Ancestral Connections

12/11/2023

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12/11/2023

Follow us on IG!

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08/31/2023

It is almost September! We are partnering again with Dr. Xanat Meza in Japan, who has curated an impressive English language collection of Ainu media for our benefit. This is a very special opportunity for those who are Ainu or Nikkei identifying to learn about Ainu issues. We will be starting off on 9/3/23
learning about and reflecting on the issues surrounding the repatriation of Ainu remains. In order to maintain a space that feels safe for discussion, we are extending our invitation to participants who are Ainu identifying, or who are Nikkei and questioning if they have e Ainu heritage, or to Nikkei wanting to learn more about settler-colonialism. If that is you, come join us!

Link to register

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SWCFZFK

08/13/2023

Sarah is a valued Ancestral Connections Board Member and founder of Tsuru for Solidarity-Hawai'i. Sarah is currently on ground running supplies to West Maui families. In the coming weeks, Ancestral Connections will be organizing to directly support Kanaka Maoli families and generational residents of West Maui. We believe that this is the time for equitable anti-racist de-imperialized grassroots community-driven action in Hawai'i. Until we are set up to do so, our organization is asking our friends to donate to Sarah's venmo. Sarah is getting supplies and communications to people who are spread out at camp sites because it is extremely crowded in the shelters. In addition, cell phone coverage and wifi is extremely spotty and many people still do not know where the resources are, travel to those resources is difficult due to cost of gas, or they must stand in long lines to obtain the help they need. Sarah will be running ice, coolers, portable battery chargers, gift cards for gas and food to families who are suffering from layers of loss and grief. Please consider donating. Every single bit of your donations will be going directly to the residents of West Maui.

08/06/2023

Today marks 78 years since the bombing of Hiroshima, and the bombing of Nagasaki which happened three days after.

"The impact of the bomb was so terrific that practically all living things — human and animal alike — were literally seared to death by the tremendous heat and pressure set up by the blast," Tokyo radio said in the aftermath of the explosion, according to a report by The Guardian in August 1945. But the damage did not end there. The radiation released from the explosion would cause further suffering in the times to come."

78 years later, and we still have to stand in resistance to hegemonic pro-war narratives as Hollywood attempts to erase our stories which speak to the tragedies resulting from the testing and application of nuclear weaponry.

On this day, 78 years later, I honor my family lost in the bombing of Hiroshima, by standing in juxtaposition to irresponsible media like Oppenheimer, which completely omitts the devastating impact that nuclear weaponry has had on Indigenous & Hispanic communities without warning or notice.

On this day, 78 years later, I honor my family lost in the bombing of Hiroshima, by standing in support of the Marshallese community.
From 1946 to 1958, the US tested nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands that were equivalent to the explosive power of 1.6 Hiroshima bombs every day for 12 years.

Today, 78 years later, Hollywood is still attempting to romanticize and justify nuclear weaponry. We must remember Hiroshima. We must remember Nagasaki. And we must never allow Hollywood to deminish the ways in which nuclear weaponry continues to assault Native American, Mexican American, Hispanic, Hibakusha, and Pasifika bodies. 78 years laster, and our collective stories must rise.

Pictured: the Hiroshima Memorial Monument - the Cenotaph contains the Register of the Deceased of the A-bomb victims with the inscription offering a prayer to the victims in Japanese. One day, I hope to visit to find the names of my grandfather's cousins who were lost that day.

Look carefully & the Genbaku Dome (原爆ドーム) can be seen in the distance.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CvnZoPOy4iO/?igshid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==

06/20/2023

When the ancestors have a message, it is best advised to listen...

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/netflix-crews-whole-boat-exploded-after-back-to-back-shark-attacks-in-hawaii-like-something-out-of-jaws/?fbclid=IwAR2Ahx0LVomsfOpGmoKUluvjlF_9xYN36m9jp0YpWqfyhZqhuBDWPg9gY9w

"We were trying to get it away and it wasn't having any of it," one of the show's producers said. "It was horrific."

