Guam's Militarization by the U.S. Is Also a Story of Indigenous Resistance
Located in the western Pacific, the unofficial motto of Guam is: “Where America’s day begins.” Guam has been under continued colonization for the past 500 years, first by the Spanish, then the Japanese, and then the Americans. An estimated 30% of Guam’s land is owned by the Department of Defense, and the island is heavily militarized, which has resulted in the destruction of its natural habitat. Much of the attention paid to Guam is focused on the U.S. presence there, shelving the contribution of the island's Indigenous peoples and ignoring their way of living and seeing the world. The Properties of Perpetual Light, a forthcoming book by Indigenous Chamorro human rights lawyer Julian Aguon, is trying to remedy this.
Aguon is the founder of Blue Ocean Law, the only human rights law firm in the Pacific, where he takes on cases involving Indigenous rights, environmental justice, and self-determination. The Properties of Perpetual Light tackles these themes, but through a decidedly intimate lens. Indigenous acts of resistance and reliance are featured alongside stories of personal trauma. Grief is a thread through the book — both personal and collective grief over ramped-up militarization, nuclear warfare, and climate change.
It is hard to pin down this book. It is political, in the sense that “the personal is political,” but it is not a political history of the colonization of Guam by the United States. It is philosophical, but not dense, nor full of moral arguments. There are poems, graduation speeches, essays that read like personal letters to a family member, and even an interview with a close friend. Collectively, it makes sense. After all, when the world’s biggest superpower has set up shop in your backyard, what is the right thing to say? A vignette about fishing or a poem about a flower offers a valid act of resistance. Perhaps it is easier, then, to call this book a gift: a gift to Indigenous communities everywhere in the world, and to those of us who have so much to learn from these cultures.
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https://www.teenvogue.com/story/guam-militarization-united-states-properties-of-perpetual-light
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