Hawai'i and Pacific related events at UH-Manoa this week

The below is quoted directly from an email circulated by the UH-M Center for Pacific Islands Studies:

Micronesian Connections
Thursday 16 February 1:30 pm – 6:00 pm, John Burns Hall room 3125/3121, East-West Center

This free public event offers perspectives on Micronesian communities in Hawai‘i featuring personal stories from students, presentations on public policy and issues relating to discrimination, and an overview of COFA, health, housing, and education for Micronesian communities. For more information, see the attached flyer or contact Dr. Ulla Hasager at ulla@hawaii.edu or 956-4218.

Seminars: 

Wednesday 15 February
Ty P. Kawika Tengan (Ethnic Studies) “Return to Fort Kamehameha: Martialing Memory in Occupied Hawai‘i” in ICSCP Speakers Series, 12:00 – 1:15 pm, John Burns Hall room 2118, East-West Center.

Lt. Colonel Joe Estores (retired, U.S. Army) came back to Hawai‘i in 2006, a Vietnam Veteran with 20 years of service as a soldier and over 30 years as a federal employee.  His shock at the massive transformations that had taken place since he left the islands led to a transition in his “warrior life” as he took up the cause of demilitarization and Hawaiian sovereignty upon his return.  One component of this work has been to re-narrate the history of his childhood home of Fort Kamehameha, an Army coastal artillery post at the entrance of Pearl Harbor that later became a part of Hickam Air Force Base.   While the site is known primarily for its military significance, for him it was also a playground where his Native Hawaiian and Filipino family thrived on the abundant marine resources that have all but vanished now.  The personal and family stories he tells articulate with broader histories of Indigenous engagements with U.S. empire, the traces of which are found in the bones that are unearthed in construction projects and forgotten place namesthat appear on old maps.  This talk explores the ways that Estores actively re-members Fort Kamehameha as a way of contesting the occupation of Hawai‘i through narrative enactments of Hawaiian and military pasts.  In so doing, his story reveals the ambivalences inherent in efforts to transform imperial soldiering into Indigenous warrior hood.

Thursday 16 February
Monica A. "Ka'imipono" Kaiwi (Kamehameha Schools – Kaplama English department) in the UHM English Department Colloquium Series and Native Voices Reading and Lecture Series, 3:00 pm, Kuykendall 410, UHM.

Like many of our counterparts, the Kamehameha Schools—Kapālama English department has wrestled with defining Native Hawaiian and local/Hawai'i literature for several years.  In response to our KS strategic plan and a number of subsequent initiatives, our department committed to integrate Native Hawaiian literature into our multi-cultural college-preparatory curriculum.  This decision gave urgency to our on-going discussion and brought to the forefront the need to agree upon a clear definition of Native Hawaiian literature that was both substantive and respectful of diverse opinions.  In brief, we wished to be meaningful without being pedantic.

The framework to be presented and discussed in this colloquium is our KS English department’s approach to conceptualizing Native Hawaiian and local/Hawai'i literature.   The goal of this exercise is to initiate a discussion of literature written in and/or about Hawai'i, to provide a tool with which to craft valuable criticism for both Native Hawaiian literature and the literature of Hawai'i, and to help define Hawai'i's literature for the greater educational community.

Ka'imipono is the Department Head for English at Kamehameha Schools—Kapālama, where she currently teaches AP Literature and Composition: Comparative. She has taught Hawaiian, Pacific and world literature for over twenty-seven years.

Ka'imipono earned her Masters Degree in English from The University of Auckland under the mentorship of Albert Wendt and Witi Ihimaera. Ka'imipono has published a number of poems and articles on topics ranging from Hawaiian Education to Herman Melville’s Typee.