Filipinos in Hawaiʻi: Pathways to Decolonization and Empowerment

• In Event: Imagining Futures: Themes of Decolonization, Empowerment, and Mentorship within Indigenous Contexts in Education

Abstract

This study explores how Filipino educators in Hawaiʻi engage in decolonization, the unlearning of colonial mentality (Strobel, 2015) and a form of internalized oppression (David, 2013). Grounded in pakasaritaan, an Ilokano methodology centered on personal and collective stories, and informed by decolonization (Strobel, 2015) and Asian settler colonialism (Fujikane & Okamura, 2008; Trask, 1999), the study highlights Filipino educators’ efforts to confront historical trauma, reclaim ancestral knowledge, and build solidarity with the Indigenous people of Hawaiʻi. The findings illuminate transformative pedagogies rooted in cultural identity, relationality, and healing. This work aligns with the 2026 AERA theme by “unforgetting” Filipino and Indigenous histories and imagining schools as sites of resistance, renewal, and collective liberation within Pacific and transnational contexts.

Author

• Phillippe Rivera Fernandez-Brennan, Halau Ku Mana