Estella Gofigan distinctly remembers the pangs of her stomach as she watched her classmates eat their lunch. Her teacher took away the only money she had to eat. Sitting there in the cafeteria, she wondered why what she did was so bad. Her only “misdeed” was speaking her native language of CHamoru at school. Estella was raised during a time in Guam when children were punished for speaking the Indigenous language of the island.

From paying fines to forms of corporal punishment (such as getting hit by a yardstick), children were being taught that their language was bad and that they should only speak English. Estella remembers being told that she would never amount to anything if she did not know English. This story shows one fundamental truth about colonization. Colonial rule happens at the political level, but colonial subjugation would be unsuccessful without the psychological, cultural, and linguistic components lying at the root of colonialism.

In this module, we will learn more about how colonialism operates on an everyday level. We will also explore what everyday decolonization means in the Pacific Islands. We will understand how culture and language revitalization movements are used for self-determination, and explore how Indigenous people contribute to global thriving.