This roundtable bridges artist-scholars based in Canada, the continental U.S., and Hawaiʻi to confront contradictions across Asian/Pacific American research, artistic work, and activism by offering situated knowledges and artistic practices. We interrogate our entanglements with histories of colonial occupation, displacement, and genocide, thus reimagining what it means to “be in diaspora.”

Beginning the roundtable, Gupit presents "sculptural copying" as decolonial practice, transforming objects from the motherland into imperfect “bad copies” that echo histories of erasure and displacement. gonzales proposes "baliktad" as analytic to sit with the contradictions of Philippine diasporic subjectivity. Mijares situates the "balikbayan" box as "choreopolitical object" to understand the migrant body as subject to the same policing, controls, and racialized uncertainties brown bodies endure in mobility. Agustin presents "Woven Memories," highlighting Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s “remembering” as decolonial approach to arts-based projects/research. Lattig complicates diasporic Hawaiian identity through off-island hula, as it facilitates cultural memory and commodifies Hawaiianness. Park offers a "decolonial juxtaposition of spam-ness" to explore the relationship between Korean dish "budae jjigae," Filipino dish "spamsilog," and Hawaiian "Spam musubi." Lastly, through "tula" (poetry), Añonuevo interrogates diasporic settlers’ ethics and actions as they grapple with their relationships to Indigenous communities in so-called Canada.

Our roundtable underscores the necessity of relating our work to the conference site. Extending beyond an acknowledgment of our position as guests to Kānaka Maoli ancestral lands, our roundtable critically engages this year’s theme by addressing how our practices re-create and transform culture while grappling with our positionality on occupied lands.