Eric Wada
Lecturer, Ph.D Candidate, University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, Ka Haka ʻUla o Keʻelikōlani, College of Hawaiian Language, Program for Indigenous Language and Culture Revitalization and Education
Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
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Eric Wada is a cultural practitioner and Indigenous graduate scholar at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, Ka Haka ʻUla o Keʻelikōlani, College of Hawaiian Language, Program for Indigenous Language and Culture Revitalization and Education. His work bridges performing arts, language, and ceremony to explore Okinawan identity, diaspora, and decolonial practice. Through the philosophy of Nadayashiku—conciliation as a pedagogy for survival—Wada examines how Indigenous and land-based education can foster responsible allyship, heal generational trauma, and inspire language revitalization grounded in ancestral worldview through decolonizing and re-indigenizing methodology. "From our experiences, decolonization as a process places us within a multi-layered social dermis where imperial and colonial powers have impregnated politics and cultures (Smith 2021, p. XV, Decolonizing Methodologies)."
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Internalizing Identity: Re-Indigenizing Okinawan Identity Through Realizing Settler Responsibility
This paper explores the intersections of Okinawan identity, diaspora, and the realization of settler responsibility within the Hawaiʻi context. As Okinawan descendants in the diaspora,
our experiences are deeply tied to histories of colonization, assimilation, and displacement—both from Okinawa and within the occupied lands of Hawaiʻi. By engaging Indigenous land-based education and worldviews, the paper argues for re-Indigenization through ancestral values such as Nadayashiku—a pedagogy of conciliation and survival that
navigates the traumas of colonization and adaptation. This study critically examines how cultural literacy and performing arts can restore agency and belonging by grounding identity in
ancestral worldview, while addressing the danger of becoming “Asian settler colonizers” who perpetuate colonial ideologies. Through reflection and theoretical grounding in
Indigenous resilience and innovation (DeCaire et al., 2023; Leonard, 2017; Simpson, 2014), this work contributes to ongoing conversations of decolonization and solidarity between Okinawan and Native Hawaiian experiences.
AAAS Annual Conference 2026 Sessionize Event Upcoming
Eric Wada
Lecturer, Ph.D Candidate, University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, Ka Haka ʻUla o Keʻelikōlani, College of Hawaiian Language, Program for Indigenous Language and Culture Revitalization and Education
Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
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