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Donavan Kamakanimaikalani Albano
Birthplace/Hometown:
Kalihilihiolaumiha, Oʻahu
High School:
McKinley High School
UHM Degrees:
BA, Ethnic Studies (2021)
MA, Political Science (currently pursuing)
Current Occupation:
Graduate Research Assistant
What inspired/inspires the path for your academic major?
In addition to my kūpuna and kumu, the moʻopuna who have yet to be born and Moananuiākea (the vast and expansive Pacific ocean) are a big part of my educational journey and genealogy in the ways that I envision, create, and live in my body and ʻāina. My mother also inspires the work that I do in the ways that I remember her beyond her passing. As a māhū ʻŌiwi, recognizing that my shapeshifting experiences has often been a confluence of desires for access to cultural, political, and bodily self-determination & sovereignty for Hawaiʻi and Pasifika, while navigating higher education as a first-generation, low-income college student, has ultimately led me to my current pursuit in political science focused in Indigenous politics. Having started learning in undergraduate about, and continue to actively participate in, organizing liberatory movements related to demilitarization, de-occupation, and decolonization in Hawaiʻi and internationally, I have found that the need to continue engaging political education and working to make it accessible to our Pasifika ʻohana has become a strong rationale for my pursuit of Indigenous politics. A poet of the ocean, I have also been deeply inspired by the bridging of the creative and the critical; the poetics and the politics. This continues to inspire the ways that I view our relationships to ʻāina and intimacies with our Native bodies, and truly how I navigate the world each day.
What are your future goals in your work?
Simply, I want to continue creating and learning. I would really love to work with aspiring and emerging writers and artists, especially ʻŌiwi, Pasifika, Black and brown students of color, and find healing and connection through creative writing and literature as a future professor. Following the conferral of my MA in Political Science, I hope to pursue a PhD in English to focus in Hawaiian & Pacific literature and creative writing. Poetry has been a practice of discovering decolonial healing and has transformed my life in many ways, especially finding remembrance to my pilina to my māhū ʻŌiwi body and learning about ocean feminisms. Another goal is to publish poetry books and contribute to pushing the boundaries of academic scholarship by weaving the creative and critical through Hawaiian epistemologies and methodologies. I also hope to continue increasing awareness of the Missing and Murdered Native Hawaiian Women, Girls, and Māhū crisis, a deeply personal issue.
How do you see your time at UH shaping the way you aloha ʻāina?
I think that UH, in various ways, has shaped the way that I aloha ʻāina. Personally, I think that to be aloha ʻāina engages a reciprocal care that recognizes the importance of kūʻē—to stand in protection of lands and waters that is of Hawaiʻi and throughout Moananuiākea that connects us to our Pasifika relatives. In fact, I have engaged a lot of conversations related to aloha ʻāina in many spaces throughout my time at UH, in and out of the classroom and the Mānoa campus. For example, I have participated in the Nā Koʻokoʻo Hawaiian Leadership Program in my undergraduate journey and served as the ASUH President during the COVID-19 pandemic. I have learned that there is a political aspect of aloha ʻāina. I have also learned through my relationships with ʻŌiwi and Pasifika writers and literary artists at UH to understand the deep connection between one's body and ʻāina; to remember our kuleana to Papāhanaumoku, our island earth mother. I am continuously shaped by UH in the ways that I aloha ʻāina because I recognize that my community is not just outside of the university; it is also right here. Community issues impact our experiences at the university everyday. Papa is actively breathing here in Mānoa, and so are we.
What does UHM as a Hawaiian place of learning mean to you?
UHM as a Hawaiian place of learning means many things to me. To share a few: It is an aspiration because we are not there yet, and it is a remembrance of our practices, stories, knowledge systems, and ʻāina and protectors of the ʻāina who have been watching over Mānoa prior to the establishment of the institution (such as Kahalopuna, Kauakuahine and Kahaukani). It means that we work towards always centering Hawaiʻi, from the depths of the ocean that is the womb of Papahānaumoku to the skies of Wākea and pō that is the realm of our ancestors. It is about deeply listening to Kānaka ʻŌiwi who have and continue to live and breathe on this campus and build pilina. It means that we recognize our kuleana to Hawaiʻi and Moananuiākea. It means that we look towards our kūpuna, our moʻolelo, our moʻokūʻauhau, our moʻopuna, our lāhui, our nation, and keep living and pushing towards collective liberation because it is political and cultural. In various ways, it can be about survival. It also means that we pause and listen, and are intentional about what we breathe life to—the language we use everyday and the interactions in our relationships and communities.
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