12/29/2022

Official statement in English from Cemipos in support of Ainu Women's Association leader Ryoko Tahara, on the demand for Sugita Mio, who is a Japanese psuedo-conservative politician and member of the House of Representatives, to resign/be replaced from her position in power. Please read, sign the petition and feel free to share in your English networks.

"In solidarity with Indigenous Peoples, LGBTQIA+ communities, survivors of s*xual assault, and other minoritized individuals living in Japan, CEMiPoS demands the immediate removal of House of Representatives member Sugita Mio. The hate speaker Sugita has made numerous harmful comments against the aforementioned communities, supported discriminatory policies in collaboration with the conservative Liberal Democratic Party, and invited discriminatory sentiment among the public through her hate speech."

Sign and share the petition at this link: https://chng.it/H26whXf6c9 In solidarity with Indigenous Peoples, LGBTQIA+ communities, survivors of s*xual assault, and other minoritized individuals living in Japan, CEMiPoS demands the immediate removal of House of Representatives member Sugita Mio. The h...

12/08/2022

The world speaks of Pearl Harbor on December 7th anually, as if it is war and militarism that defines Hawai'i. In fact, the true ancestral connections of our land and waters goes back to antiquity, and remain.

A MUST READ MO'OLELO

Pūpūhīhīwai Kim:

Shared by Papa Kū Ching:

David Kanakeawe Richards wrote “The Beginning of Pearl Harbor, July 1909 to December 7, 1941” and shared the stories of Ka’ahupāhau in correspondence back and forth with Admiral C W Nimitz, Commander of the Pacific Fleet in 1943 who in turn, shared it with Rear Admiral Albert T. Church of the U.S. Naval Institute at Annapolis, Maryland. George Denison contracted the work to build the first dry-dock there for the Navy. As they located the site, three Hawaiian fisherman told them that the site was kapu, a cave, that belonged to Ka’ahupāhau. One kanaka, kupuna Kanakeawa used to feed the shark akua. The Navy kept drilling and blasting. Pumps would break. The Boiler would break. Lots of break-downs and mishaps occurred. They found a somewhat bottomless cave that turned out to be nine feet wide and ran up to Halawa mauka. River rocks were in it, as well as brackish and fresh water ponds with shrimp. Starting in 1909, they constructed the dry-dock with four sections, each 180x250 feet. Massive. After four years, they finished that phase, after driving so many piles into the ground, and then went to pump the water out. The whole dry-dock blew up and collapsed. Four years of work costing almost $4 million dollars, gone in four minutes. Over a thousand workers had to be laid off. A year later, they began again and in 1917, they were supposed to pour the concrete. Walter F. Dillingham came to witness the event. Long story short, they brought a kahuna in, lots of discussion about offerings, a car accident, and ultimately pumping the water out and finding the cartilage of a large shark about 14 feet four inches in the 9 foot high cave. The beauty of this mo’olelo is that it is officially published in Volume 70, Number 495 of the United States Naval Institute Proceedings, dated May 1944. It even includes a note about how Admiral Nimitz noted that some Hawaiians believe that the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor was a continuation of the bad luck experienced at the dry-dock for the desecration of the Cave of Ka’ahupāhau.

07/21/2022

A Scythian woman's boot around 2300 years old, that had been preserved in the frozen ground of the Altai Mountains.

06/30/2022

We are very proud of our Board of Directors at Ancestral Connections. Each one is a fierce warrior fighting imperialism and erasure of Pacific people and culture. Pictured is a meme that was generated after someone snapped a picture of our Chair in the middle of a demonstration in support of normalizing the Hawaiian language within institutionalized spaces in Hawai'i.

06/27/2022

ONLINE GROUP RELATIONS CONFERENCE Variations of Very Asian+: A Group Relations Conference on Asian American Authority August 3-6, 2022 APPLICATION FOR MEMBERSHIP