The concept of Maintenance activities refers to a series of everyday life activities that address fundamental human needs through an interpersonal relationship of care.

The emphasis on cultural persistence is grounded in Indigenous, postcolonial and feminist studies that underscore the importance of establishing cultural continuity to understand the past and how it has shaped the present.

We understand gender in a broad sense —as a dynamic, flexible, and historically situated social structure that is continuously in process.

Transgenerational learning is a maintenance activity that is characterized by the dynamics of inter- and intra-generational learning and teaching that takes place through affective relationships.

Healways refers to the tangible practices, customs, beliefs, and conceptual frameworks that shape how individuals and communities understand and manage illness, health, and healing. The term has been developed to capture the specific medical cultures of a given time and place through the analysis of their enactments.

We will use the concept of dresscapes to encapsulate the complex web of interrelationships between the construction of selves, values, material culture, landscape, and technology in relation to dress, clothing, and ornamentation.

Tåno’ Låguas yan Gåni is the CHamoru name given to a 15 island archipelago located in the Pacific ocean, between 13 – 21º N latitude and 144 – 146º E longitude. This archipelago is also known as Mariana Islands following the name that Spanish colonial agents gave to the islands in the 17th century.