Pacific Islanders—What does erasure of a community mean? (Joseph Seia, S1, Ep 7 )
This is part II of our conversation with Joseph Seia. Joseph is the Co-Executive Director of the National Association of Pasifika Organizations (NAOPO) and the founder of PICA-WA (Pacific Islander Community Association of Washington). To hear the introduction to this topic and the full guest intro, please listen to the previous episode.
In part II, we dig deeper into several topics:
- decades of erasure and policy that have led to health disparities like the high rate of police killings ad homelessness
- his focus on organizing and gaining the power to make changes in governmental policy
- programs that PICA-WA offers, such as the cultural weavers program to support their elders and offer a space of dignity and connection, and the youth wayfinders program that offers an intergenerational space that helps youth thrive
- Joseph’s identity as fa’ fa fine and what we can learn about gender identity from the Samoan culture
- The importance of the messenger as well as the message when communicating about health to the community
- the consequences of viewing someone as just a fat body that needs to lose weight and not acknowledging their humanity
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