A moving performance by Guma’ Mahiga, kicked off the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the Guam Cultural Repository this week. It was a call on the ancestors to bless the opening of the repository which will house cultural artifacts.

The repository at the University of Guam finally opened its doors after four years in the works.

UOG president, Dr. Thomas Krise, shared that this is in fact the largest prehistoric CHamoru artifact repository in the world.

"This represents a tremendous opportunity for the preservation and celebration, and experience of thousands of years of CHamoru culture, thousands of years of Micronesian culture in this region," he said.

UOG Dean of University Libraries Dr. Monique Storie also explained why Guam needs the facility.

"Its importance is it allows us to care for the materials, the artifacts, the collections, as well as it gives us the opportunity to study more about our history," she said.

For now, the shelves remain empty as we tour the repository, but these empty shelves have a different meaning for other community members like Prutehi Litekyan: Save Ritidian.

They took to social media to share their response saying– for many of us, the repository and the removal of these items represent the desecration of our ancestors and their villages and the continual threats to our heritage.

With one supporter reposting with a powerful message– we don’t belong on hidden shelves. They're referring to the ongoing military build-up which they say is uprooting those sacred objects in the first place.

Prutehi Litekyan also asked thought-provoking questions like– what role does a repository have if its purpose is a result of so much desecration and destruction?

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