On September 2nd, 2016, activists and students got together to learn about our different struggles: THAAD missiles in Korea, Jeju Island and the bravery of border crossing women, the fight to return Pågat and Pågan in the Marianas and build canoes that can remember us, the genocide that mining leaves in West Papua and deep seabeds, memories of being a teenager through the Cuban missile crisis, of hiding fellow teenagers during the Vietnam draft, genealogizing a Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific, the protection of iwi kūpuna on Mokapu, the head of the he’e of Hawai’i as the Pacific Pivot unfurls, murders and violence under the complicated rule of President Duterte in the Philippines, dedication to amnesty and allyship, commitment to aloha ‘āina, veterans for peace and honoring their stories, the work to build demilitarized economies, the refusal of tourism as a coverup, the power of translation, the knowledge that war destroys land, water, people, and history. The hunger for stories of love and hope, through generations and across oceans.
–Aiko Yamashiro, for OR.
Read Jennifer Vehia Wheeler’s beautiful reflection of the event here.
OCEANIA RISING 