Keynote
Dr. Keith L. Camacho
Professor & Vice-Chair
Department of Asian American Studies
College of Social Sciences
University of California Los Angeles
With graduate degrees from CPIS and Department of History at the University of Hawai‘i–Mānoa, Dr. Keith Camacho is Professor of Asian American Studies at University of California–Los Angeles and winner of the prestigious 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship. Dr. Camacho’s recent works include Sacred Men: Law, Torture, and Retribution in Guam (2019, Duke University Press) and the edited volume Reppin’: Pacific Islander Youth and Native Justice (2021, University of Washington Press).
Closing Plenary Panel
Roundtable Discussion of Pacific Studies: A Transformational Movement
Introduction to Panel by Dr. Alexander Mawyer
Panelists:
Joy Enomoto, Editor of Pacific Studies
Shanty Sigrah Asher, City & County of Honolulu
Tara Kabutaulaka, University of Hawaiʻi
Keith Camacho, University of California Los Angeles
As a Black, Kanaka Maoli, Japanese, Scottish, Caddo and Punjabi visual artist, I engage with issues of climate justice, plantation genealogies and the memory of violence within land and seascapes. Concerned primarily with issues impacting Oceania, my work combines drawing, printmaking, fiber art and photography. Driven by our ancestors, our rivers and our mountains, my process is not an individual practice, I am committed to collaborating with other artists/writers and communities who are fighting for social justice and the protection of our sacred lands and waters.
Professor & Vice-Chair
With graduate degrees from CPIS and Department of History at the University of Hawai‘i–Mānoa, Dr. Keith Camacho is Professor of Asian American Studies at University of California–Los Angeles and winner of the prestigious 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship. Dr. Camacho’s recent works include Sacred Men: Law, Torture, and Retribution in Guam (2019, Duke University Press) and the edited volume Reppin’: Pacific Islander Youth and Native Justice (2021, University of Washington Press).
Community Relations
Pacific Islander Liaison
Office of Economic Revitalization
Shanty Sigrah Asher is the new Pacific Islander Liaison Officer at the Office of Economic Revitalization for the City and County of Honolulu. Prior to her work at the city, she served as a consultant at the Pacific Resources for Education & Learning (PREL) in Hawaii. Shanty previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Pacific Affairs at the Department of Foreign Affairs for the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). She is an alumnae of the Executive Leadership Development Program (ELDP) and Asia Pacific Security Studies (APCSS). Shanty is a graduate of Malem Elementary School and Kosrae High School and earned both her Bachelor of Science in Pre-Law and a Master of Science in Criminal Justice Administration at Chaminade University of Honolulu. After earning her Juris Doctor (JD) law degree from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego in 2018, Shanty returned to Hawai’i where she became fully engaged in supporting the Micronesian community.
Shanty’s leadership roles have included serving as a board member for The Legal Clinic, president of the Kosrae Women Association, president of the Asia Pacific American Law Student Association at her law school, and a board member of the National Asian Pacific Islander Prosecutors Association in San Diego. In recognition of Mrs. Asher’s leadership in the Pacific Islander community in Hawaii, Governor David Ige nominated her and was subsequently confirmed by the Hawaii State Legislature to as a member of the Hawaii State Board of Education Member, which ends in 2023.
Associate Professor
Center for Pacific Islands Studies
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Tarcisius Kabutaulaka is a political scientist with a PhD from the Australian National University and undergraduate and MA degrees from the University of the South Pacific (USP). He joined the Center for Pacific Islands Studies in 2009 and served as director from August 2018 to July 2021. Prior to that, he worked for six years as a Research Fellow at the East-West Center’s Pacific Islands Development Program. Before moving to Hawai’i in 2003, he taught history and political science at USP. Over the years, Kabutaulaka has also done consultancy work for governments, regional and international organizations and NGOs in the Pacific Islands. He is the editor the Pacific Islands Monograph Series (PIMS), the founding editor of Oceania Currents, and a member of the editorial board of The Contemporary Pacific. He has published extensively on the Solomon Islands civil unrest and the Australian-led regional intervention, the forestry industry in Solomon Islands, China in Oceania, and on governance issues in the Pacific Islands. He is the co-editor (with Greg Fry) of Intervention and State-building in the Pacific: the Legitimacy of ‘Cooperative Intervention’ (Manchester University Press, 2008). In 2000, following two years of conflicts in Solomon Islands, he participated in the peace talks in Townsville, Australia, as one of the chief negotiators. He is a regular commentator on Radio Australia. Kabutaulaka comes from the Weather Coast of Guadalcanal in Solomon Islands.
