Pre Conference Webinar Series In the months of February and March, AAAS will host three webinars featuring Kanaka ʻŌiwi speakers addressing multiple topics. Ranging in topics from art and labor in Waikīkī, militarism, and thinking through what it means to be in good relation with people and place, these webinars are aimed at allowing conference participants to set their intentionality before arriving in Hawaiʻi. Webinar #1: “Waikīkī: Art and Labor Activism”Friday, February 27 9-1030am HST/11-12:30pm PST/2-3:30pm ESTParticipants: Dean Saranillio (moderator), Brandy Nālani McDougall, Corey AsanoThis webinar examines Waikīkī as a critical site of capitalist and colonial struggle. Featuring two Kānaka ʻŌiwi, Brandy Nālani McDougall (scholar/2023-25 Hawaiʻi Poet Laureate) and Corey Asano (labor organizer with UNITE HERE Local 5), this webinar will share the critical work they have done to transform the unequal conditions of power in Waikīkī. Corey will discuss his participation in their union’s successful labor strike at the Hilton Hawaiian Village (the site of the AAAS conference) while Brandy will speak about her art/poetry installations that address empire and settler colonialism while reclaiming Waikīkī as a particularly Kanaka place. Zoom Link:https://rutgers.zoom.us/j/97351553407?pwd=ppfKcXeZSoCFwO0TazkbsMigLKQXoz.1Join by SIP[email protected]Meeting ID: 973 5155 3407Passcode: 256118 Webinar #2: The Labor of Being a GuestMonday, March 2 9-10:30am HST/11-12:30pm PST/2-3:30pm ESTParticipants: Monisha Das Gupta (moderator), Maile Arvin, Nohelani TevesSo you want to attend a professional conference being held in Hawaiʻi. You’re a self-reflective enough scholar to recognize that such a trip may merit some ethical reckoning given the past and present realities of settler colonialism in Hawaiʻi. What do you do? This webinar does not offer one answer as to how to be an ethical conference tourist in Hawaiʻi, or any other place. Rather, this webinar offers those interested in this question some models of how to be in relation to place and people in Hawaiʻi. This webinar asks participants to learn Kanaka Maoli cultural protocol (specifically oli mahalo, a chant of gratitude) and to listen to a frank discussion between Dr. Monisha Das Gupta, Dr. Nohelani Teves, and Dr. Maile Arvin which will range across themes of conference tourism, tokenizing Kanaka Maoli thought on Asian American Studies syllabi, and how our commitments to being in good relation to Hawaiʻi are lessons that can be applied and practiced everywhere.Zoom Link:https://rutgers.zoom.us/j/94689402342?pwd=Ax89mi2VRSlrM8icd30wych96zb8HZ.1Join by SIP[email protected]Meeting ID: 946 8940 2342Passcode: 723975 Webinar #3: Demilitarizing Hawaiian Lands – Local Struggles, Global ImplicationsMarch 12 10-11:30am HST/1-2:30pm PST/4-5:30pm ESTParticipants: Kyle Kajihiro (moderator), Camille Kalama, and ʻIlima LongThis webinar will discuss the history of (de)militarization in Hawaiʻi and contemporary struggles to reclaim Hawaiian lands, including expiring military leases of Hawaiian trust lands and successful demilitarization campaigns on Kahoʻolawe, Mākua, and Kapūkakī (Red Hill). Zoom Link:https://rutgers.zoom.us/j/99388947770?pwd=nwn4fS4aPLYgQvAazkdH6E3tGNyvm0.1Join by SIP[email protected]Meeting ID: 993 8894 7770Passcode: 500378
