Facts you need to know about gathering community input
The Mariana Islands are homelands, the Mariana home islands, including the surrounding waters, air, undersea and space environments, are the heart and soul of the Chamorro and Refaluwasch (Carolinian) cultural and spiritual identities. The late Guam governor Ricky Bordallo conveyed this when he noted: “Guam is not just a piece of real estate to be exploited for its money-making potential.” Above all else, Guam is the homeland of the Chamorro people. That is a fundamental, undeniable truth. We are profoundly ‘taotao tano’—people of the land. This land, tiny as it is, belongs to us just as surely, just as inseparably, as we belong to it. No tragedy of history or declaration of conquest, no legalistic double-talk can change that fact. Guam is our legacy. Is it for sale? How can one sell a national birthright?” (in Phillips, Land Ownership on Guam, Guampedia).Misreading the Community: What Doesn’t Work and the False Perceptions that are Manufactured For decades now, social scientists and other professionals acknowledge (what Micronesian Islanders intrinsically know to be true) that current methods for gathering community input about impacts to natural and cultural resources (i.e., soliciting public statements spoken into a microphone at public meetings, and written comments regarding written reports) are not culturally appropriate for indigenous island communities like those of Micronesia, including the Chamorro and Refaluwasch communities of the Mariana Islands chain. Part of what must be understood from the inception of developing land-use plans, developing Environmental Impact Statements (EIS), to gathering community input, is that the roles and obligations of relationships in Pacific Island cultures are inherently reciprocal. Pacific Islanders are renowned for being good, generous, and thoughtful hosts.
However, what is not as widely nor openly discussed is the fact that there are also obligations and proper etiquette for the guest (e.g., a U.S. government agency like the military). Being a good guest is the other requirement viewed by Pacific Islanders as key and the employment of which provides for a healthy and balanced relationship within the greater context of Pacific Island social systems.
Good Guests Good guests do not ask for more than they should receive given the relationship history and the reciprocal obligations tied to that request. Good guests do not make themselves a burden to a host (e.g., the people of Guam and the NMI). Good guests understand what is too much to ask for or what is overly burdensome behavior. Good guests are humble and respectful in their interactions with the host community, which includes not calling attention to, or downplaying, one’s contributions or actions (i.e., not capitalizing on or taking advantage of the agency’s acts of “giving”). Further, good guests seek to recognize and highlight the great efforts made by the host to accommodate the guest, not the other way around. Not taking these cultural paradigms into account creates a false sense of agreement or acceptance owing to Pacific Islander cultural systems, which call for making guests feel comfortable; providing assistance; being generous/giving/sharing; and morés against saying ‘no’ when asked for something.
Pacific Islanders also have established norms to not speak for other families, clans, or communities and to not speak up out of place or out of turn. Further adding to the complexity of gathering community input in the Mariana Islands is that both Guam and the NMI have experienced unchecked rapid population spurts, which they are disallowed from controlling. Currently on Guam, Chamorros are a plurality (the largest of the ethnic groups present) but are no longer a majority in their own homeland. Some 60 percent of the island population is now non-indigenous and thus have relatively shorter and weaker connections to understand and contextualize just how deeply connected our people are to the total environment. While not entirely dissimilar with regard to plurality, the Chamorros and Refaluwasch of the NMI continue to adhere to their indigenous identity and as such, persistently reinforce their connection to their home islands.
There is, however, an underlying cause for concern in general because many who come from outside the Marianas hold and associate their strongest identities and loyalties to their respective place of birth and/or their homelands. For those without deep roots in the Marianas and who are also aware and care to acknowledge Chamorro and Refaluwasch sentiments, the feeling may be that because they are not tied to the island chain, it would be out of place to tell the indigenous community what should be done with their ancestral land and resources and so may not provide any input. Thus, many in the community may provide input that is not reflective of the historical uniqueness and value of the land, may provide limited or politically incorrect input, or may step aside and not provide any input at all. All of these conditions create situations that can be erroneously read by a government agencyas apathy or agreement. In fact, not showing up or not participating in public hearings is often the indigenous way of protesting the issue(s) at hand.
Inaccurate readings of Mariana Islands community sentiments also arise from the reality that their 250,000 members have been and continue to be overwhelmed with continuous requests for input regarding lengthy, technical, complex American English language documents that refer to one another (i.e., Environmental Impact Statements) which have been 11,000, 4,000, and 1,500 pages long and for which a 30- to 90-day time-frame is allotted within which to read, assess, and provide adequate response. Any community would be overwhelmed and quickly worn out and worn down by the level of requests being demanded of them which is precisely what is occurring. The potential opportunity for creating culturally appropriate methods for gathering input that is truly reflective of Guam and the NMI community is great. The agency just has to have the political good will to develop them not once or twice, but on a recurring basis. Chamorro and Refaluwasch Decision-Making Systems Chamorros and Refaluwasch have their own ways of generating meaningful community input as well as systems and rules about how information should be gathered and imparted. There are family, clan, and community experts, leaders, and elders that manage systems of respect and deference who carry out roles in representing families, clans, and communities, which, if bypassed, are considered inappropriate and disrespectful.
Moreover, Chamorro and Refaluwasch cultures are oral cultures. What is spoken by culturally prescribed and recognized experts, leaders, and elders has more weight and recognition as truth than the written word, especially that written by those from outside the culture and the Marianas. The Chamorro and Refaluwasch cultures are founded on respect for these ancestral systems of archiving and dispensing knowledge and truth. The Government’s Roles and Responsibilities in Gathering Community Input the intended goal of gathering community input regarding damage and destruction to natural and cultural resources is that the input must accurately reflect the true sentiments of the community. That was the intent by those who authored the regulations mandating that it be gathered.
Instead, current methods employed ignore, undermine, and silence Chamorro and Refaluwasch traditional cultural systems for providing such input. This, in effect, creates a dysfunctional system that results in the decline of social systems that, for the past millennia, have been rooted in these islands. According to American federal legislation protecting natural and cultural resources (e.g., NEPA and NHPA), the responsibility is on the entity seeking community input in indigenous communities to find out and provide culturally appropriate means for gathering input that reflects the true sentiments of the community and is not on indigenous communities to go against their cultural systems in order to provide the types of input that are being sought.
Genevieve S. Cabrera
Cinta M. Kaipat
Kelly G. Marsh-Taitano
Rick Perez
