Solidarity
In solidarity with the Indigenous Peoples and Tribes in Washington State, we will continue to perpetuate our sacred cultures and traditions and resist assimilation. We remember the purpose handed to us from our tupuna - our ancestors, to build and thrive alongside our Earth and Ocean and our fellow neighbors.
We are Micronesian: Mashallese, Palauan, Kosraean, Chamorro/CHamoru, I-Kiribati, Yapese, Pohnpeian, Pingelapese, Chuukese, Refaluwasch, Polynesian: Samoan, Tongan, Tahitian, Tokelauan, Maori, Rotuman, Uvean, Futunan, Kanaka 'Oiwi, Tuvaluan, Lauan, Kapingamarangi, Nukuoro and we are Melanesian: Solomon Islanders, New Caledonians, Vanuatuan, Papua New Guineans, West Papuan, Torres Strait Islander, Indigenous Australian and other colorful Pasifika nations that make up our family.
Unity
Kotahitanga or unity and collective action drives our body of work. We work across the diversity of our Pacific Islander communities to build collaboration while addressing specific concerns and needs of each Pasifika community.
We believe in one Oceania, where our peoples are not divided along lines of Polynesia, Micronesia, or Melanesia, but instead build, strategize, struggle and celebrate together. Our collective advocacy is stronger. We work against settler colonialism frameworks that erases Oceanian sovereignty and history and lift up Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander autonomy as a collective network of leaders working together to build our civic voice and power while co-designing the Beloved Community that we want our children to live in. We will traverse together, canoe by canoe towards our liberated future.
Our Voice
PICA-WA is guided by the belief that our Pasifika communities are fully capable of healing ourselves. Only through equitable integration of our leadership and voices at critical decision-making tables nationally and locally can we ensure that systems and institutions are more responsive to our communities while establishing our own expansive tables to model what it means to move together with accountability and transparency.
Our tongue is where our blessing is birthed from. We will speak our cultural wealth into existence. We are committed to expanding leadership spaces that sharpens and strengthens the voices of our youth and honors the fullest dignity of our elders.