Ulumoo Ale
Staking Claim: Representing and Serving Oceania Communities Through Data Disaggregation of Pacific Islanders and Asian Americans
Greetings and Talofa! My name is Ulumoo Ale and I am currently a senior student-athlete at the University of Washington. I am a political science major, anthropology minor, and am working on my master’s degree in education. My ambitions in education aim to attend Law School to improve the way of living for all, including marginalized communities that are not often represented. I am a current member of Research Family at the Burke Museum that aims to disaggregate the use of the term “API” as a form of categorizing both Asian and Pacific Islander communities.
Puakea Sepulveda Busby
Hoʻohuli: How 20th century ‘ōiwi women survived Americanization to transform education
Puakea Sepulveda Busby is a NBCT and doctoral student in educational foundations. She is a kumu at a nonprofit where she mentors youth seeking their high school equivalency diploma. She was previously in Washington teaching immigrant and refugee youth in public schools. She is a former fellow at the Institute for Teachers of Color Committed to Racial Justice and a participant in the Xicanx Institute for Teaching and Organizing and Educators of Color Leadership Community. Her interests include ‘āina-based education and the history of education in Hawaiʻi. Raised in Waiʻanae, she calls Makiki home today.
Josh Campbell
Making and Globalizing Oceania: Teresia Teaiwa and Trans-Indigenous Dialogue as Method
Josh Campbell is a political theorist and PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of California–Los Angeles. Broadly interested in the connections between history-historiography and politics, they are currently pursuing research on (1) the post–World War II disciplinary formation of history as moral arbiter and passive critique; (2) the aesthetics and politics of “political kitsch” in the discourse and iconography of power and government; and (3) the contemporary Indigenous political thought of Oceania.
Immaculata DeBrum
The Loss of Traditional Navigation
Axel Defngin
Navigating Success: Yapese Perceptions of Success in Higher Education in Hilo, Hawaiʻi
Axel Defngin is a graduate assistant at Center for Pacific Islands Studies and an MA student in Pacific Islands studies at University of Hawai‘i–Mānoa. Axel was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaiʻi, and is from the island of Yap in the Federated States of Micronesia. He graduated with a BA in Pacific Islands studies from University of Hawai‘i–Hilo. Axel is an active contributor to various organizations serving Pacific Islander communities including the Remathau Community of Hawaiʻi, APIA Scholars Advisory Committee, and The Fourth Branch–Micronesia.
Desmond Narain Doulatram
Marshallese Feminism: A Story of Female Centrality in Cultural Configuration
After graduating from college with my BS in Social Science, I worked on climate change in the Office of the President and as an instructor for the Ministry of Education. I later got my MA in Asia Pacific studies and now work as a liberal arts instructor and curriculum committee member at the College of the Marshall Islands while working on my PhD in Pacific studies at the University of the South Pacific. I serve as a board member on the National Board of Education of the Marshall Islands and am a cofounder of two NGOs, Jo-JiKum and REACH-MI.
Marlin Hugh Doulatram
The Loss of Traditional Navigation
For our English 220 course, myself, Marlin Hugh Doulatram, and Immaculata DeBrum, Allen Lamdrik, and Ryan Nevado were put onto a team called “The Aquaholics.” We are all liberal arts majors and, fortunately, we met each other in our English course to form an amazing team. With the many different topics given, the area that our research focused on was the loss of traditional navigation in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and how it affects not only the culture of the Marshall Islands, but the world itself due to the global carbon footprint.
