Repost from @Anakbayanphx on Instagram.
Can Filipino/a/x Americans identify as Pacific Islanders?
We want to tackle this question to continue conversations on what solidarity can look like between Filipino/a/x Americans and Pacific Islanders, particularly on issues concerning anti-imperialism, Indigenous sovereignty, and land and ocean back.
References:
Achacoso, K. (2022). Afterword: Is the ocean a metaphor? On the oceanic turn, Asian settler colonialism, and Filipinx studies in Hawai ‘I. Alon: Journal for Filipinx American and Diasporic Studies, 2(3). https://doi.org/10.5070/LN42360552.
Anderson, Z. (2021, September 16). OpEd: Are Filipino Americans Pacific Islanders? AsAmNews. https://asamnews.com/2021/09/16/the-identity-of-filipino-americans-is-complicated/.
Cachola, E. R. (2022). Hxstoriography of Filpina/x in Hawai ‘i. Alon: Journal for Filipinx American and Diasporic Studies, 2(3), 235-272. https://doi.org/10.5070/LN42360538.
Saranillio, D. I. (2006). Colonial amnesia: Rethinking Filipino “American” settler empowerment in the US colony of Hawai ‘i. In A. Tiongson, R. Gutierrez, & E. Gutierrez (Eds.), Positively no Filipinos allowed: Building communities and discourse (pp. 124-141). Temple University Press.
Trask, H. K. (2000). Settlers of color and “immigrant” hegemony:“Locals” in Hawai'i. Amerasia Journal, 26(2), 1-26. https://doi.org/10.17953/amer.26.2.b31642r221215k7k.
Anakbayan Phoenix responds to this question with a "No, not necessarily."
However, we recognize that there are Filipino/a/x Americans who are part Pacific Islander. We also want to note that Filipinos in the Philippines tend to identify more with being "Asian" than with being "Pacific Islander."
We want to tackle this question to continue conversations on what solidarity can look like between Filipino/a/x Americans and Pacific Islander, particularly on issues concerning anti imperialism, indigenous sovereignty, and land and ocean back.
Some Filipino/a/x Americans claim being "Pacific Islander" for multiple reasons. Anderson (2021) notes:
First, it may emerge as a response to the racial and ethnic exclusion some Filipino/a/x Americans feel within Asian American Spaces.
Second, it may result from other Filipino/a/x Americans pointing to geography and shared ancestry, specifically with the Chamorro Peoples of Mariana Islands.
Third, there are Filipino/a/x Americans who descended from the laborers brought to Hawai'i to work in the sugar plantations.
Nevertheless, it can become harmful when Filipino/a/x Americans claim to be Pacific Islander. Cachola (2022) shows that:
It eclipse or silences the specific issues and problems that Pacific Islander communities are facing.
It erases how Filipino/a/x Americans have become settlers benefiting from indigenous dispossession in Hawai'i, undermining movements for Indigenous sovereignty.
It disregards the ancestral memories of Native Hawaiians who have been on Hwai'i since their kumulipo (creation story), even before the arrival of Filipinos.
But there are opportunities for solidarity between Filipino/a/x Americans and Pacific Islanders!
Cachola (2022) outlines that:
There is an ongoing history of Filipinos in Hawai'i being actively involved in unions and multi-racial labor movements.
The US military has been occupying Native Hawaiian lands to conduct warfare in Mindanao, thereby displacing Bangsamoro Peoples from their homelands.
The US military is the biggest polluter in the Pacific Ocean, affecting both the Pacific Islands and the Philippines archipelago.
Achacoso (2022, -. 396) urges the Filipino/a/x American community:
"Rather than wanting to claim uniformity as colonized peoples, perhaps it might be more productive to think more complexly about where our histories connect and where they diverge... There have been good relatives to Pacific Islanders.
Thus, while there is an impulse to rush towards solidarity, there is still so much relationship building needed to enact those deep relationalities that acknowledge our differences."
Thus, to start, we invite everyone to heed Native Hawaiian activist Haunani Kay Trask's (2000) words:
"Only Hawaiians are Native to Hawai'i. Everyone else is a settler" (p. 6)
"defending Hawaiian sovereignty initiatives is only beneficial when non-Natives play the roles assigned to them by Natives" (pp. 20-21).
"Non Natives need to examine and reexamine their many and continuing benefits from Hawaiian dispossession" (p. 21).
In other words, As Saranillio (2006) articulates:
For Filipinos in Hawai'i to support Native Hawaiians in their struggle for self determination, it is important that we be supporters and not leaders in this movement. Here, the role of ally is not to make decisions for Native Hawaiians but to speak out against colonialism while challenging others in our communities to do the same" (p. 140).
Indeed, as Filipino/a/x Americans, this comes with rejecting patriotically aligning with U.S. American nationality and citizenship, as these disciplining apparatus hinge on settler colonialism in the U.S., in Hawai'i, and in the Philippines. Further, this entails rejecting faux inclusion within liberal Asian American spaces, especially if that would mean being uncritical of the legacies of colonialism that have affected both Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
In Sum, the "Asian American" identity has always been political.
So is the "Filipino/a/x American" identity.
And so is the Pacific Islander" identity.
As such, let's ask ourselves and our communities what it truly means to be "Filipino/a/x American," to be "Asian American," and to be in solidarity with Pacific Islanders, as we struggle for the liberation of peoples everywhere.