About

Yvonne describes current resistance to illegal annexation in Hawai'i , which fascinates Norah as the motif of military occupation become strikingly similar across their communities. Yvonne goes deeper to expose how the treatment of Native Hawaiian women mirrors the conquest that drives Eurocentric patriarchy and emphasizes the importance of continuing to speak the language and traditions of her people in spite of the fetishizing that consumes her identity. About Yvonne: Yvonne Mahelona is a co-Coordinator of AF3IRM Hawai’i; a transnational, anti-imperialist feminist organization led by Native and Immigrant women. She was born and raised in Nanakuli Hawaiian homestead where struggle, addiction, violence and survival was all they knew. She’s organized around housing and the sex trade, all of which have impacted Native Hawaiians in the most negative ways on their own homeland. The Kingdom of Hawai’i having been overthrown just generations ago, her family and community are still healing and learning from that pain. She’s found names for their lived experiences through theory and ideology and her main goal is to heal herself, her family and community through education and community organizing.