Semisi Fakatava
Ko e Fononga ki Mo'unga - Journey to the Mauna
Semisi Fakatava hails from the villages of Talau and ‘Utungake in the islands of Vava‘u, Kingdom of Tonga. Semisi is a traditional punake in Tongan society and is a descendant of a well-known family of punake. Punake are designated as poets, composers, choreographers, and keepers of traditional culture and faiva performances in Tonga. Semisi has worked at the Polynesian Cultural Center for many years as a cultural advisor, punake, and multi-instrumentalist, including the traditional fangufangu nose flute. Semisi is an alumnus of neighboring Brigham Young University–Hawai‘i and is currently serving in the US army reserves. Semisi, his wife, and children call Lā‘ie home.
Ulise Funaki
Ko e Fononga ki Mo'unga - Journey to the Mauna
Ulise Funaki was born on Hawai‘i Island to a Kanaka-Ilokano mother and a Tongan father and raised in Nakalei Camp, Pa‘auilo ‘ahupua‘a with roots originating in Waimanu valley and the villages of Fua‘amotu and Nākolo. Currently he resides in Kahuku, Ko‘olauloa with his wife Sina and their two boys. ‘Ulise is currently a PhD student in cultural anthropology at University of Hawai‘i–Mānoa. His current research focuses on the Ko‘olauloa Tongan population’s kava use and the connection to fonua while in a Hawai‘i context.
Jillian Fuss
Staking Claim: Representing and Serving Oceania Communities Through Data Disaggregation of Pacific Islanders and Asian Americans
Aloha! My name is Jillian Fuss and I am a third year at the University of Washington, studying microbiology and medical anthropology global health. I am interested in studying what impacts the holistic health of Pacific Islanders and how incorporating Indigenous practices can improve the quality of life for Pacific Islanders. I am also passionate about epidemiology and preventive public health policies and methods of care. Currently, I am working on a queer and transgender Pacific Islander study, Black and Indigenous people of color mental health survey for UW faculty, and data disaggregation for the Pacific Islander students at UW.
Heather Ann Franquez Garrido
The Chamorro Language Is [Not] Dead: Indigenous Resiliency through Language
Heather Ann Franquez Garrido a Chamorro Daughter of Guåhan. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Pacific Islands studies and her research focuses on language revitalization, social media, and the Chamorro community. Additionally, she is a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellow in which she dedicates her efforts to strengthening the Chamorro language.
Hineitimoana Greensill
Tūpuna Rising, Tūpuna Futures: Texts, Activism, Theories
Hineitimoana Greensill (Tainui, Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Porou) is a PhD candidate in Te Pua Wānanga ki te Ao, Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies, at the University of Waikato. Drawing inspiration from the whakapapa of mana wahine in her own whānau, Hineitimoana’s doctoral project focuses on the political thought of Māori women between the 1970s and 80s. As a multifaceted archival project, her research engages with the intellectual and political work of her grandmother in conversation with a broader public archive of Māori women’s writing in the late twentieth century.
Shannon Pōmaikaʻi Hennessey
Hawaiian Enough: Insecure Identities, Racialization, and Recognition among Kānaka Maoli
Shannon Pōmaikaʻi Hennessey is a woman of Kanaka Maoli, Chinese, Irish, and Portuguese descent from Honolulu, Oʻahu. She is currently an MA student and graduate assistant with the Center for Pacific Islands Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi–Mānoa, and previously received her BA in history and American studies from the University of Notre Dame. She is interested in issues of identity and authenticity, race, gender, everyday practices of resurgence, and Indigenous methodologies.
Wanda Ieremia-Allan
Tūpuna Rising, Tūpuna Futures: Texts, Activism, Theories
Wanda Ieremia-Allan (Sapapali‘i, Safotulafai, Saluafata, Lalomanu—Sāmoa) is a PhD candidate in the Pacific and Indigenous studies program at the University of Waikato. Wanda’s archival research traces the intergenerational intellectual gafa or lineage of Indigenous Samoan writing of the early twentieth century in the former London Missionary Society newspaper, O le Sulu Samoa. A key strand of her work investigates the ideological, cultural, and gendered tensions inherent in the writing and engages Samoan epistemological paradigms in the reading of colonial texts.
