Indigenous Peoples of Oceania Commencement Speech
University of San Francisco
Written by Alaina Aflague Arroyo
Håfa adai todu hamyo, guahu si Alaina Aflague Arroyo and it is an honor to be this
year’s student speaker for the 2019 Indigenous Peoples of Oceania ceremony. I stand before you today as an Indigenous woman, Native Chamoru, from the Micronesian island of Guåhan, Boricua, and Chicana. Before I continue with my speech I want to take a moment to recognize the importance and crucial necessity in bringing visibility to the original stewards of this land that we are so privileged to be guests on today. As guests to Indigenous lands, it’s our role to learn whose lands we are occupying and what our responsibilities are in supporting Indigenous efforts toward land repatriation, the fight for missing and murdered Indigenous women, cultural preservation and more. Today marks our third annual Indigenous Peoples of Oceania commencement ceremony. A ceremony that has a history of Native Pacific Islander student activism. Being the last original member of the Pacific Islander Collective, telling this history is truly an honor. Because here I am today walking across this stage and receiving my bachelors in Critical Diversity Studies and Sociology and continuing my education as a graduate student. Without the efforts of 7 Pacific Islander students in spring of 2017, fighting to ensure accurate representation of Native Pacific Islander achievements in higher education, we would not all be here today in celebration of these graduates. Lokahi, a Kānaka Maoli value meaning unity and harmony and a way to connect to the ocean is who we are as Pasifika people. People who derive from the islands of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia who derive from the soils of those lands, the waters of the ocean and the air in which we breathe. We come together through our ocean, we come together through our vibrant cultures and communities of people. We come together through the stories that we tell of our ancestors. We are a vast sea of thousands of islands, comprising of the most intelligent people, who once navigated the ocean using the stars. We tell our stories through dance, wespeak our languages and ways of being and knowing through the patterns engrained in our skin through tattoo and art. Can we take a moment to truly recognize that our people come from long history of Pasifika intelligence. When I think of unity as a people, what comes to my mind is my favorite reggae song, Indigenous Life by Fiji. Because this song touches on our united identity as being Indigenous to our islands, coming together as one people who share an ocean and taking pride in that.
When I think of unity I think of being on the executive board of the Pacific Islander Collective and closing our emails as “one ocean”, because despite these three labels that non-Pasifika people put on us, we are one people. We come in unity as a people because of the ocean that surrounds us all in the islands that make who we are as peoples of Oceania. We come in unity today to celebrate 4 years of rigorous work that required a lot of patience, dedication, and commitment. Native Pacific Islanders make up less than 1% of the student body at the University of San Francisco. 18% of Native Pacific Islanders obtain a bachelors degree. 18%. Our existence in settings of academia is challenging that number. Our presence in this room today is challenging that number. And we are not defined by the statistic that reinforces this idea that we cannot obtain a degree in higher education. Us graduating is creating a change that we may not even realize. We are one more Pacific Islander that has started and completed college, and it is also important to recognize the privilege that we have in saying that. For those who couldn’t be on this stage, for those who may not have received the guidance in navigating higher education, it is my hope that we can continue to create more Pacific Islander mentors, supporters and those who inspire. Inspire our community to learn about themselves. Inspire our community to take pride in their identities and the knowledge that they hold. Inspire to challenge spaces that tell us that we are not important. Inspire us to create Pacific Islander courses in our spaces of education. Inspire us to create change and resources for our youth and future generations. Inspire our people to know that we are much much more than cultural dancing and vacation spots. We’re moving through the world with a lens of Pacific Islander knowledge, with a lens of the wisdom that connects us to our ocean and land. A knowledge that helps us understand what it means to be a Pacific Islander in higher education. And we do all of this in unity with each other and in harmony with our purpose as natives to our islands in Oceania. I stand here before you all, proud to be speaking as a Micronesian woman. Here for and because of my ancestors. Here for Native Pacific Islander students who may have been lost like I was in figuring out where to find Pacific Islanders, where to find the classes, where to find the validation and admiration, and where to find ourselves. Saina ma’åse’, thank you, for allowing me to speak this afternoon. Thank you for all of the supporters who guided me to being on this stage speaking right now to you all today. Un dankolo na’ si yu’os ma’åse’, and congratulations to you all as we continue to paddle in our journey as one ocean.