29 Sep Cultivate the Spirit: The Sling
Fokai Sling and Sword Tee
What is the ” Sling” in ” Sling and Sword”? and what is fokai’s connection to it?
The sling is a weapon used across the planet from thusands of years ago. Its not certain who had been the first ones to do it; its theorized that it might be one of those things that just kind of showed up at the same time in unrelated places.
Besides joining David in the ongoing fight against Goliath, Our main connection to slinging is through culture.
The sling is an ancient weapon of the early native Chamorros and it was something very activated within the community. Considering that the ancient Chamorro society may have been around as long as 5000 years..it’s amazing that still hikers, bystandres, and archaeologists still find (are gifted) them today.
When the Spanish invaded Guam in 1521, what might have started out as gift-trading, evolved into a war when the Spanish decided to colonize a very peaceful and happy Guam. The aspirations to spread Christianity and give Spain more property and power, came at the cost of the lives of tens of thousands of Chamorros who didnt want to give up their way of life to surrender fightlessly to the greedy foreginers.
The Chamorro people had fought incessantly for close to 75 years. it was with the mobility of the Flying Proa that allowed the island rebels to retreat and regroup to outer islands to reset forces, and their proficiency with the sling to fight Spanish forces from a distance.
After Guam had lost the war, the majority of Flying Proas were destroyed and the art of slinging was banned . The rise of gun powder and moderne weaponry would prove the need for the sling to be obsolete, and outside of a few–the art of slinging has disappeared from the masses and has been for the most part tucked away in the decaying pile of many of Guam’s old traditions.
The revival of the art of slinging has been a great way to reconnect with the ancestors of Guam and holds a great sybolism for the active efforts to exhibiting out islands positively and formidably to the world.