Draft:Julian Aguon

Julian Aguon, an award-winning Indigenous CHamorro writer-activist-lawyer from Guam, is the founder of the Blue Ocean Law firm, a lecturer in Pacific Island Legal Systems at the William S. Richardson School of Law, and is on the Progressive International global advisory council.

Early Life
Julian spent his childhood and adolescent years in Guam, with his family and at the age of 10, lost his dad to pancreatic cancer. His book, The Properties of Perpetual Light, explores these moments of harsh loss in his childhood alongside the delicate joys of friendship, grounding connection to his island and powerful undertones of political commentary on U.S. territoriality, climate devastation, and militarism.

Education & Career
Julian was a student of Simon Sanchez High School and went on to complete his Bachelor of Arts at the Gonzaga University in 2004. In May 2009, Julian graduated with his Doctorate in Jurisprudence from University of Hawai’i at Mānoa’s William S. Richardson School of Law, where he now teaches.

Aguon is the visionary and founder of the Blue Ocean Law firm, based in Guam. Established in 2014, when Aguon was 28 years old, Blue Ocean Law specialises in Pacific human rights, Indigenous self-determination and climate justice. Their approach is based on a decentralised, grassroots structure that platforms holistic-community, human rights-based access to the law, especially for individuals and communities marginalised and excluded in traditional, top-down firm and legal systems. Their areas of practice consist of the most pressing issues to communities in the Pacific, including the climate crisis and defending Pacific ecosystems, holding the legacies and realities of militarisation, nuclear experimentation and research upon the Pacific accountable, and the protection of Indigenous peoples self-determination across the Pacific.

Recently, he has been working alongside the Pacific Network on Globalisation to protect the rights of Indigenous communities in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, and Vanuatu against the growing imposition of the deep sea mining industry seeking expansion into the Pacific. Additionally, Julian defends the decolonisation process of Guam as the Special Assistant Attorney General to the Legislature, and sits on the global advisory council of Progressive International.

Obama Leadership Programme & Petra Fellowship
Aguon was chosen as one of the 21 emerging leaders for the Leaders: Asia-Pacific program run by former President Barack Obama and the Obama Foundation in 2019, recognising his contributions to “breaking new ground at the intersection of international Indigenous rights and environmental law.” This involved a design workshop held in Hawai’i, where these leaders created the programs plan of action to address critical issues and opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region. He was also selected as a Petra Fellow in 2011, for his actions and advocacy on the rights, autonomy and dignity of the Indigenous peoples in Guam and the Pacific.

Writing
His piece, To Hell with Drowning, published in 2021 by The Atlantic, was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Commentary. The Properties of Perpetual Light–which was later republished under the title No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies–won multiple Independent Publisher Book Awards.

Personal Life
Julian’s queer identity as an Indigenous writer, activist and human rights lawyer has been pivotal to his work and the liberation of his peoples. Being gay has been the “gift” that has given him the language to set himself and those he works with–and for–free.

Recommended further readings of Julian Aguon

 * No Country for Eight Spot Butterflies
 * The Mango Trees Already Know
 * Our Stories Are Maps Larger Than Can Be Held: Self-determination and the Normative Force of Law at the Periphery of American Expansionism
 * To Hell with Drowning
 * What We Bury At Night: Disposable Humanity