I feel so fortunate for the opportunity to be a part of the NHPI Powerbuilding Survey team. My host office, Empowering Pacific Islander Communities, created and disseminated a survey to learn more about the Pacific Islander community in Sacramento. Through outreach to EPIC’s network as well as the network of the survey’s advisory board, the survey was released to the public. Questions were centered around community, identity, and resources. I have been working on this survey project for the past several weeks and have witnessed its progress from pre-release to analysis. I input translated versions of the survey into our survey platform, assisted with running an advisory board debrief on the results from some of the surveys, and analyzed the data collected.
With the task of inputting translations into the platform and formatting the survey, I was actively being exposed to several different Pacific Islander languages that I have never interacted with including Fijian, Marshallese, and Samoan. As someone who loves linguistics and languages, I really enjoyed this assignment. After a while, I began to learn several new phrases and words in each of the languages because I had to copy and paste them as answers for many of the questions. This included words like “yes,” “no,” and “other.” As I worked with more languages, I got to see the similarities between them as well as with other Pasifika languages that I have some knowledge of such as Hawaiian and Chamoru. The Austronesian language family and migration pattern that tie the Pacific together became very evident within these commonalities like the word for the number five for example. It is “lima” in Chamoru, Samoan, Fijian, and Hawaiian. All four of those cultures use the same word for five despite the fact that they come from different regions in the Pacific. Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia all have nations that use the same word for the number five. This similarity is really special and helped me to realize how the Pacific is interrelated and interconnected with roots that go very far back in history.
I had the opportunity to join the advisory board meeting for the survey and document everything that the board shared in their reactions to the survey responses as we read them to them. The board is made up of PI figures in the Sacramento community whether that be educators, non-profit staff, or cultural group presidents. It was wholesome to witness their dedication and care for their community. They were surprised and disappointed to hear that our PI youth and the community in general experience mental health issues and feel that they aren’t allowed to advocate for themselves and reach out for help. Their main takeaway was that a community center that is PI specific is something that the community desperately wants and needs in order to be better connected to resources. Many respondents felt that a safe and inviting space was something that they’d benefit greatly from, so the board began discussing how they could make this a possibility for their community. To see these community leaders’ reactions in real time to data that we collected was a moving experience that helped me to see the power and importance of disaggregated data for our community.
The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not reflect the views or positions of CAUSE or the CAUSE network.
Written by Olivia Diaz Anderson, Leadership Academy 2023 Intern
The CAUSE Leadership Academy (CLA) for students is a nine-week, paid, internship program that prepares college undergraduates to lead and advocate for the Asian Pacific Islander community on their campuses and beyond.