Another local film is underway. This time, it’s about the role of women in Chamorro society.
Guam – Ever wonder what the role of women was in the ancient Chamorro times? Leiana San Agustin Naholowa’a is on a journey to not only find out more about her ancestors, but also to see how it was like to be a woman back in the days and how the role of motherhood has changed over the years. Naholowa’a plans on sharing her research with the local community with a film titled Mothering Guahan.
Mothering Guahan Project Advisor Dr. Faye Untalan says, “What she’s trying to do is to trace back over history, such as written legends, written materials, on women on Guam to define better the power of the women in Chamorro society.”
Untalan says Guam’s richness in history, from Guam’s colonization, to Catholicism, to the Americanization of our island, is what influenced the change of the mother role in the modern Chamorro society.
Untalan explains how women held a lot of power hundreds of years ago. She says, “Chamorro is a matrilineal society. Women have a very special role in traditional Chamorro as we have learned in the course of years. The women holds a very important, very powerful role in the family.”