Gisela McDaniel
Haga Haga', 2020
Oil on canvas, found object, resin, sound on USB
106.7 x 136.7 x 14 cm
42 1/8 x 53 3/4 x 5 1/2 in
42 1/8 x 53 3/4 x 5 1/2 in
Copyright The Artist
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Two young Chamoru women I met on a first sojourn home to my ancestral island of Guåhan in the northwest Pacific. Our conversations explored Chamoru-Micronesian womanhood from earnestly navigating the...
Two young Chamoru women I met on a first sojourn home to my ancestral island of Guåhan in the northwest Pacific. Our conversations explored Chamoru-Micronesian womanhood from earnestly navigating the expectations of numerous respected women elders on child-rearing (who warned against sweeping after dark) to resilience in the face of both natural and unnatural disasters. Whether recovering from the typhoons that decimate family homes in the space of hours to protesting the movement of 5,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guåhan - “if Japanese grandmothers don’t want them there, then we sure as --- don’t want them here either” - the two Haga Haga’ (blood daughters) of the island express deep love with laughter while speaking of their Palauan, Chamoru, Filipino grandmothers, mothers, aunties, nieces, nephews and children. Fond mentions of “Chamorro Grandmother gold jewelry”, red lipstick, working hard physically and planting taro trees alternate with reflections on the need to survive on an island where very real economic and political struggles shape the lives of people who still insist upon the wisdom of allowing the land, the ocean, and themselves to rest. The painting also includes a butterfly that I found while on island, preserved in resin in the background of the scenery.