Allen Jay Lamdrik
The Loss of Traditional Navigation
Hi my name is Allen Jay Lamdrik. I was born in Orange County, California, where I was raised until the age of eleven when I was brought to the Marshall Islands. Growing up here in the Marshall Islands I was one of those kids who loved to play by the ocean. Sometimes I like to go to the oceanside and look at the waves crash down on each other. I also enjoy music a lot. My hobbies consist of playing the guitar, rapping to random beats I hear online, and playing Call of Duty. I really enjoy writing this and hope you enjoy reading it.
Ma‘afu Lātū-Vaki
Ko e Fononga ki Mo'unga - Journey to the Mauna
Ma‘afu Lātū-Vaki was born and raised on the island of Hunga with roots also in the village of Feletoa both in the islands of Vava‘u, Kingdom of Tonga. Ma‘afu is also a traditional punake and currently he has the distinction of being the Master of the Drum at the Tongan village at the Polynesian Cultural Center. He graduated from Brigham Young University–Hawai‘i with an undergrad degree in Pacific Island studies while minoring in psychology. He and his wife Kristen have three children together and they reside in Hau‘ula, Ko‘olauloa.
Kevin Lujan Lee
Making and Globalizing Oceania: Teresia Teaiwa and Trans-Indigenous Dialogue as Method
Kevin Lujan Lee (familian Capili, taotao Barrigada) is a Chamoru PhD candidate in Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. Broadly interested in labor and community organizing in comparative and global perspective, he empirically studies (1) the role of community-based organizations in US workforce development planning; (2) racial formations, panethnicity, and low-wage Pacific Islander labor in the US and Aotearoa-New Zealand; and (3) the Indigenous politics of decolonization across Oceania. He is the coprincipal investigator of the 2021 Guåhan Survey, the largest-scale survey of Chamorus in Guåhan about their preferences for our island’s political future.
Anastacia Mikaele
Staking Claim: Representing and Serving Oceania Communities Through Data Disaggregation of Pacific Islanders and Asian Americans
Tālofa Lava! O lou igoa o Anastacia Mikaele. I am a first-year Pacific Islander student at the University of Washington pursuing a degree in anthropology with an emphasis in medical anthropology and global health. I will minor in Oceania and Pacific Islander studies. This year I have been working with the Pacific Islander Student Commission, a branch of my university’s student government, as a legislative intern working to advance Pasifika representation on campus! After undergrad, I plan to attend medical school and continue research determining ways to approach nuclear bomb clean up in the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
Ryan Nevado
The Loss of Traditional Navigation
Hello, and Iakwe, my name is Ryan Nevado. I was born and raised in the Marshall Islands, but I come from a family with a Filipino background and descent. I am currently enrolled as a freshman at the College of the Marshall Islands, and am pursuing a degree in business administration with specializations in accounting. I am also involved in the college’s work-study program, where I tutor students mostly on math-related topics. Outside of school, I enjoy playing basketball, watching Netflix shows, movies, hanging out with my friends, late-night drives, and basically any activities that encourage bonding, as well as creating an atmosphere to enjoy fun times and relieve stress.
Sam Iti Prendergast
Tūpuna Rising, Tūpuna Futures: Texts, Activism, Theories
Sam Iti Prendergast (Tainui, Ngāti Maniapoto) is a doctoral candidate in history at New York University, where her PhD traces the violent settler process of “becoming local” on Indigenous peoples’ territories, with a focus on Aotearoa and Australia. Her work is informed by the critical theories of Ngāti Paretekawa ancestors, and attends to the intimate spaces where Māori live lives well beyond the expectations of the settler state. She has recently been appointed Lecturer in history at the University of Waikato, and lives and works on Tainui land in Aotearoa.
C.J. Quion
Trouble in the Tropics: An Analysis of the Overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1893
C.J. Quion is a history major in his junior year at the California State University–Fullerton. He is a hard of hearing and diasporic Filipino interested in the history of the Hawaiian Islands due to the sizeable Filipino population on the archipelago. C.J. is focusing specifically on the era of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i because of the strong emotions and events associated with that period. In fact, the research project he is presenting for this conference concerns how the 1893 overthrow represented a clash of ideologies between the Indigenous people and the usurpers of the monarchy.
