Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio

Background

I am a Kanaka Maoli aloha ʻāina educator, activist, and artist whose ʻohana has been living, working, and bettering Hawaiʻi since time immemorial. My kūpuna were aliʻi, makaʻāinana, activists, educators, firefighters, laborers, pastors, artists, composers, community organizers, social service providers, storytellers, and weavers. Most importantly my kūpuna were committed members of their lāhui. I emerge from this genealogy primed and ready to continue to take forward the charge of contributing to a Hawaiʻi’s whose future is decolonial, deoccupied, demilitarized, and bursting with possibility.

Education

• PhD, English, University of Hawaiʻi, 2018
• MA, Art and Politics, New York University, 2013
• BA, Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Stanford University, 2012

Courses

• POLS 140: Introduction to Indigenous Politics
• POLS 301: Hawai‘i Politics
• POLS 302: Native Hawaiian Politics
• POLS 684: Contemporary Native Hawaiian Politics

Research

As an educator committed to the decolonization in Hawaiʻi and beyond, I believe it is my kuleana to produce research that actively (re)members the personal, genealogical, and scholarly relationship between Hawaiʻi and our ʻohana in Oceania. While much of my academic background is rooted in a respectful study of an Indigenous politics and theory primarily rooted in Turtle Island and Hawaiʻi, I recognize that our own decolonization will demand re-situating Hawaiʻi back home in Oceania, rather than within an American political context, and therefore a context of occupation.

Community Engagement

I am an Aloha ʻĀina. My work within our university is meant, first and foremost, to serve our lāhui beyond the institution. In order to teach about Hawaiʻi, Hawaiian and Indigenous Politics, it is our kuleana to remain connected and in service, to the communities, these politics affect most.