission
by foreign patriarchs.
We need our Maga’lahi to stand with us.
Our duty is to keep our culture alive.
to open the eyes of our people
and find our way back home
ginen halom i taotao- hu:
within me
Hu senti I man mofona na famalaoan:
I can feel the first women
maisa ha i fino-ta:
we speak as one
Un Nai I lina'la gi I kuturata.
Man Maga’ Haga Ham. Munga Maleffa Ham.
We give life to our culture.
WE ARE MAGA’ HAGA. Remember us