05/29/2021
CELEBRATE ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN HERITAGE!!
WE SHED TODAYS SPOTLIGHT ON Haunani-Kay Trask
Haunani-Kay Trask is an Indigenous Hawaiian educator, activist, Hawaiian nationalist, author, poet, filmmaker and all-around badass. Born in 1949 to a politically active family, many of whom advocated for Hawaiian statehood, Trask has dedicated her life to advocating for a free and independent Hawaiʻi and to keeping Hawaiian culture alive while brutalized under imperial rule. Trask became heavily involved in the anti-Vietnam War movement while studying at the University of Wisconsin, and she became an active supporter of the Black Panther Party while studying at the University of Chicago. It was during her university studies that she made the connection to the symbiotic relationship that racism and capitalism share, and how the system exploits marginalized communities across the globe. Trask has worked tirelessly advocating for Hawaiian sovereignty, has participated in, and organized, protests for land rights. Trask famously confronted white male anthropologists who claimed expertise on Hawaiian culture and politics and spent years teaching at the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa on the subjects of Polynesian women, political movements in Hawaiʻi and the Pacific Islands. She is a founding member of the Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies at the university and has written numerous books. Trask anchored and produced First Friday, a monthly public television show highlighting cultural and political issues that impact Native Hawaiians. In 2019, she was awarded the Angela Y. Davis Prize for her work in education, activism and the arts.
To leant more visit: https://www.negrabohemian.com/blog/aapi-heritage-month