The Guam Community College created a series of 16 videos in Fino’ Håya, the indigenous language of the island of Guam, in an effort to revive, promote, and preserve this unique bond to our ancestors. Produced over a period of three years (2010-2012), these videos highlight the pre-contact (before European or Western infusion) way of life – the food, names of plants, fish, illnesses, cures, traditional practices and the culture of the indigenous people of the land.

Fino’ Håya is one of an estimated 1,200 languages in the Austronesian language family that originated in what is now Taiwan more than 5,000 years ago. The first people of the Marianas are believed to have arrived in our archipelago about 3,500 years ago. They spoke a language that was replete with reduplication, affixation, morphophonemic, and linguistic characteristics that are just as strong today as they were in ancient times.

This project was made possible, in part, through a grant from the Administration for Native Americans.

Each video is available in two formats – one version has English subtitles and the other version has sign language.

The videos are available here: Fino’ Håya YouTube Channel

The Fino’ Håya Video Project is also on the Guam Community College website.