This Wednesday, October 13th the SOGI UBC Transformative Education Speaker Series presents a talk with Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, titled Kū Kiaʻi Aloha: Protecting Maunakea and Birthing Decolonial intimacy in an Emerging Generation of Aloha ʻĀina Activists. Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio is a Kanaka Maoli wahine artist/activist/scholar born and raised in Pālolo Valley to parents Jonathan and Mary Osorio. Heoli earned her PhD in English (Hawaiian literature) in 2018 from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Currently, Heoli is an Assistant Professor of Indigenous and Native Hawaiian Politics at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio is a three-time national poetry champion, poetry mentor and a published author. She is a proud past Kaiāpuni student, Ford fellow, and a graduate of Kamehameha, Stanford University (BA) and New York University (MA). Her book Remembering our Intimacies: Moʻolelo, Aloha ʻĀina, and Ea has just launched with the University of Minnesota Press in Fall 2021. The book dives into some experiences shown by filmmaker Ciara Lacy when documenting Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio’s work towards justice for Hawaii’s Indigenous population. Watch the short documentary: This Is the Way We Rise by American Masters | PBS.
Tomorrow SOGI UBC is inviting Teacher Candidates to attend an exclusive interactive workshop at 12:00 pm and talk with Dr. Jamaica Osorio where everyone can join at 4:00 pm. Please join Dr. Osorio tomorrow, October 13th and register for both the exclusive workshop and talk using the links below!
SOGI UBC Transformative Education Speaker Series Workshop (12:00 pm – 1:00 pm)
Workshop Title: Building Solidarity, Practicing Pilina (Intimacy)
Description: This is an engaging participatory writing workshop designed specifically for educators and students where participants will be challenged to articulate their intimate positionalities and responsibilities in our collective work towards liberation. This workshop is designed using Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) epistemologies of pilina (intimacy and relatedness) and kuleana (responsibilities and privileges) to decenter rights based approaches to justice, and instead commit each of us to a struggle bound in a commitment to our relations.
Teacher Candidates can register here: https://sogi.educ.ubc.ca/sogi-ubc-transformative-education-speaker-series-workshop-dr-jamaica-osorio/
Password is TESS_Osorio. It is limited to 30 students.
Watch Dr. Jamaica Osorio perform “Kumulipo” at the White House Poetry Jam to get inspired for the workshop!
SOGI UBC Transformative Education Speaker Series Talk (4:00 pm – 5:00 pm)
Talk Title: Kū Kiaʻi Aloha: Protecting Maunakea and Birthing Decolonial intimacy in an Emerging Generation of Aloha ʻĀina Activists
Abstract: Native Hawaiians are in a multi generational battle to protect sacred sites and practice self determination. The recent iterations of the fight to protect Mauna a Wākea from further white supremacist and capitalist encroachment by the state has transformed modern Hawaiian (and Indigenous) resistance and resurgence. This presentation will focus directly on how these emerging movements are born out of and strengthened by an intimate return to indigenous moʻolelo (histories) and ʻike (knowledges) which is transforming the very nature of what is possible in the building of Decolonial futures.
Register here: https://sogi.educ.ubc.ca/sogi-ubc-transformative-education-speaker-series-registration-dr-jamaica-osorio/
At a TEDx event in Mānoa in 2013 Dr. Jamaica Osorio alert us all that “global warming will break the foundation of the community without even shaking the penthouse suits. While the men and women who finance the earth’s deterioration play the role of its saviour, sipping martinis in hybrid glass-bottom boats tallying the brown bodies that float by” Dr. Osorio’s work is a beautiful example of the power of poetry as a light that shines awareness to the injustices and inequalities that make it impossible for people who experience marginalization to survive let alone thrive. Words are so powerful that can make oppressive structures tremble and Dr. Osorio’s artistic experience from poetry writing/ performance to fiction/ essay writing and music proof exactly that. Watch her TEDx Talk: Poetry as translation below and don’t miss Dr. Jamaica Osorio live tomorrow!