Host: Kaʻiminaʻauao Kahikina (Host, PhD student, Scholar & Artist)

Guest: Maile Arvin (Scholar, Historian, Educator)

Work Featured: Practicing Pilina on Incarcerated ʻĀina: The Power of Queer Relationships of Kanaka Maoli Girls at the Kawailoa Training SchoolTheme: Reclaiming intimacy and care under confinement

Description:

Host Kaʻimi Kahikina chats with historian Maile Arvin to discuss research conducted with Eliana Massey on the Kawailoa Training School for Girls. Arvin and Massey reveal how Kanaka youth, confined within colonial institutions, forged colonially queered forms of pilina as acts of care, survival, and freedom. Their work unearths the violent systems that sought to sever Kanaka girls from one another—and honors the relationships that endured despite it.

Listen & Learn:

How can reclaiming stories of confinement open pathways toward collective healing and the restoration of pilina across generations of long-estranged ʻāina and kānaka?

*This episode engages Hawaiian worldviews and social contexts, and explores themes of sexuality, gender, and erotics. Some language and content may be considered strong or triggering. Viewer/listener discretion is advised. 

Art concept: Kaʻiminaʻauao Kahikina @mahucha_art

Art design: Sara Saffery @sarasaffery

Music: “Pua Līlīlehua,” Mokihana Flood, Tree of Life

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