Aloha to the page of a wanderlusting writer juggling college life and several other hobbies into an eternally-short 24-hour day. I hope to shed light on the Dartmouth experience as I explore the brave new world of Hanover, NH and everything going to college here has to offer. In my free time, you can find me trying to learn a new language or building the perfect Spotify playlist (alternative/indie, anyone?). I hope you enjoy!
Taught by Gordon Henry, an Anishinaabe poet and author, this class taught me to explore Indigenous storytelling within digital contexts. I took this class with only seven other classmates, allowing us to really engage with films, comic books, and television shows in Indigenous languages or produced by Indigenous artists.
Taught by Timothy Pulju, this class taught me how to identify and understand how languages evolve over time and why. I analyzed and reconstructed fictional languages of imaginary nations in order to understand the link between language and culture, and ended up having such an appreciation for the complexity and beauty of language's place in history!
Taught by Lindsay Whaley, this class let me discover a newfound love for ancient apocalyptic literature. We analyzed ancient texts and compared them to modern apocalypses, looking at the zombie apocalypse phenomenon and other apocalypses in pop culture and comparing them to the ancient tradition of writing apocalypses. Additionally, I learned the Greek alphabet and now I can even stumble through ancient Greek passages.
FallNew Orleans, LA
Favorite Class: Native American Literature and the Law
Taught and organized by David Peterson, this class let me get into the shoes of a real linguist as we did fieldwork (virtually!!) with the Zophei language. I learned how to describe a never-before-learned language's phonology (sound system), how to characterize its grammar and words, and ultimately got to present my research to experts in the language family around the world in a workshop at the end of the term!
WinterHanover, NH
Favorite Class: Native American Literature and the Law
Taught by N. Bruce Duthu, this class taught me how Native literature can provide lens by which to evaluate, critique, and ultimately revise Federal Indian Law. During this class, I read works by Native authors like Tommy Orange and Louise Erdrich '76 alongside the opinions of definitive case opinions in American law and explained how literature can be a catalyst for Indigenous sovereignty.
Supervised by N. Bruce Duthu, I spent this off-term performing research after being awarded a Sophomore Research Scholarship to study contemporary Hawaiian cultural and linguistic revitalization. I studied 19th-century newspapers and contemporary Hawaiian texts in order to understand how Hawaiian language revitalization both past and present has advanced and continues to enable a contemporary bodied Hawaiian politic of sovereignty.
Taught by Laura McPherson, this class taught me about how languages create meaning through words. During this class, I learned how to analyze different languages' morphological processes and compare different approaches within the field as to morphological structures.
Taught by N. Bruce Duthu, this class offered me a glimpse into the lived realities of Native people in Indian Country Today. I learned about the economic, social, cultural, and historical roots for the struggles of Indigenous people today within the United States, and was able to write about the contemporary battle for Native Hawaiian visibility and Hawaiian sovereignty.
Taught by Laura McPherson, this class taught me how to engage in language documentation and how, as a linguist, we can put our skills to use to help communities seeking to document and revitalize their languages. I worked on the Satawalese language, spoken on the island of Satawal in the Federated States of Micronesia. Ultimately, my team created two dictionaries - one in English, one in Hawaiian, a website, and several materials that focused on the Satawalese tradition of wayfinding and non-instrumental ocean navigation.
Taught by Charles Eastman fellow Sunaina Kale, this class taught me about the role of sound in delineating, conceiving, and comprehending relations between people and the land in Indigenous musical traditions. Over the course of the class, we discussed Indigenous musicians, listened to music from Native peoples around the world, heard from masterful Indigenous musicians, and ultimately presented a project that creatively analyzed a song of our choice. My project focused on the song "Ask Yourself" by Foster the People, and I wrote a poem that integrated aspects of Indigenous languages and worldviews to answer questions posed by the song.
This term, I formally began the research process for my upcoming honors thesis in the Linguistics department on Hawaiian semantics! While living in Hanover, I also began working as a Senior Fellow with the Admissions department—a position I will be holding for the entirety of my last year at Dartmouth.
On May 8th, Hōkūpaʻa, Dartmouth's Pan-Pasifika student organization, hosted lūʻau for the first time since 2019. Coinciding with Mothers' Day, we were able to host an incredible event, honor all of the mothers, grandmothers, and aunties of our members that helped out, and fed over 400 people with home-cooked Hawaiian food. On the same weekend as the annual powwow hosted by the Native American community at Dartmouth, it was a powerful display of the Indigenous community and a wonderful celebration of all of the diverse cultures that the Native students at Dartmouth represent.
Everybody eats!
Preparation for lūʻau was a super long time coming, but it was such a collective effort on behalf of the whole community. Both members of Hōkūpaʻa and non-members played massive roles in preparing the food, getting the word out, and securing funding. Thanks to donations from Dartmouth's Special Programs and Events Committee, several academic departments including the Native American and Indigenous Studies departments, and a wonderful group of Greek houses, we raised tens of thousands of dollars and created an event that made us all proud.
Bryan and Kainalu Tolentino, parents of former Hōkūpaʻa president Momi Tolentino '20, performed for our event!
Over the course of the lūʻau, we had a hula exhibition featuring most of our members, a Hawaiian language game featuring prize bundles of Hawaiʻi-sourced treats and merchandise, and had live music courtesy of Hawaiʻi musicians from the Big Island. Island Style Grindz, a Hawaiʻi-based food truck, is a local business founded by the parents of Hōkūpaʻa's treasurer, and we had the delight of inviting them to cater for lūʻau. The food selection featured spicy and Hawaiian-style ahi (tuna) poke, homemade poi (mashed taro) from Native Hawaiian-owned and Oʻahu-based farm Hoʻokuaʻāina, kālua pork, chicken long rice, li hing fruit salad, and a bunch of other Hawaiian dishes. Personally, I couldn't get enough of the poke — the fish was caught locally on the Big Island just a few days prior to our celebration, and you could really tell!
I was really happy that we could put on an authentic lūʻau to help the visibility of Pasifika culture on campus. I feel like too often, the idea of a "Hawaiian style party" or an "island luau party" is thrown around as a theme, but to make an event happen that's true to the traditional notion of a lūʻau — an event honoring family, culture, and aloha — is a powerful thing. We didn't use cheap plastic leis made of fake flowers, instead opting to make everything by hand; we didn't order generic food or cater food from some business, instead cooking everything together under the guidance of an Indigenous chef whose family to one of our members; we didn't try to cater to what people thought a luau was, instead showing them what they should know a lūʻau to be. Putting on events like these is how organizations like ours can provide such complementary reinforcement to the academic knowledge sourced from the classroom.
ʻAʻohe hana nui ke alu ʻia - no task is too big when done together by all!
This next year, we're hoping to continue the tradition and make another amazing celebration for all of campus to enjoy. For those of y'all with a connection to the Pacific and the islands, always feel free to join in! For those of you who'd love to see this event, we'd love to welcome you same time, next year. Aloha nui a hui hou!
All photo credit goes to Naia Bhalla '22. Mahalo nui for such amazing pictures!
In addition to blogging, I work as a Fellow for the Tucker Center, which focuses on promoting spiritual and ethical life on campus. As part of this role, I'm leading the Interfaith Alternative Spring Break Trip. Read on to learn more about my work!
