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The ancient peoples of the Mariana Islands were recorded to have formed a matrilineal society, where lineage and clan resources were traced through the mother’s line. This differed to most other places around the world where these elements would have been traced through the line of the father. This detail in CHamoru/Chamorro society hints at a greater system of appreciation and protection for the role of women. Whereas the men would be responsible for tasks like open ocean fishing and trading, it was the women’s role to oversee the resources on land, determining how land was to be divided, cultivated, and utilized. Together, the maga’håga (eldest daughter) and maga’låhi (eldest son) would serve as chiefs, governing over decisions of the clan as one.
Throughout our islands’ history, the CHamoru/Chamorro people would continuously carve out spaces for their women to have their voices heard and their counsel accepted in the public discourse. Women served as techas (prayer leaders) in the Spanish era, councilwomen in the US Naval era, senators in the Guamanian era, and now as senators and as governor in this modern age. Despite attempts from foreign powers to relegate women to lower public statuses, the people of the Marianas would never forget how much of their strength as a people came from the wisdom and guidance of women. For within the family, whether they be maga’håga or mother, nåna or nina, the prestige of women has never been forgotten nor their strength overlooked.
For the Maimo’ issue of our newletter, we are celebrating the women in Guam history that inspire and strengthen us. Guampedia currently has 30 Famalåo’an Guåhan (women of Guam) profiled on our website as part of our efforts to remember and learn from these women’s legacies. In this section, members of the newsletter staff and our Board Director reflect on some of the Famalåo’an Guåhan that inspire them.
Beatrice Flores Emsley was one of the first profiles that I ever researched and wrote for Guampedia when I was still in high school. I remember how visceral it was to read old articles at the MARC and see photographs of Emsely, who was only 14 when she survived an attempted beheading during the Japanese occupation. As a high school student, it was so powerful to read about another teenager who survived such horrific circumstances and went on to tell her own story. Emsley became a vocal advocate for CHamoru/Chamorro war reparations, and provided candid and emotional testimony before the US Congress. As a writer, I am also deeply moved by Emsley’s strength and ability to speak openly about her own traumatic experiences to fight for justice for CHamoru/Chamorro war survivors.
Samantha Barnett Newsletter Staff
A woman in Guam history I admire is Maria Palomo Ada.
Auntie Lia was my grandmother’s baby sister, so by default, my life is intertwined, even minutely, with this important woman in Guam’s history. At different times, my aunts (her nieces) worked for her market. So did my grandfather (her brother-in-law). It’s a little odd, then, to think of her as anyone other than Auntie Lia who just happened to have a store, especially since the lasting image I have of her is how she placed her arm around my 11-year-old shoulder as my father’s casket was being lowered into the ground.
Teresita Perez Guampedia Board Director
I honor the formidable women we descend from whose names we cannot remember, and of all the women noted in the pages of our history, I deeply admire Ignacia Bordallo Butler. Chume’lo i nanan Tan Ignacia yan tatan tatå-hu as Don Pedro Borja Pangelinan, Familian Kotla; she is my grand-aunt from my maternal grandfather’s side. Her resolve and resistance to Japanese occupation during World War II reminds me of what our people — especially our women — are capable of in the face of adversity, reaffirming the evolution of our matrilineal culture through nearly 500 years of colonization. Tan Ignacia was a strong, well-rounded, adventurous woman who mothered children, became a business pioneer, uplifted her community, and traveled the world, all qualities I want to emulate in my life.
Zea Pangelinan Nauta Newsletter Staff
Familan Cabesa, Bali Tres yan Gualafon, Samantha Marley Barnett is a PhD candidate in the Indigenous Politics program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She is a published author and editor, and was a 2024 literary arts delegate at the Festival of Pacific Arts. Samantha has served as a lead author in a project with the University of Guam Press to write elementary school social studies textbooks from a culturally rooted, Chamorro perspective, and is an editor for Guampedia. Samantha was recently awarded a research residency in the Oceania Collection at Berlin’s Ethnological Museum, and is currently working on repatriation efforts for Chamorro ancestral remains in Germany and Spain that were taken from the Marianas.
Lazaro Taitano Quinata is a current Guam Studies teacher at Father Duenas Memorial School and Program Coordinator at Guampedia. He graduated from the University of Guam in 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and minor in CHamoru Studies and is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Micronesian Studies. For the last eight years Quinata has worked to empower students throughout the Pacific through the field of education, having served as a teacher in Guam and the Independent State of Samoa. Quinata is also a contributor to Pacific education, co-authoring the Guam Museum exhibition “I Hinanao-ta,” various Guampedia entries and two chapters in the textbook “Learning and Reconciliation Through Indigenous Education in Oceania.”
Zea Francesca Pangelinan Nauta, Familian Kotla yan Galaide, is from the villages of Sånta Rita and Yo’ña. Her grandparents instilled in her a deep love and respect for land and cultivating it, while her parents passed on to her their passion for learning, creating, and connecting. Zea’s growth and evolution led her into performing arts, competitive sports, and creating a cultural awakening blog haganguahan.com. Since moving to Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi in 2016, she acquired a BA in Agro-Ecology from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and earned the privilege to learn traditional food cultivation, native ecosystem restoration, and community-based land stewardship from Hawaiian practitioners. Her current pursuits are constructing a tiny home with her kāne (man); producing an album, and performing spoken-word poetry. She is perpetually on a journey of selfdiscovery and realization to learn how she can best serve her family, the people of Pasifika, humanity, and Mother Earth.