{"id":161649,"date":"2022-07-06T14:30:42","date_gmt":"2022-07-07T00:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=161649"},"modified":"2024-03-14T22:43:49","modified_gmt":"2024-03-15T08:43:49","slug":"emerging-indigenous-uh-manoa-poets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2022\/07\/06\/emerging-indigenous-uh-manoa-poets\/","title":{"rendered":"Emerging Indigenous UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa poets part of inaugural national cohort"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"Four
From left: Kristina Togafau, Kalilinoe Detwiler, Arielle Lowe, Ha'åni San Nicolas at the inaugural Indigenous poets cohort in Washington D.C.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the many motivations for poetry for Kristina R. Togafau<\/strong> is using it as a vehicle to learn more about their Indigenous identity. The University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa<\/a> PhD<\/abbr> student is of Samoan and Western Shoshone descent, a Native tribe Indigneous to Northern Nevada. According to Togafau, channeling words and thoughts about elements of their cultural traditions is helping accomplish a personal quest to better understand both Native lineages.<\/p>\n

\"Kristina
Kristina R. Togafau<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“I’m getting to learn more about my cultural history and asking myself how do I revitalize or reconnect myself to these parts of my history or my genealogies through poetry,” Togafau said.<\/p>\n

This past April, Togafau and three other UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa students, Kalilinoe Detwiler<\/strong>, Arielle Lowe<\/strong> and Ha'åni San Nicolas<\/strong> were selected to participate in an inaugural Indigenous poetry cohort in Washington D.C. Hosted by national poetry organization, Indigenous Nations Poets<\/a>, also known as In-Na-Po. The five-day retreat featured an array of writing workshops led by Indigenous authors and U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo at the Library of Congress. The national event is part of an ongoing movement to mentor and nurture the growth of emerging poets of Indigenous descent.<\/p>\n

Togafau made the trek to Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> after learning the UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa English department<\/a> in the College of Arts, Languages and Letters<\/a> strongly upheld oral tradition not just written word.<\/p>\n

“It emphasized Indigenous storytelling and that just struck a chord with me because of how I grew up with my Dad and my uncles telling me all these outrageous stories about their childhood and I was like, ‘Can I get a PhD<\/abbr> in telling tall tales? I want that. I want to do that. I want to be in the Pacific,’” said Togafau.<\/p>\n

Kanaka ʻ\u014diwi poet<\/h2>\n
\"Kalilinoe
Kalilinoe Detwiler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Detwiler, who was the only kanaka ʻ\u014diwi (Native Hawaiian) participant at the poetry retreat, enjoyed hearing feedback from other Indigenous poets and exploring her ʻ\u014ciwi identity. The Makakilo native working on her PhD<\/abbr> in English at UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa can\u2019t recall when she first put pen to paper because it has always been a means of expression for as long as she can remember.<\/p>\n

“Through writing I best understood myself and understood the rest of the world, and then it came to a point where writing was a means to affect people and to get them to feel something or to move them in emotional directions,” Detwiler said. <\/p>\n

Detwiler is no stranger to the arts. She earned a BA<\/abbr> from the Academy for Creative Media<\/a> and English at UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa and has produced several animated Indigenous short films<\/a>. She is currently working on a children\u2019s book expected to be released in fall 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The national event is part of an ongoing movement to mentor and nurture the growth of poets of Indigenous descent. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[112,1471,342,1466,9,1626],"class_list":["post-161649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-academy-for-creative-media","tag-college-of-arts-languages-and-letters","tag-english","tag-manoa-enhancing-student-success","tag-uh-manoa","tag-women-of-uh","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161649"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161665,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161649\/revisions\/161665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}