This study examines a historical trauma theory-informed framework to remember Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and/or māhū (LGBTQM) experiences of colonization in Hawai`i. Kānaka Maoli people and LGBTQM Kānaka Maoli face health issues disproportionately when compared with racial and ethnic minorities in Hawai’i, and to the United States as a whole. Applying learnings from historical trauma theorists, health risks are examined as social and community-level responses to colonial oppressions. Through the crossover implementation of the Historical Loss Scale (HLS), this study makes connections between historical losses survived by Kānaka Maoli and mental health. Specifically, this manuscript presents unique ways that Kānaka Maoli describe and define historical losses, and place-based themes that emerged. These themes were: the militarization of land; the adoption of christianity by Kānaka Maoli ali`i; the overthrow of the sovereign Hawaiian monarch; and the importance of māhū and LGBTQ perspectives. Each of these themes will be presented in detail. Written by a queer, mestiza Pinay-American scholar, her mentor, a lesbian Kanaka Maoli scholar/activist, with contributions from Community Advisory Board members, there will also be discussion about ethics of research with and for Kānaka Maoli.

Poetry is an ideal tool to convey participant voices in social research as it compresses the meaning and essence of participant narratives through using evocative sensory words that illuminate nuances of lived experience. Expressive poetics is an emerging arts-based research method that facilitates a multi-sensory and relational analytical process. In this article, the authors describe and illustrate an adapted expressive poetics research method through highlighting the experiences of Two Spirit, lesbian, gay, transgender, or queer (2SLGBTQ) Indigenous youth that participated in a culture-centered HIV prevention curriculum. It is our hope that through creating dialogic poems, we deepen and nuance the salient experiences of participant youth, acknowledge our relationship through adding our creative response to their calls for care, and create a model for others to engage in a similar process. In a time when 2SLGBTQ bodies are increasingly targeted and policed, it is more important than ever to center and amplify these voices.

Community based participatory research and attention to cultural resilience is recommended in HIV prevention research with Indigenous communities. This paper presents qualitative findings from evaluation of a culture-centered HIV prevention curriculum for Indigenous youth that was developed using a community based participatory research approach. Specifically, the authors focus on youth descriptions of cultural resilience and enculturation factors after participating in the curriculum. Thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with 23 youth participants yields three salient themes associated with cultural resilience and enculturation factors including: Development of cultural pride, honoring ancestors through traditional cultural practices, and acknowledging resilience and resistance within Indigenous communities. Additionally, per community directive, the authors share an observation of changes to identity descriptions from pre-curriculum baseline to post-curriculum interviews, pointing to a possible increase in awareness of Indigenous cultural identity.

The Ang Pagtanom og Binhi Project is a University–Community partnership and community-based participatory research project exploring the health benefits of food sovereignty practices in the Philippines. In late 2021, in the midst of data collection, Super Typhoon Odette made landfall in the Philippines causing massive environmental and structural devastation. In the aftermath of the storm, community partners in the Philippines and members of the research team in the United States shared photos, texts, and updates. These messages included descriptions of structural and environmental damage caused by the storm and stories of mutual aid efforts and actions taken by individuals and small organizations, each highlighting connections between food sovereignty efforts in the Philippines and the impacts of climate change. Due to the richness of the stories, the interconnectedness between these conversations and the research topic, and the alignment within the theoretical foundations of the project, the researchers understood that these communications should be included as data. With feedback from the Community Advisory Board, the Research and Design Team amended project protocols, research questions, and consent forms to incorporate this emergent data. This manuscript describes the process that the team undertook and some of the lessons learned by taking this approach.

It was Spring 2024, and members of the Portland State University (PSU) campus community had been protesting fiduciary ties with corporations responsible for building and supplying weaponry used by Isreal in the genocide of Palestinians. After a major attack on Gaza in October 2023 and as tensions around the world grew, college and university communities became central to strategies of resistance. Protests and Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) efforts in support of Palestinian liberation included encampments on campuses across the country and around the globe. Responses to these efforts varied greatly institution by institution, and on our campus the decisions were enacted by a newly appointed President and Interim Provost. After attempts to negotiate with the student-led protest groups were abruptly abandoned by the PSU administration, the campus, city, and eventually, state police were called to campus and given control of the (public) blocks, as well as the campus building that had become the locus of the movement. I will present a series of artifacts—personal, public, and institutional—which represent turning points for me in my understandings of social work, Palestine, and abolition. I’ll offer an auto-archaeologic narrative telling of these moments as well as the connections between these isolated memories and the work we are doing—or must be doing or should be doing—with regards to abolition and liberation in our social work practice, scholarship and pedagogy.