A Defence Democracy ‘in’ the United States : Gender and Politics in the Unincorporated Territory of Guam
Date
Authors
Frain, S
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
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Volume Title
Publisher
University of Malta. Islands and Small States Institute
Abstract
In 2018, the island of Guåhan (Guam), an unincorporated territory of the United States (US), elected the island’s first “Maga’håga” or first woman Governor of Guam, Lourdes Leon Guerrero. Guåhan became the first state or territory “in” the US to secure a legislative supermajority with all three branches of government headed by a woman. While political progress should be celebrated, local power is constrained by contemporary US colonial structures that enable expanding militarisation. This paper offers an island-centric and gendered analysis of the politics on Guåhan, revealing contesting Indigenous and colonial control over i tåno’ (the land) of a sacred site, Litekyan (Ritidian Point). Defence democracy is demonstrated as the US military flouts locally passed Legislative Resolutions to construct a US$78 million Multi-Purpose Machine Gun Range. This is possible due to “imperial feminisms” frameworks, which celebrates elite female leaders within colonial systems. In response, the Indigenous famalåo’an Guåhan (women of Guam) have organised through the community group, Prutehi Litekyan: Protect Ritidian.Description
Keywords
Colonisation; Gender; Guam; Militarisation; Pacific; Politics
Source
Small States & Territories, 3(2), 319-338.
DOI
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Rights statement
Small States & Territories (SST) is a scholarly, open-access journal dedicated exclusively to the study of the nature and workings of small sovereign states (however defined) and non-sovereign territories, and including the comparison between the two. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution: No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported Licence.