Aloha ‘Āina with Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio
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@oahuwaterprotectors
@oahuwp
@protectmaunakea
@puuhuluhulu
@morningyouwake
Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio is a Kanaka Maoli wahine artist, activist, scholar and storyteller joins us for episode four. In this episode Jamaica shares her experience as a kiaʻi, a protector of land and water. She helps us understand how aloha ‘āina is a powerful source of learning, love and relationship. We also explore the tenacious power of Hawai’i and how it exists outside of colonial projections.
Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio is a Kanaka Maoli wahine artist / activist / scholar / storyteller born and raised in Pālolo Valley to parents Jonathan and Mary Osorio. Jamaica earned her PhD in English (Hawaiian literature) in 2018 from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Currently, Jamaica is an Assistant Professor of Indigenous and Native Hawaiian Politics at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Jamaica is a three-time national poetry champion, poetry mentor and a published author. In 2020 her poetry and activism were the subject of an award-winning film, This is the Way we Rise (directed by Ciara Lacey), which was featured in Vogue.com and at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. She is a proud past Kaiāpuni student, Ford fellow, and a graduate of Kamehameha, Stanford University (BA) and New York University (MA). Her book Remembering our Intimacies: Moʻolelo, Aloha ʻĀina, and Ea was published in 2021 by The University of Minnesota Press.