Street roots., March 16, 2018, Page 9, Image 9

Street Roots • March 16-22, 2018
News
Page 10
PACIFIC ISLANDER, from page 7
Ongelungel grew up speaking Palauan at
home, and learned English and Spanish in
public school. She soon transferred to an
elite private school. The sudden lack of
diversity, both in race and socioeconomic
status, was a “culture shock,” she said, but
helped give her the language to name and
navigate her
experiences. She
attended the
Oagelmtgel hopes that folks
University of Portland
who are hearing stories like
on an Army ROTC
scholarship. As a
theirs for Ike firs t time w ill
college student and
"w a lk away w ith a greater
now in her career in
sense of how to u p lift others^
nonprofit
not just Pacific Islanders^ but
communication,
other people who h a w ape»
Ongelungel has often
rleneed being the only person
been the only Pacific
who Identifies w ith this partic® Islander in the room.
“But that isn’t to
la r id e n tifie r In the room«"
say there are no
Pacific Islanders
there,” Ongelungel
said. “We are just
often very underrepresented in a lot of
different areas - save for the NFL.”
This representation is sought in every
stage of life - such as inclusion of Pacific
American studies in schools and colleges;
Islander role models; and dedicated spaces
for Islanders, young and adult - to build
community. And often the place where the
opportunity for representation and
community building starts is in school.
“The reason why I love my job is because
I get to provide something that I didn’t have
growing up,” Sipoloa said. “And being able
to relate to the piece about feeling isolated,
or feeling pressures from parents with
grades and academics and going to college,
or the pressures of taking care of younger
siblings when you’re one of the oldest and
your parents have to go back home for a
funeral. That’s something that I’m able to
relate to my students with.”
Ongelungel is a big believer of the saying,
“If you don’t see it, it’s hard to become it,”
and she hopes that “Pacific Perspectives”
will break through stereotypes of Pacific
Islanders as dancers, entertainers and
athletes and highlight a slice of the richness
and diversity in the Islander community.
She hopes that folks who are hearing stories
like theirs for the first time will “walk away
with a greater sense of how to uplift others,
not just Pacific Islanders, but other people
who have experienced being the only
person who identifies with this particular
identifier in the room.”
“With this storytelling series and this
particular theme, I really wanted to uplift
and give a platform to those Pacific Islanders
who also have that experience,” Ongelungel
said. “Who’ve been the only educators who
are Pacific Islanders in the room, the people
who have been the only quality assurance
officer in the room who are Pacific Islanders,
to the people who have been the only
commissioned military officers who are
Pacific Islanders in the room.”
The grouping together of API not only
generalizes the narrative of a huge group of
people but can also have tangible effects on
programming and funding. When funding is
granted to APIs, Pacific Islanders are often
left out of services and programs that serve
the Asian community, said Manu’malo
Ala’ilima, a Samoan-American activist and
founder of UTOPIA PDX.
“I think having Asian-Pacific Islander as a
grouping is dangerous and does a huge
disservice for Pacific Islanders because
we’re often overshadowed,” Ala’ilima said.
“So we basically have to carve out sacred
space for ourselves.”
UTOPIA PDX is one example of what
that sacred space can look like. According
to its mission statement, UTOPIA PDX
“provides sacred spaces to strengthen the
minds and bodies of Queer and Trans
Pacific Islanders (QTPIs) through
community organizing, political
engagement, and cultural stewardship.”
About a year old, UTOPIA PDX has,
among other things, been active in multiple
Pride celebrations, held many workshops at
different events for Pacific Islanders, done
extensive work with APAÑO, and visited the
MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility to
meet with incarcerated QTPI youths.
As a sacred space, Ala’ilima wants
UTOPIA PDX to become a place where
QTPIs who are no longer welcome in their
own families, communities or churches can
celebrate and be supported through
hallmarks in their lives such as naming
ceremonies and weddings - even through
the loss of loved ones.
“One type of issue we would like to focus
on is developing a rite of passage for QTPIs,
because many who have been shunned or
kicked out of their homes, and/or villages, if
they came straight from the islands,”
Ala’ilima said. “Really just losing their family
or losing their village or if they were part of
a church, because of coming out and being
who they are.”
In Samoa, a nation in Polynesia, same-sex
sexual acts are illegal and punishable by up
to seven years in prison. Although there are
many parts of the Pacific Islands that have
progressive outlooks and laws in terms of
LGBTQ+ rights, seven nations of the Pacific
Islands still criminalize homosexual acts,
according to the International LGBTI
Association.
“We have a very colonized influence that
still almost handcuffs us or suffocates us and
limits us to these binary systems, where I
feel we’re so much more,” Ala’ilima said.
“There’s so much community there.”
As indigenous people, Ala’ilima stresses
the importance for Pacific Islanders and
QTPIs to find their own language to define
themselves, rather than use the language of
those who have colonized them.
“There are different types of identities
that we haven’t even attempted to scratch
the surface with because we’re stuck in this
mindset that we have to look at people in
these really oppressive societal constructs,”
Ala’ilima said. “So that’s something that
UTOPIA is committed to deconstructing,
and that includes trying to help find the
language that makes the best sense to us to
describe ourselves.”
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