Julian Aguon - The Properties of Perpetual Light

PRAISE FOR
The Properties of Perpetual Light

A powerful, beautiful book. Its fierce loveof the land, the ocean, the elders, and the ancestorswarms the heart and moves th e spirit.

- Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple , Winner of the Pulitzer Prize f or Fictio n

A breathtaking book and I mean itthis book took my breath away. The Properties of Perpetual Light is so alive with passion, wisdom, and heart, you can almost feel its pulse. A call not only for justice but for a brand-new covenant with o ur world.

-Junot Daz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao , Winner of the Pulitzer Prize f or Fiction

I did not know I needed this book until it had me in its embrace like the oldest and dearest of friends, from the very first page. Overflowing with warmth and wisdom and defying all categorization, The Properties of Perpetual Light is philosophy, poetry, memoir, history and self-help for humanity. With bottomless love for his people and place, Aguon guides us through a portal to the Pacific, sharing deep insights earned from life on the existential knif es edge.

-Naomi Klein, Senior Correspondent at The Intercept and author of The Shock Doctrine and This Changes Everything

Inspired spiritual and practical wisdom from a Guam lawyer/poet/seer that transmits ways of knowing, feeling, and acting, which speak directly to the mind and heart of everyone on the planet. If reading this short book doesnt change your life, noth ing will.

- Richard Falk, Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University, and former Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967

Aguon writes what it is to belong to the Pacific, to long for the first light of dawn, and to dedicate ones spirit to endlessly creating new worlds. The Properties of Perpetual Light i s a gift.

- Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, author of As We Have A lways Done

Aguon gifts us, in shrunken times, the indigenous version of the all-encompassing vision that Aristotle and his disciple Aquinas bequeathed humanity: truth equals beauty equals goodness.

-Maivn Lm, author of At the Edge of the State

A marvelous mix of meditation, reflection, passion, and analysis that provides a fresh perspective the world bad ly needs.

-John Burroughs, Executive Director, Lawyers Committee on Nucl ear Policy

Aguon is one of Oceanias most important thinkers who uses his ability to see through complicated systems to fight for our islands and peoples. With razor-sharp analysis and a ton of heart, he both defends and calls forth our communities. I will regularly return to this book for inspirationto remind me why I do my own work.

- Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, author of Iep Jaltok: Poems from a Marshalles e Daughter

Aguons words go to battle for justice with the kindness, curiosity, and lyricism of a true artist and human being. The Properties of Perpetual Ligh t shines its own bright lightthe colors are rich, and the words tran scendent.

- Maxine Burkett, Professor of Law, William S. Richardson School of Law and Wilson Center Glo bal Fellow

Aguons work transcends all boundaries and centers Indigenous relationships to people and place. Whether drawing on his legal or poetic skills, Aguon reckons with the rage and violence of colonialism while gently unfolding a new vision for justice and healing. One of the entries included here, We Have No Need for Scientists , is now taped on my off ice door!

- Holly Barker, author of Bravo for the M arshallese

What an incredible gift. This book is a powerful spiritual remix, a multi-scalar tapestry of love, kinship, resistance, and creative survival from Oceania. His tribute to our late elder sister, Teresia, brought tears of grief and joy. Ko bati n rabwa Julian, we will live... on our own terms.

- Katerina Martina Teaiwa, author of Consuming Oce an Island

Aguons pen is a spear. He has the unerring ability to pierce the heart of any matter he writes about, from colonialism to climate change, and he writes in a way that both exposes horrors and expresses love to t he young.

-Noenoe K. Silva, author of Aloh a Betrayed

A celebration of Indigenous hope and survivance amid the destructive and desecrating forces of militarism, capitalism, and climate change, and a provocation for collective action for just and sustainable futures in the Marianasa must read for anyone interested in the beauty of Indigenous worlds and struggles for li beration!

- Christine Taitano DeLisle, author of Placenta l Politics

Reading this collection reminds me of being immersed in our ocean. The sunlight that illuminates the water cannot be held, and yet to behold the ways rays and sea dance together opens the soul. The Properties of Perpetual Light provokes a similar kind of awe. Aguon is one of Oceanias most brilliant advocates and expansive voicesa voice that urgently needs to be heard.

-Noelani Goodyear-Kapua, author of The Seeds We Planted

This book is a giftfull of beauty, truth telling, and love. This book will enlighten and inspire anyone interested in understanding and doing something about colonialism, capitalism, racism, militarism, war, and violence of all kinds. As importantly, this book will move you emotionally. It will move you to change how you live your life. It will move you to help change the world for the better.

-David Vine, author of Base Nation and The United Sta tes of War

This book is many things. Its a lantern to be held against the historical darkness that has long threatened to swallow our islands. Its a gentle, insistent guide. Its a call to gather and grieve. To retreat not into ourselves but into the village, where the only way to bear the heaviness is to bear it together.

- Siobhon McManus, writer and NDN Changema ker Fellow

Aguon tells the Chamorro story by merging a profound love for our indigenous people and culture with his potent intellect and creativ e genius.

- Anne Perez Hattori, author of Colonial Dis-Ease

Like an island of star-shaped sand, this book is high grounda place to stand in rising seas, where beauty and vulnerability are the fulcrum with which to move t he world.

-Kyle Kajihiro, Hawaii-based educator an d activist

A devastatingly gentle song of re sistance.

- Jonathan K. K. Osorio, author of Dismembe ring Lhui

Copyright 2021 by Julian Aguon
All rights reserved. Copyright is meant to respect the imagination, artistry, research and hard work that go into bringing a book to life. Please respect all copyright laws by not reproducing this book in any manner without permission from the publisher except in brief quotations used for research, private studies, critical texts or reviews.

Published by University of Guam Press
Richard Flores Taitano Micronesian Area Research Center
303 University Drive
UOG Station
Mangilao, Guam 96923
(671) 735-2154
www.uog.edu/uogpress

Edited by Victoria-Lola Leon Guerrero
Cover Art and Interior Design by Ralph Eurich Patacsil

ISBN 978-1-935198-59-8

Some of the entries in this collection have appeared elsewhere in slightly different form: No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies in The Wire ; Birthday Cakes Mean Birthdays in In These Times ; The Ocean Within in Storyboard 11 ; and My Mothers Bamboo Bracelets: A Handful of Lessons on Saving the World in Home (Is)lands and Indigenous Literatures from Micronesia .