Dr. JAMAICA HEOLIMELEIKALANI OSARIO on Reclaiming Aloha /297
Black and white photo by Kapulei Flores with Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio looking down in the foreground and Mauna a Wākea in the background; a collage of orchid blossoms encircle Osorio.
How might traditional Hawaiian lifeways and teachings usher in a reclaimed understanding of aloha and a world beyond capitalism? Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani centers Pilinia, precolonial Hawaiian intimacies and relations, as technology for increasing capacity for relationships and pleasure, care and reciprocity, love for and with each other and the Earth, and the actualization of the Hawaiian concept of aloha ʻāina.
Dr. Osorio opens this episode by charting iterations of Pilina throughout the history of sovereign Hawai’i, describing nets of intimacy within Pilina multiple partners, expansive ‘ohana family networks, and how queer lovemaking is reflected in the land as inherent in creation. From that grounding, Dr. Osorio guides us into a fuller understanding of aloha by returning the commodified phrase to the more extensive understanding of aloha ‘āina, wherein the possibilities for other worlds are not only born but remembered and recalled from the long history of sovereign Hawai’i and traditional Hawaiian teachings and lifeways.
This episode is imbued with poetry inspired by the movement to protect Mauna Kea and right relationship with Land; instructions for trusting in intergenerational wisdom within coalitional movements for Indigenous Sovereignty, Land Back, racial and climate justice; and prompting for how we might shift to a paradigm of abundance. Further, Dr. Osorio reminds us that for Native Hawaiians and Indigenous peoples, the future beyond capitalism, settler colonialism, heterosexuality, and other forms of domination resides in the living knowledge from ancestral pasts. There are other ways of being for Hawai’i and the planet.
“In the same way that Aloha asks us to recognize each other, it also asks us to recognize our relationship to the ʻĀina, to the land, to that which feeds us, that which is around us.”
Photo of Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio at Puʻuhonua o PUʻuhuluhulu by Daniella Zalcman
Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio is a Kānaka Maoli wahine artist, activist, and scholar born and raised in Pālolo Valley to parents Jonathan and Mary Osorio. Heoli earned her Ph.D. in English Hawaiian literature in 2018 from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. Currently, Heoli is an Assistant Professor of Indigenous and Native Hawaiian Politics at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. Heoli is a three-time national poetry champion, poetry mentor, and published author. She is a proud past Kaiāpuni student, Ford fellow, and a graduate of Kamehameha, Stanford University (BA), and New York University (MA). Her book Remembering our Intimacies: Moʻolelo, Aloha ʻĀina, and Ea was published this fall with the University of Minnesota Press.
♫ The music featured in this episode is “My People, My Land” and “Going Home Stomp Dance” by Pura Fé, “I Believe in Being Ready” by Rising Appalachia, and “Wood Drops” by Justin Crawmer.
References
“On the Frontlines of Maunakea” by Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio
“Kumulipo” by Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio
Reading Recommendations
From a Native Daughter by Haunani-Kay Trask
Native Land and Foreign Desires by Lilikalā Kameʻeleihiwa
A Nation Rising by Ikaika Hussey, Erin Kahunawaika'ala Wright
Remembering our Intimacies: Moʻolelo, Aloha ʻĀina, and Ea by Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio
Take Action
Follow and support the work of Native and POC organizations who are already doing the work. In Hawaiʻi that means @protectmaunakea and Hawaii Abolition Collective. Financially support the organizations that have our back, Kahea.org and Hawai’i Community Bail Fund.
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For The Wild is a slow media organization dedicated to land-based protection, co-liberation, and intersectional storytelling. We are rooted in a paradigm shift away from human supremacy, endless growth, and consumerism. As we dream towards a world of grounded justice and reciprocity, our work highlights impactful stories and deeply-felt meaning making as balms for these times.