Panel: Culture and Community
Community Preservation – Preserving CHamoru Culture With Historic Sites
Ekungok I Estoria-Ta
By Andrew Tenorio
Guam Preservation Trust
Abstract: Ekungok i Estoria-ta (Listen to our stories) is a Guam Preservation Trust project in partnership with GDOE CHamoru Studies & Special Projects Division and funded by a grant from the Richard and Julia Moe Family Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a first for Guam and for the National Trust. Many historic sites have treasured stories about them. In Guam, there is a need to use the CHamoru language as a means to perpetuate and preserve the telling of these stories using innovative ways. To do this, CHamoru language teachers received training in history methods allowing them to conduct research on a historic site in Guam and discern the most effective way to teach the lesson in their classrooms and also aligning it with CHamoru language curriculum standards. Next, local musicians used the teachers' researched narratives to create original songs and melodies. Finally, the songs were returned to the CHamoru teachers to implement in their classrooms. This community driven project now can be used as a public resource and increase the capacity for CHamoru language teachers and learners to teach, speak, and enjoy learning about Guam history in the CHamoru language. The completed outcomes are available at pacificpreservation.org/eie.
Zoom recording on following page.
