The Guam Humanities Council
Upon interviewing Troy McVey, I gained insight on his personal perspective on the language community of The Guam Humanities Council. Being the Counselors treasurer he manages the organizations money. He is also the Associate Dean, Associate Professor of Theatre College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Guam. Troy McVey shared interesting knowledge of the Guam Humanities Council, such as its purpose and goals to help the different cultures and language communities in Guam as told by him.
The Guam Humanities Council’s purpose is a nonprofit organization that fosters and advocates for humanities. The humanities meaning studying and talking about other people and groups. They receive a lot of their funding from a National Endowment Grant, which specifically pay for the activities and programs involved in the Council. They are located at the Reflection Center in Hagatna, Guam. The two most language based projects that occurred several years ago where the Micronesian Question Project and the 7000 Community Conversations. The Micronesian Question Project provided community engagement workshops that targeted Micronesian youth to express their cultural experience through poetry, reading, and writing on Guam. Several workshop projects were led by University of Guam faculty members such as Ms. Carol Simpson-Warner and Dr. Sharlene Santos Bamba. The 7000 Community Conversation project was a series of conversations of groups regarding the military buildup on Guam. Groups of people from mixed demographic backgrounds were put together. A total of 10 to 15 people facilitated conversations. It was inspired by specific literature and poetry, in addition to ethnic and multi cultural literature seen the American standpoint. Local authors such as Craig Santos Perez where also utilized for this project.
Other big language projects from the Guam Humanities Council coordinated the Mother Reed Project sponsored by the Guam Community College to increase literacy on Guam. There are about ten Mother Reed Centers on Guam mostly located at mayor’s offices and village community centers. About 10-15 groups were taken through specified curriculum programs involving adults and children working together to improve their literacy. It is the only literacy program on Guam continued for more that 7 years.
Troy McVey started working in 2007, when he was asked to coordinate the Black Grace Tour, a New Zealand Aboriginal Dance Group, that was brought out as a fundraiser act in 2007 for a cultural awareness group. It included a university dance workshop, public film, and discussion performance technical consultations. Troy McVey was interested in the Guam Humanities Council because of the way they consistently hear multiple view points that much more focus on Guam and they like to admit celebration of all cultures on Guam. The Guam Humanities Council’s board is made up of 7 people consisting of 4 Chamorros, 1 Filipino, 1 Palauan, and 1 Caucasian. Other big sponsors include Governor Eddie Calvo and First Lady Christine Calvo, who is mostly active in participating in events.
This language community functions through literature, poetry, and writing through a variety of languages and cultures mostly dealing with Chamorro, Chuckesse, Palauan, and other languages within the Marianas Islands. This language community is unique because the people in this organization go out of their way to promote what they do through workshops, group studies, and fundraiser events all to teach people of all ages different cultures outside of Guam. This language community is able to exist cause of the full support from the National Endowment for Humanities, and other big contributors such as Guam CAHA and the Guam Visitors Bureau to engage everyone in this language community.
Critics say they spend too much focus on too many cultures off of Guam and not into the Chamorro culture. The Guam Humanities Council approach to this is to be “all inclusive” and to engage in conversations that are locally relevant and but sometimes bring out other film makers from other islands such as Hawaii and New Zealand, so that the idea is to show that the Guam situation is not as unique as we sometimes think it is with others who have similar struggles outside the American context and have found their own unique solution and ways to celebrate their own unique situation especially in terms of cultivating their tradition and culture in this increasingly global world. Works Cited
McVey.Troy. Personal Interview. 22 Feb. 2014.
GuamWEBZ. KONSEHILON TINAOTAO GUAM Guam Humanities Council. 2014. Web. 22 February 2014.