Pure Manaʻo

I was asked to talk on the last day of an Ed.D program cohort II at UH Mānoa. I graduated with cohort I so sometimes they invite a few of us back to talk about something. They wanted to know what we did after we graduated, how we changed jobs and what advice we had. I am always the one that doesn't really answer the question, but they ask anyway, so I wrote this poem. I think in poetry form and Linda Tuhiwai Smith did a keynote by reciting a poem using the Green Eggs and Ham structure so if she can do it, then that gives me permission. Here is what I'm sharing today: What an Ed.D can and cannot do for you One View, One Story I still come from the mud flats of Kaunakakai the Kūkalahale rains of Mānoa. The ashes and bones of my kūpuna still travel the watery Lahaina Roads in the middle of the ʻAuʻau Channel. My Ed.D does not erase that. I still come from colonization and isolation, desks lined up in rigid rows, concrete and tile separating m...

I have personal stories of sacrifice, isolation, less than "ness," bouts of invisibility and anonymity. I have stories of scraping by, feeling self pity, undeserved, under served, passed over, quieted, silenced, voice ripped out.  I think you do too.  There are a lot of us: female, parallel cultured (Bishop, R. ), from poverty, highly educated BUT. . .(faking it until we make it - we hope) When we are very lucky, we have gathered other females like us so that we can feed each other, laugh, cry, mourn and support each other. I call these women the mana wahine. Together we keep the fire of our power burning because we hold kuleana (obligation) for each other. But in the in between times when we are alone and doing the heavy lifting of our own passions, we must chase away the uglies of self doubt and "other" ness alone.  When I am asked to translate my point of view (as if I were not speaking in English), be less emotional, justify. . .when my...