A Settler’s Journey of Decolonization in Hawaiʻi to Inform Social Justice Pedagogies

• In Event: Remaining Critical in the Midst of (Neo)Colonial Censorship

Abstract

1. Objective
This study explores the personal process of decolonization, the undoing of colonial mentality (Strobel, 2015), of an Ilokano educator in Hawaiʻi. The objective is to identify insights and practices that can support healing from colonial mentality, a form of internalized oppression, to inform culturally sustaining pedagogies and curriculum development that can empower K-12 youth in Hawaiʻi schools. These insights include engaging with indigeneity and solidarity with Kānaka Maoli, the Indigenous people of Hawaiʻi, and critical interrogation of my own positionality as an Ilokano settler.

2. Theoretical Frameworks
The research is framed within the theoretical perspectives of decolonial theory (Fanon, 1952, 1961) and draws on the work of Strobel (2015), who articulates decolonization as a personal and collective process of undoing colonial mentality. This study is also informed by Asian settler colonialism (Fujikane & Okamura, 2008; Trask, 1999), which addresses the complex positionality of Asians in Hawaiʻi as both racialized minorities and settlers on occupied Indigenous land.

3. Methodology
This study uses critical autoethnography as a methodological approach, allowing for deep personal reflection within a scholarly framework. An indigenous Ilokano method of pakasaritaan (story/history) is central to this process, providing a culturally specific and relational way of narrating and analyzing lived experience (Acido, 2014; Agcaoili, 2006; Soria, 2015). This positions the researcher as both subject and scholar, allowing the examination of processes of healing and reclamation.

4. Data Collection
The primary data sources include personal journals, reflective writing, personal experiences, educational materials, and artifacts collected over the course of the researcher’s professional life as an educator and community member in Hawaiʻi. The data are analyzed thematically to trace shifts in consciousness and pedagogy related to decolonization.

5. Results and Conclusions
Findings suggest that decolonization is rooted in sustained self-inquiry, community engagement, cultural reconnection, and a commitment to settler aloha ‘āina (Goodyear-Kaʻōpua, 2013a, 2013b), a liberatory pedagogy of solidarity and commitment to justice with Kānaka Maoli. Key transformative experiences include participating in Filipino cultural education spaces, unlearning colonial narratives in history, acknowledging complicity in settler colonial structures, and supporting Kanaka Maoli in pursuit of social justice. The study reveals how these experiences contributed to a reorientation of the researcher’s personal and professional identity. Moreover, it argues for educational spaces that encourage diasporic Filipino educators and youth to interrogate colonial histories, reclaim cultural practices, and build solidarity across communities of color.

6. Significance of the Study
This research contributes to the fields of decolonial theory, Filipino American studies, and culturally sustaining pedagogy. It adds a critical place-based perspective to existing scholarship, addressing the distinct sociohistorical context of Filipinos in Hawaiʻi, which differs significantly from the continental U.S. and provides a methodological contribution by utilizing an indigenous Ilokano method of pakasaritaan into formal academic research. This approach affirms the value of lived experience as a source of knowledge production. This study offers a model for how educators may engage in personal decolonization while informing the development of educational practices to support youth toward decolonization, empowerment, and collective resistance.

Author

• Phillippe Rivera Fernandez-Brennan, Halau Ku Mana