International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples

In 2000 the United Nations established August 9 (today!) as International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples. This year's theme is "The role of indigenous women in the preservation and transmission of traditional knowledge." OSU Press has published many notable books by Indigenous women, including Ethnobotany of the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians by Patricia Whereat Phillips, Kaiāulu by Mehana Blaich Vaughan, and the bestselling Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer (among others). But today, we want to share some books published by our friends at the University of Guam Press.

The mission of the University of Guam Press is to advance regional scholarship, develop cultural literacy, and expand accessibility to knowledge about Micronesia through publications and projects guided by the CHamoru values of inadahi, to watch over, and inagofli’e, to care for each other. They center community perspectives; teach and preserve Indigenous languages; record historical and cultural knowledge and scholarship; and inspire and inform the future. UOG Press creates opportunities for local authors and artists to publish their work. They work in the community to share Press publications with island youth, engage them in writing and art workshops centered on their unique identity as islanders in Guåhan, and empower them to share their stories with the world.

We hope you enjoy these beautiful books as much as we do!

13 Months in Malesso’ by Dolores Barcinas Santos
13 Months in Malesso' captures a distinctly CHamoru sense of time and place, and beautifully illustrates the many ways in which the island of Guam nourishes and sustains its people. The book tells the story of how CHamoru ancestors in the Mariana Islands marked time using the phases of the moon and the important seasons in their lives. Months were named to describe seasonal weather and the best times to fish, plant, and harvest food. The book also explores how just like their ancestors, the Barcinas girls – Lole’, Lia, Rita, Arisa, and Ha’åne’ – mark time using the seasons of their beautiful village of Malesso’ in southern Guam.

CHamoru Legends: A Gathering of Stories by Teresita Perez and Translated into CHamoru by Maria Ana Tenorio Rivera
CHamoru Legends: A Gathering of Stories retells 12 CHamoru legends and includes personal reflections from author Teresita Lourdes Perez, unique illustrations for each legend by Guam artists, and versions of the legends in the CHamoru language by Maria Ana Tenorio Rivera. The publication is a reversible book featuring the legends in English on one side and in CHamoru on the other. It won an Independent Publisher Book Awards Bronze Medal for Best Regional Non-Fiction for Australia/New Zealand/Pacific Rim.

Trees and Shrubs of the Mariana Islands by Lynn Raulerson and Agnes F. Reinhart
Trees and Shrubs of the Mariana Islands offers readers images and valuable information about 102 trees and shrubs that can be found around Guam and the Marianas. It is intended to serve as a guide to help the general public, school children, developers, and tourists identify, propagate/maintain, and learn about the natural history and uses of some of the more important trees and shrubs of the Mariana Islands. This revised edition includes updated photographs, plant names and information and is printed to function as a field guide, with durable, laminated pages to withstand varying weather conditions.