Tådong Marianas

Storytelling Across the Marianas

By Samantha Barnett and Andrew Gumataotao

Abstract

Tåhdong Marianas (FY2020)—a collective of young CHamoru scholars, artists, activists, and filmmakers—was awarded $10,000 from Humanities Guåhan to produce and screen a media project that gathers the oral histories of musicians and cultural practitioners from across the Marianas archipelago. Tåhdong Marianas aims to foster deeper connections between communities throughout the Marianas, and our project compiles life narratives from musicians and cultural practitioners in the Marianas. Our media project aims to produce a nuanced understanding of contemporary Marianas identity, covering issues of cultural reclamations, land-based connections, and Indigenous storytelling and performance practices. In this session, project directors Andrew Gumataotao and Samantha Marley Barnett will discuss their experiences traveling and storytelling across the Marianas, and share key themes and issues that have been articulated in their interviews with cultural practitioners throughout the archipelago