In August 2021, the Founder and Lifetime Board Member of the Haus of Khameleon, Sulique Waqa, was invited to be the Keynote Speaker for the 2021 UTOPIA WA Annual Fundraising Event, LU’AU. Below is the speech which she delivered at her keynote address.

We have sailed across our vast Pacific Ocean in our Canoes, Vaka, Waqa to be here tonight. Tonight, as I glance across the room, I see us as a sea of Islands spread across the vast Pacific Ocean. And just like our ancestors, we also navigate across our Pacific Ocean using the stars as our guide. We have arrived. We are home. Welcome!

Ni Sa Bula Vinaka, Talofa, Aloha, Kiora, Malo Alelei and Kiorana!

I also want to acknowledge the traditional land that we stand on. The traditional land of the First People of Seattle. The Muckleshoot People past and present. We honor you tonight with gratitude for the Land and the Muckleshoot Tribe.

Throughout history, gender non-conforming, gender non-binary, QTPI, LGBTIQ+ folks, Fa’afafine, Fa’atama, Vakasalewalewa, Fakaleiti, Palopa, Mahu, Akavahine, Raerae, Takataapui have long been a target of a treacherous colonial bulldozing. The criminalization of our identities. The erasure of our herstory and history. For decades, they have been waging a war on our bodies. They sent us to prison. They even killed some of us and continue to kill us. For too long we have carried the burden and struggles of our people. A struggle that none of us deserves. The struggles that we wish that none of our generations will have to endure. We have inherited a world that continue to rob us of our freedom and our right to be human. Here in the United States, the struggles are more pronounced than ever, as we continue to witness the growing murders of our community, particularly of trans women of color. The onslaught of anti-trans legislation, laws and policies sweeping through the nation that impede our ability to thrive. These are ongoing threats that requires us to act, to mobilize, to organize and to do everything in our power to dismantle, deconstruct, and resist systems of oppression. We’ve seen how the power of community mobilizing and fierce activism have obliterated multiple bathroom bills, reversed the trans military ban, witnessed the first trans woman secure a seat in a state Senate, blocked bills to limit access to health care and so forth. We must not stop and must continue to create pathways towards our collective healing, liberation and radical transformation.

Throughout the Pacific we have seen the rise of religious fundamentalist groups and right-wing Christian groups here in America that are actively co-sponsoring anti-LGBT propaganda all over the world. We have witnessed the rise of militarism, brutal regimes and dictators that have caused political instabilities and political struggles, interfered with the rule of law, the independence of our judiciary, and introduced draconian laws to silence citizens and imprisoned political dissent. LGBTIQ+ people in the Pacific have long been a political playground for these politicians, churches and conservative groups. For far too long our bodies have been the subject of cruel inhumane acts, conversion therapy, violence, and torture. For far too long we have been suppressed not only because they want to exterminate us, but because they see our Power. They see our Mana, our Glory, our Sacred Being and they don’t want it to exist. It is the same mana and spiritual power recently depicted in the Oscar shortlisted film “Kapaemahu” the four stones on Waikiki Beach that were placed there as tribute to four legendary Mahu who brought the healing arts from Tahiti to Hawaii centuries ago. It is this power that intimidates our oppressors. It is the power that tonight, we are going to take back and free ourselves. We are not responsible for the harm we’ve endured at the hands of others but taking back our power means taking charge of our own healing. Let us use this power to stand in our full glory and burn bright.

Tonight, my sisters and brothers, daughters and sons of the Pacific. Tonight, we are taking back our power. Tonight, we are reclaiming our Mana. Let us rewrite history. Let us continue to tell our stories. Let us use our trauma and our pain to liberate each other and those around us. Let our stories be the light in moments of darkness. Let us excavate our rich Pacific stories so that one day we’ll be flipping books in the library and swiping digital platforms that tells our stories the way we want it to be told. Not the stories that fetishize our bodies, that dehumanize us. Not the narratives meant to delegitimize and diminish our humanity and worth. Our stories that celebrate us for who we are and honor our dignity, humanity and intersectionality. Our Oceania stories that the late Pacific scholar Professor Epeli Hau’Ofa once described as “humanity rising from the depths of brine and regions of fire deeper still”.

American Pulitzer Prize Author Toni Morrison once said, “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must be the one to write it”. Reclaiming and rewriting our narratives is our way of decolonizing the conversation. Our way of decolonizing the discourse. Our civilization has now entered the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle of the last century. The possibilities of billions of people connected by mobile devices, with unprecedented processing power, storage capacity, and access to knowledge, are unlimited. Let us utilize this revolution to reclaim our space in the tech and digital world. To reclaim our space in history. A space where we organize and celebrate our visibility unapologetically. A space where we show up as our authentic self, in all our million layers, refusing to be ever erased. Tonight, we become the authors and writers of our stories. Tonight, we become the storyteller.

