Kristin Oberiano

In War Stories, Typhoon Tales, Oberiano examines the ecological dimension of imperialism, exploring the ramifications of global climate change and militarization on the lives of the Indigenous Chamorro people and Asian migrants in the Marianas archipelago. Through an emphasis on Indigenous geography and oral tradition that is embedded in knowledge of the lands, the sky, seas, the flora, and fauna, War Stories, Typhoon Tales proposes an alternative form of history narration, one that is not solely derived from the colonial and institutional archives, but is remembered through stories held within families, communities, or “common knowledge” among island residents. In doing so, she attempts to shift the geography and temporality of the existing Marianas historiography by employing a dynamic methodology that restructures the canonical historical timeline and by using grounded local experiences and community memories of weather and climate events as a nexus to understand various historical phenomenon. By connecting these memories across time (climatic time) and space (the whole Marianas archipelago), War Stories, Typhoon Tales gives us an alternative perspective of how we come to understand the discipline of history. Ultimately, War Stories, Typhoon Tales emphasizes the deeply held relationships between people and the environment and how we tell stories and tales generation after generation—often in the hopes of remembering the past so that we all can contribute to an optimistic future.