“Matansa. It means massacre in the Chamorro language, and is a nickname for the village of San Roque in the northern part of the island of Saipan that endured the most brutal slaughtering as a punishment for Chamorro resistance by Imperial Japan in WWII, which was part of an ongoing ethnic cleansing campaign that almost completely wiped out the Chamorro population from the face of the earth. San Roque is my family’s village.” GermanyJapanGenocideWwiiEthnic CleansingSaipanChamorroSan Roque Book:The Desert Warrior Source: The Desert Warrior
“There were waves of genocide that overcame indigenous populations of Oceania and do we have a library of books or films to tell our story? No. We have tourist hula shows and commercials where the “natives” tend to tourists like indentured servants with plastic, lifeless smiles. It’s not such a charming picture, is it? The truth is ugly, but so is ignorance or denial of such atrocities and pain.” TruthPainGenocidePlasticColonialismImperialismIndigenousTourismDocumentationServantsNativesImperialismeIndentured Servant Book:Quixote in Ramadi: An Indigenous Account of Imperialism Source: Quixote in Ramadi: An Indigenous Account of Imperialism