We are indeed living in unprecedented times, navigating around existential crises and a global reset. This reset has exposed economic, political, and social systems that had failed us for so many years and continues to leave us behind. The COVID-19 pandemic has further left us behind, pushing us into the margins thus forcing our community to adapt and survive in ways that we have never before. This is exacerbated by the multiple challenges already faced by the LGBTIQ+ community. This reset has also challenged us to either transition out of the pandemic and replicate the same oppressive and inequitable systems or create a new normal and systems where we all thrive in our full spectrum and diversity. Indian author Arundhati Roy’s trenchant analysis of the destructive impact of global neoliberalism and capitalism once said, “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”

Indeed, another world is possible! And let us critically ask ourselves, how do we achieve that? How do we create a new equitable and just world? It is simple ladies and gentlemen, and tonight’s theme provides us with that answer “Cultivating Pathways Together”. In the Fijian culture we have this traditional concept of “Solesolevaki” a collective community effort, manifests in the communal nature of Fijian society, where everyone is related, and partnership is forged leading to community mobilizing. This is traditional & indigenous knowledge. Our ancestors knew that when we are confronted with the most difficult situation in life, we need to assemble to mitigate these challenges. This is part of our survival. This is part of our resilience. We continue to use indigenous knowledge to guide us into the future. As our civilization continue to transition into the 21st Century, our Pasifika Community today are confronted with some of the most difficult challenges of our generation. So therefore, we must be open to learning and be willing to take heed of what the science is also telling us. This will ensure the continuity and survival of our people, of our Oceania people. When we re-imagine our world, when we co-recreate our ecosystem and multiverse, we are “Cultivating Pathways Together”.

That is why tonight, I want to bring all our attention to the incredible work of the UTOPIA WA. The excellent leadership of the Founder Ms. Taffy Maene. The incredible team, staff, management and Board of UTOPIA WA. A movement that is built on the premise of our shared struggles. A movement that is built on the notion that “one of us is hurt, we are all hurt”. And therefore, like our ancestor’s wisdom, we must assemble. We must Cultivate Pathways Together. Our sisterhood is not a new phenomenon that some may think was birthed out of the women’s struggle or the women’s movement. Our co-creation of this multiverse of co-responsibility and movement building is the legacy of our ancestors passed down to us. The legacy that often reminds us that we have a duty to our Vanua, our Whenua and our Fanua. Most importantly, we have a duty to each other, and to our Pasifika community. We owe ourselves and our community the love that we so freely give others. That is our place of refuge. That is our place of healing. And that is the place where we harness our Power and thrive in our collective Mana.

The work around Pacific development particularly for Pacific Islander communities in the United States is more important than ever. For us to begin at a place where we can truly embrace each other as Pacific Islanders, we need to first decolonize our “differences” which were framed by early Europeans. One example is the Eurocentric classifications of Melanesian, Polynesian, and Micronesian, which were invented in 1830 by a French explorer. It is important for us to look beyond those demarcations and see ourselves as just one people connected at different levels through the Ocean. We are not Asia-Pacific, we are the “PACIFIC”. Let us continue to challenge this neo-colonial categorization that devalues our worth as a region, as if that in order for us to be valid we need to be clumped under another region so they can see us. We are worthy of being seen just as who we are, the Pacific. Of the three major oceans, the Pacific is by far the largest, occupying about one-third of the surface of the globe. With a surface area of more than 155 million square kilometers (60 million square miles), this ocean basin is larger than the landmass of all the continents combined. In the wise words of Professor Hau’ofa “We should not be defined by the smallness of our islands but in the greatness of our oceans. We are the sea; we are the ocean. Oceania is us”.

So, let us use this innate power of our Ocean, that lives inside all of us, to connect, to mobilize, to assemble and engineer our future together. To all our allies in the room tonight, we thank you for your solidarity and support. We thank you for loving us. We thank you for fighting for us. Please continue to fight for/with us, even when we’re not in the room. We need more than just allies, we need accomplices who will speak up and act, instead of just cheering from the sidelines. Our lives are at stake. Our survival depends on you as well by using your hetero-normative privileges to open doors for us, to allow us to have a seat at the table, to work with us in advancing our rights. To help us understand together the importance of cross-cultural coalition and its role in defending human rights on all fronts. To cultivating pathways together.

So tonight, I want to celebrate all the Fa’afafine, Fa’atama, Vakasalewalewa, Fakaleiti, Palopa, Mahu, Akavahine, Raerae, Takataapui in the room. We are each other’s Heroes and Heroines. We are our ancestor’s wildest dreams. We are who we have been waiting for.

I see you. I honor you. I celebrate you. I love you.

Vinaka Vakalevu, Soi’fua, Malo Aupito and Aloha

"Cultivating Pathways Together" - 2021 UTOPIA WA Lu'au