Talk By M膩healani Ahia | Jan 21 | 3:00pm - 4:30pm

January 21, 3:00pm - 4:30pm
Mānoa Campus, Business Administration Building (BUSAD) A102

Title: 鈥淢o驶o驶ography: Shapeshifting and Regeneration鈥 Abstract: Hawaiian genealogical narratives challenge restrictions of Euro-American biographies that focus on a single self in a linear time and space, and offer a critical intervention through what I call 鈥渕o驶o驶ography.鈥 In the 16th century, my ancestor, Kihawahine was ritually transformed into an akua mo驶o/reptilian water deity at Moku驶ula ceremonial complex in L膩haina, Maui. Each generation of the symbolic lizard spine of mo驶ok奴驶auhau has reinterpreted the shapeshifting Kihawahine who appears in forms including lizard, spider, dog, and alluring woman. Her status as one of the few female deities elevated to state worship under Kamehameha and her ability to travel between and beyond the islands have inspired mana wahine/women鈥檚 power and leadership through spiraling time to the present day L膩haina fire recovery. Kihawahine鈥檚 story exemplifies the work of cultural regeneration through storied wisdom, the basis for my past and future research extending mo驶o驶ography throughout oceania toward a liberated future for all. In current collaboration with others, I bring the power of cultural memory to L膩haina recovery work, to social justice workshops inspired by ancestral stories of cultural trauma and resilience, and to walking detours that examine the layers of disability and asylum stories haunting the Hawai驶i State [Mental] Hospital grounds. Bio: M膩healani Ahia (Kanaka 鈥樑宨wi) is a scholar-activist committed to advancing interdisciplinary projects empowering Indigenous, feminist, queer, disabled, decolonial storytelling. She holds a BA from UC Berkeley and is a PhD candidate in English (Pasifika literatures) with a Graduate Certificate in Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies at 91精品黑料吃瓜 惭腻苍辞补. She is completing her dissertation, 鈥淪hapeshifting Hawaiian Biography: Life and Afterlives of Kihawahine,鈥 as the Henry Roe Cloud Fellow at Yale University. Her scholarship has been published in American Quarterly, Biography, Shima, and Feminism and Protest Camps. She is a co-founder of the Mauna Kea Syllabus Project and Pu驶uhuluhulu University


Event Sponsor
Department of Ethnic Studies and Public Administration Program, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Department of Ethnic Studies, 808956806, esdept@hawaii.edu,

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