Relations of Salt and Stars

Our ancestors traveled through salt and stars, and so do contemporary Pacific Islander communities today. Relations of Salt and Stars is a new podcast produced by the Pacific Islands Studies program at the University of...more

Hosted by

Angela L. Robinson
Angela L. Robinson
Maile Arvin
Maile Arvin

About

Our ancestors traveled through salt and stars, and so do contemporary Pacific Islander communities today. Relations of Salt and Stars is a new podcast produced by the Pacific Islands Studies program at the University of Utah, and hosted by faculty members Dr. Angela Robinson (Chuukese) and Dr. Maile Arvin (Native Hawaiian). In this podcast, we consider how to build good relations - with the communities we come from in Oceania, the communities we live with here in the Salt Lake City area, and especially the Indigenous communities whose lands we live on. As Pacific Islander people who live in Utah, we are nourished by the lands of the Ute, Goshute, Shoshone, and Paiute peoples. We are far from the ocean, but close to the salt water of the Great Salt Lake. We are far from the night sky over our home islands, but can look up and see the same stars. With the name “Relations of Salt and Stars,” then, we invoke the ties historically forged between the Pacific Islands and Utah, as well as the ones still in formation. Join us as we explore and build relations of salt and stars.

Meet our Hosts

Angela L. Robinson

Angela L. Robinson

I’m from the Wito clan of Pihedar in Chuuk, Micronesia, where my mother is from, and my maternal grandfather’s clan is the Alengeitaw. I grew up in Hawaii, but live in Salt Lake City, Utah now. I’m an assistant professor in Gender Studies and Environmental Humanities at the University of Utah, where I also work with the Pacific Islands Studies program. My research looks at the effects of climate change for Indigenous peoples, particularly Pacific Islanders, and how Indigenous peoples are addressing climate change in unique and innovative ways that challenge what it means to be human in this day and age. Here in Salt Lake City, I am a part of the Nuanua Collective, which is a local grassroots organization for queer and trans Pacific Islanders. I love exploring Utah with my partner and our two dogs by camping, soaking in hot springs, trying new brunch spots, and befriending our neighborhood squirrels, birds, deer, and other critters.

Maile Arvin

Maile Arvin

I am Native Hawaiian. I was born in Kentucky but my mom is from Waimānalo on the island of Oʻahu. My Hawaiian family are the Awos. At the University of Utah, I am an associate professor in History and Gender Studies, and the current director of Pacific Islands Studies. I have lived in Utah for over five years now. My first book, that I published with Duke University Press in 2019, is titled Possessing Polynesians: The Science of Settler Colonial Whiteness in Hawaiʻi and Oceania. It’s about how white social scientists developed an idea that Polynesians were an “almost white race,” how this idea was used to help structure settler colonialism in Hawai’i and how Native Hawaiians and other Indigenous Pacific Islanders have and continue to respond. I am currently doing research on the history of so-called training schools and reformatories in Hawai’i from the Hawaiian Kingdom era through the Territorial period.