WEBVTT

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So while I'm getting
technical assistance,

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just by a show of hands, how
many of you in the audience

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identify as a Pacific Islander?

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Have a look around.

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How many of you with your hands
still raised personally know

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a Pacific Islander?

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Not just know of them,
right, like we know them.

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If your hand is not raised,
I'm sorry to break it to you.

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They're not all as good
looking or charming as I am,

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but you should still
get to know them.

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Keep your hand up if you
know a Pacific Islander,

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and you have heard of
the island of Guahan?

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Sure!

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Re-raise your hand if you
know about the island of Guam.

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They're the same island.

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Cool.

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So I'm a native CHamoru
from the island of Guahan.

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In the Chamorro language,
that means "we have."

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You know it as Guam.

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And I'd like to talk
to you a little bit

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about Pacific Islander
visibility and invisibility.

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First of all, I'd like to show
you a picture of Ritidian.

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In Chamorro, it's
called Litekyan,

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and this will be
pertinent to the poem

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that I'm about to read to you.

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There is an online
petition that I can also

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direct you to based on the
group Protehi Litekyan, which

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is to defend Litekyan.

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If you don't know a lot
about the island of Guahan,

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I will just lead
with the fact that we

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are an unincorporated territory
of the United States, which

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means that we are subject
to all of its laws

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but retain no voting rights.

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So we have one
member of Congress

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that is a non-voting member.

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Raise your hand if you have
heard of Guam in the news

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lately.

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Most of that talk is
about military threat

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and some would argue that it
is coming from North Korea.

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And many more would argue that
it is from US military threat

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that we are most afraid.

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Litekyan Point,
or Ritidian Point,

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is currently under threat
of being turned into a US

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military firing range and
so the land that you're

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looking at presented here would
be used as a live firing range

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by military personnel from
Andersen Air Force base.

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As it is right now,
it is not in the hands

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of indigenous CHamoru.

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The US still owns
this land, as it

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does one third of this
very tiny island that's

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about 33 miles long and 7
miles wide at the widest.

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I'd like to read a poem that
I wrote in response to Guam

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being in the news lately.

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And so what can you
do to be in solidarity

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with me, the only Pacific
Islander in this room?

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You can help share this
with the Pacific Islanders

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that you do know,
or you could come

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and get to know me or
other Pacific Islanders.

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