Welcome Reception & Dinner: Celebrating the Pacific Ocean

BEACH CEREMONY: CHAMORU WELCOME & WERIYENG CANOE ARRIVAL

Delegates gather at the Hyatt Regency Beach. The CHamoru cultural welcome begins — chants and singing rising from the shore. Simultaneously, the Micronesian School of Weriyeng’s canoe sails in from the sea.

The canoe’s arrival and the CHamoru welcome are one event: the ocean bringing its travelers ashore as the shore rises to receive them. Two of the oldest maritime traditions in the western Pacific — CHamoru and Carolinian — meet at the water’s edge in a living expression of the inafa’maolek spirit that defines this gathering.

The ceremony concludes as the canoe reaches shore and the Weriyeng delegation is welcomed. Delegates and the delegation move together from the beach to the welcome reception dinner nearby at the Seaside Deck Restaurant at the Hyatt Regency Guam.