Davis Rehuher
Advocacy and Resilience among Micronesian Migrants: A Review of the Literature
Davis Rehuher is from the Republic of Palau. He is a master of public health candidate in the Thompson School of Social Work and Public Health at the University of Hawai‘i– Mānoa. He has worked on numerous initiatives on youth violence prevention, suicide prevention, substance abuse intervention, behavioral health and primary care integration, and K–12 academic empowerment and adult career planning, most of which have focused on Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander and Micronesian populations. His areas of interest include education, health, and mental health and wellness among Pacific Islanders with emphasis on the Micronesian region and among Micronesian migrants.
Stephanie Sang
Re(Claiming) America—Listening for Alternative Worlds of Sino-Indigenous Indebtedness in Maxine Hong Kingston’s China Men
Stephanie Sang is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Literatures in English at Cornell University. She received her MA in anthropology from the University of Hawai’i in 2020 and is indebted to these islands for much of her thinking.
Taufa Setefano
Nesians Unite: Navigating Pacific Studies in the Bay Area
I was born and raised in Hawai‘i then my family moved to Hayward, California. I began my higher education journey at Chabot Community College in Hayward and graduated with an English AA-T degree. In those two years I cofounded Nesians Unite, an academic club that advocated for Pacific Islander students. I continued to University of Hawai‘i–Mānoa to pursue a degree in Pacific Island studies and was first introduced to Pacific Island studies. My life as an individual and scholar has changed since pursuing this major and it has inspired my ultimate goal of becoming a Pacific Islands literature teacher.
Aliyah Siva
Staking Claim: Representing and Serving Oceania Communities Through Data Disaggregation of Pacific Islanders and Asian Americans
Talofa Lava, o lou igoa o Aliyah Siva! I am a second-year Pacific Islander student at the University of Washington in Seattle. I am currently pursuing a major in history that will support my passion for teaching at the university level. I aspire to become one of the very few female Samoan professors in America. My current research focuses on disaggregating the “API” to create opportunities for Pacific Islander students on the UW campus who are aiming to attain higher education. After undergrad, I plan to continue pursuing my higher education degrees. I will go on to complete my PhD in Pacific studies, history, or ethnic studies programs.
Alex Song
Going Back to the Roots: Kalo and Contemporary Hawaiian Identity
Being Native Hawaiian raised in California, Alex was not raised with the same knowledge that comes with being in the islands. He, however, did go to Ho‘olaulea every year and visited family in the islands, growing to love his Hawaiian side. While living in New Zealand as a missionary for his church, he learned the Maori and Tongan culture as well as the Tongan language, spurring him to want to come to Hawai‘i so he can learn his own culture. Now, he is in university majoring in psychology and he strives to bring Hawaiian culture into his field of study.
Shane Tamngin
Staking Claim: Representing and Serving Oceania Communities Through Data Disaggregation of Pacific Islanders and Asian Americans
My name is Shane Tamngin and I am a student at the University of Washington. I am interested in studying genetics and have had the opportunity to learn about medical, human, psychiatric, population, and biochemical genetics during my education. I have worked as a student fellow through the University of Washington GenOM ALVA summer research program where I worked with The Kelly lab studying the development of neurodegenerative and kidney diseases through the oxidation of biomolecules as a result of exposure to pesticides. Beginning Spring quarter, I will be working at the Tornabene lab at the University of Washington.
Karamea Moana Wright
Tūpuna Rising, Tūpuna Futures: Texts, Activism, Theories
Karamea Moana Wright (Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Kuia, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Kāi Tahu) is a PhD student in the Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Waikato in Aotearoa. Having been born and raised in Hawai‘i, Karamea is a second-generation Māori American with her particular focus of study on Māori identity-making in the US. She traces the historical whakapapa of the varied Māori-US connections as early as the eighteenth century, which prominently features the LDS Church. Contemporary Māori realities are also centered in her research, including influences and connections that Māori are engaging in across and beyond the nation-state, and how that is expressed, articulated, and displayed.