Indigenous Geopoetics in Selected Poems by Craig Santos Perez

Craig Santos Perez is a prolific indigenous Chamorro poet, academic, and environmentalist who has been devoting his entire work to raising awareness about his local culture and the Pacific Islanders' suffering under the consecutive occupation for more than four centuries. Perez usually integrates culture, history, and geography in his poetry. The poet was brought up as a native Chamorro whose culture teaches them to believe that all species and other elements of nature are "akin". Therefore, he has developed his own concept of geopoetics which is basically about the relationship of humans, non-humans, and other-than-human elements to include the ability of this type of poetry to decolonize his occupied island, Guam, and heal the ravages of man's malpractices towards nature. Using an ecocritical approach, the article aims to identify Perez's definition of geopoetics pertaining to the Chamorro cultural worldviews. It will also investigate how the characteristic features of the term are indicated in a selection of Perez's poems.