Street roots., March 16, 2018, Page 7, Image 7

Street Roots • March 16-22, 2018
N ew s
Page 7
P H O T O S C O U R T E S Y O F L IL IA N O N G E L U N G E L
Lilian Ongelungel has started a
storytelling series fo r Pacific Islanders
called “Pacific Perspectives. ”
Ongelungel, a Palauan-American
artist, created the piece above as part o f
an art series commissioned by Asian
Pacific American Network o f Oregon.
Bucking isolation
B Y SARAH H AN SELL
IF YOU GO
WHAT: “Pacific Perspectives: The
Only Islander in the Room,” members
of Friends of UTOPIA PDX share
stories and food
WHEN: 6-8 p.m. March 24
WHERE: High and Low Art Space and
Gallery, 936 SE 34th St., Portland
COST: Free; all ages welcome
Share your story
If you are a Pacific islander and are
interested in sharing your story at
Pacific Perspectives, contact Lilian
Ongelungel through Islanesia's
Facebook page, Facebook.com/
islanesia
S T A F F W R IT E R
hen first-generation Samoan-
American Justin Sipoloa went to
Astor Elementary School in the
early 1980s, he was one of the few brown
faces in a sea of white ones. His parents
were among the first to “set up shop” in St.
Johns, and back then, there were few other
Pacific Islanders in
Portland.
At Tubman Elementary
School, it was better. He
had never seen so many
students of color together
under one roof.
“And I felt like, oh man,
I just found a place where
I could belong,” he said.
sirotOA,
But that was when
C O M M U N IT Y
O R G A N IZ E R
gangs were ramping up,
F O R P A C IF IC
IS L A N D E R
and Sipoloa didn’t fit the
YO U TH S A T
APAN O
bill. He was small for his
age, hated getting in
trouble and got good
grades. But he knew he had to fit in
somewhere.
“I rebelled really bad,” he said. “I refused
to do schoolwork. My parents were
constantly on me about grades. I couldn’t
care less about grades because it was not a
place for me to be at.”
At Jefferson High School, from where he
graduated in 1995, he found friends that
were like family - but still few other Pacific
Islanders who could relate to his cultural
experience.
At the time, being Samoan for him was
just “a title, a label,” a reason he had to
keep answering questions from teachers
W
What is it like
to be the only
Pacific Islander
in the room? A
storytelling event will
share perspectives
o f an experience
advocates say
many can relate to.
and students about where he was from and
where Samoa was. No one seemed to quite
understand his explanations until he
mentioned Samoan WWF wrestlers.
“Going through the school system, I
always felt ashamed of who I was, because I
didn’t see any other kids that looked like
me,” Sipoloa said. “There were kids that I
thought looked like me, but they were
Latinx. And so hearing them speak their
language, it wasn’t my language.
“It became very apparent that I was
alone.”
Sipoloa, who now organizes Pacific
Islander youths and runs Islander student
groups with the Asian Pacific American
Network of Oregon, or APANO, isn’t alone
in feeling like the “only Islander in the
room.” Another Islander activist in Portland,
first-generation Palauan-American Lilian
Ongelungel, has started a storytelling series
for Islanders called “Pacific Perspectives.”
The second session of “Pacific
Perspectives” will be held March 24, hosted
by Islanesia and UTOPIA PDX. Islanesia is
an Islander arts and culture website run by
Ongelungel and her sister, Sha Ongelungel,
and UTOPIA PDX (United Territories of
Pacific Islanders Alliance) is a local
organization that works with queer and
trans Pacific Islanders; Lilian Ongelungel is
on the board.
At the session, UTOPIA PDX members
and friends will share their stories. The
theme is “The Only Islander in the Room.”
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates there
are about 15,000 Pacific Islanders in
Oregon, and up to almost 30,000 people
who self-identify as at least part Pacific
Islander. But the Pacific Islander community
can often be eclipsed by the “A” in API, or
Asian/Pacific Islander, a designation that
combines two distinct populations.
“When you look at API statistics as a
whole, we’re doing great out there,” Lilian
Ongelungel said. “But that’s looking at it
when the data is aggregated, when we’re all
lumped into one category.”
When the data are viewed separately,
there’s a stark difference: 53 percent of
Asians 25 and older in the U.S. have a
bachelor’s degree or higher, compared with
17 percent of Pacific Islanders, according to
the Census Bureau.
“That to me indicates that there’s
something missing in terms of culturally
sensitive support at those stages in
education,” said Ongelungel.
See PACIFIC ISLANDER, page 10