Carrying Culture: Micronesia - Voices of Solidarity

Recorded on November 27, 2021. This program includes instances of strong language.

Carrying Culture: Micronesia concludes with a timely and relevant panel featuring poets from across Oceania who share their words as a demonstration of solidarity with Micronesians in Hawai’i, demonstrating support in the face of rising discrimination. Panelists include Ulamila Monica Cagivanua, Dr. R. Māpuana Paiaʻaʻala Shizuko Hayashi-Simpliciano, Punahele, and Zea Nauta. Moderated by Tolua Samifua of Lady Pasifika magazine and the Pacific Islands Development Program.

Presented in partnership with the Pacific Islands Development Program.

Ulamila Monica Cagivanua is an iTaukei (Indigenous Fijian) woman born and raised in Fiji with village ties to Ekita, Yawe in Kadavu and maternal links to Nasilai in Rewa. She is a graduate student in the Centre of Pacific Islands studies Masters’ program in the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She earned her undergraduate degree in Sociology and Social Work at the University of the South Pacific and graduated with her postgraduate diploma in Sociology at the university’s Laucala campus. Ulamila’s internship at the Pacific Islands Development Program allows her to delve into the areas of regional development and cooperation especially in looking at programs under the study of gender, culture, equality and equity. Her research interests include the study and creation of indigenous epistemologies as a framework for gender empowerment in tackling issues like gender-based violence and so on.

Dr. R. Māpuana Paiaʻaʻala Shizuko Hayashi-Simpliciano a.k.a. Katana, is a Hip Hop Ethnographer and Educator. In the early 80ʻs while still in diapers, Katana began to dance and rap along with her brothers who performed locally in the Popping and Locking/Break Dancing crew called ʻEbony Expressʻ. As a researcher and scholar, Dr. Hayashi-Simpliciano uses performance ethnography and hip-hop to facilitate the creation of narratives of resistance for groups whose voices may otherwise be marginalized. Dr. Hayashi-Simpliciano specializes in culturally and spiritually sustaining pedagogy and hip-hop as a form of survivance among Oceanic youth. Dr. Hayashi-Simpliciano’s research also encompasses trauma-informed educational practices, the history of complex racial dynamics within the Japanese and Ainu diaspora, and anti-racist educational practices.

Zea Francesca Pangelinan Nauta is an indigenous Chamoru of Guåhan of the Mariåna Islands. She came to Hawaiʻi to understand how Kānaka Maoli are decolonizing themselves, and to be an ally in the movements of cultural resurgence and food sovereignty. She currently works at Kākoʻo ʻŌiwi in Heeia as a kalo farmer and is studying Agro-Ecology at UH Manoa. She loves connecting with the ancestors by cultivating ʻāina, learning, and art.

Punahele is a country moke Hawaiian from Mākaha, Hawaiʻi that stands against anything that is harmful to ʻāina. He is a Hip-Hop practitioner that uses music to create a soundtrack to Hawaiian struggles and frontlines. Punahele is a Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award winner and Hawaiʻi’s first ever IRON MC Champion and has been teaching community songwriting and poetry workshops to incarcerated and “at-risk” youths for over 10 years. The music he creates aims to build Indigenous solidarity in Oceania and beyond. Punahele is a Giant Steps/ EWC Fellow.