Alika Bourgette (He/Him)

Alika Bourgette (Kanaka Maoli) is a PhD Candidate in the University of Washington Department of History. His dissertation historicizes the long struggle for land and water justice in the ways Native Hawaiians in the early twentieth century resisted their own eviction from the urbanizing Honolulu waterfront through abundant sharing practices of puʻuhonua (refuge and abundance). He corroborates the intimate accounts of childbirth, youth education, and family life from community oral interviews with Native Hawaiian practices, protocols, and beliefs to detail the decisions Native Hawaiian women and queer parental stewards made to provide mutual aid to their community and upended carceral efforts enforced by U.S. settler lawmakers. In his community work, Alika has participated in Tribal Canoe Journeys with the UW and Carvers' Camp Canoe Families. Through his ties to voyaging canoe families in Hawaiʻi and Western Washington, he hopes to bring Coast Salish and Pacific Islander voyaging to the University of Washington. Alika is a Mellon-Social Science Research Council IDRF Fellow and upcoming Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellow for 2023-2024.