“We Don’t Want to Use the White Man’s Terminology”: Pacific Islander Identity Formation and Enduring Indigeneity within Settler Colonialism

Abstract

Drawing from 40 in-depth interviews with self-identified Pacific Islanders, I examine how Pacific Islanders develop their pan-ethno-racial identity alongside their Indigeneity within the U.S. racial hierarchy. I find that settler colonialism plays an active role in individuals’ identity formation—both as a historic event and as a contemporary structure—in three critical ways. First, respondents engage with colonialism as they negotiate ethnoracial labels for themselves. Second, respondents use colonial histories to assist them as they navigate potential panethnic boundaries. Third, respondents center their Indigeneity despite colonial efforts to separate them from their Indigenous homelands and culture through the imposition of a pan-ethnic-racial label, while practicing a trans-Indigenous politic. Throughout, Pacific Islanders reveal how tightly bound their ethnoracial identities are to their Indigeneity, expanding the sociological study of race and ethnicity by turning the race-settler colonialism lens to the Pacific Islander diaspora.