A History Of Resistance & Resilience…as It Defined Filipinos Of Hawai’i

by Rose Cruz Churma

“A History Of Resistance & Resilience…as It Defined Filipinos Of Hawai’i” is an exhibit that opened at the Hawai’i State Library’s main lobby last February 1, 2025.

Initially conceived to serve as a backdrop to the program “We Tell Our Story,” the exhibit will be on display at downtown’s main library until February 22 after the final public forum that features community & student artists.

Since early last year, the Filipino Association of University Women (FAUW) has been conducting weekend writing workshops to encourage the community to write first-person, original, never-before-told stories that will enhance the understanding of the Filipino experience in Hawai’i and its contribution to the history, values, and traditions of our State.

The workshops were led by master teacher Nanette Carreon-Ruther and guided by retired language teachers.

At the exhibit’s opening last February 1, a hybrid public forum was held followed by a panel discussion that fostered conversations on the issues raised through the writing process. Selected participants from the major islands were invited to read their narratives.

The forum in Oahu was followed by presentations at the Lyman Museum in Hilo on February 3 & 4.

The impetus of this project is that, despite comprising more than 25 percent of Hawai’i’s population, Filipino voices in the historical, cultural, and artistic narratives are at best peripheral, and at worst faint and almost indistinguishable.

Hawai’i’s history is incomplete without adequate representation of its largest Asian ethnic group, a people who have contributed their values, culture, and experiences to the fabric of Hawai’i’s collective identity.

The exhibit, aside from the chronological timeline, consists of photographs, ephemera, artifacts and artwork interspersed among the panels that describe the major phases of Hawai’i’s history.

Filipinos arrived in Hawai‘i in large numbers due to the state’s need for labor and the promise of bettering their economic status, with the first group arriving in 1906—the benchmark usually used in noting the Filipinos’ arrival to the islands.

However, this exhibit’s historical timeline starts with Hawai’i’s pre-colonial oceanic connections which is evident in the similarities in the linguistic, traditional symbols and cosmologies of different cultural groups in the Philippines and the Pacific Islands.

The rest of the panels describe the history of both Hawai’i and the Philippines, as well as the United States as parallel narratives, and how laws and policies enacted in one had an impact on Filipinos of Hawai’i.

The segment on “Pre-Colonial Oceanic Connections” uses images that show the ocean routes of the pre-colonial seafarers, as well as the similarities in language, folklore, tattoo symbols, and other cultural practices of certain Philippine groups with Pacific Islanders, including those who settled in Hawai’i.

Two images were used to highlight “Hawaiian Monarchy and the First Philippine Republic.” One is the photograph of Jose Sabas Libornio, the Royal Hawaiian bandmaster from Manila who arrived in Hawai‘i in 1893 and helped compose the song Kaulana Na Pua. The second image is the photographs of the first Philippine president Emilio Aguinaldo and Robert Wilcox of Kauai in their military uniforms.

Several images were used to describe the “Hawaiʻi and the Philippines: Territories of the U.S.” including a photograph of Pablo Manlapit who led the 1924 islandwide strike which ended in the Hanapepe Massacre in Kauai.

Two photographic images—a group photo of Filipina lolas who were used as comfort women during WWII juxtaposed with a photograph of soldiers celebrating V-Day in Samar province in 1945 are the images used to highlight the segment on “World Wars I (1919-1926) and II (1939-1945).”

In 1944 the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) under Jack Hall’s leadership became a strong political force by organizing workers inter-ethnically, including Filipinos. The labor movement grew to more than 30,000 in 1947. Images of the posters used by the ILWU to recruit members was used as the image to define this era titled “The Cold War & the Red Scare.”

The segment on “The Democratic Revolution: Labor Punctures through the Plantation Power Structure” showed how the labor movement began to challenge the Big 5, and Filipinos began to have more visibility with the establishment of the Filipino Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii (FCCH) in 1954 and the formation of the United Filipino Council of Hawaii (UFCH) in 1959—the same year that Hawai’i became the 50th state.

The passage of liberalized immigration laws that encouraged family reunification in 1965 further increased the Filipino presence in Hawai’i. The decline of sugar plantations starting in the 1960s affected Hawaiʻi’s economy, and was now slowly replaced by tourism and military jobs.

Immigrant Filipinos filled the service jobs associated with the visitor industry—with some calling this the “new plantation.”

This post-statehood era also saw the second Hawaiian Renaissance (the first was during the reign of King Kalakaua) and was driven by a resurgence of traditional Hawaiian practices that fueled activism in college campuses and sparked housing and social movements. Aptly called “The Second Hawaiian Renaissance vs Tourism and Military Economy” this segment also showed the impact of Martial Law in the Philippines and how this caused factionalism in the Filipino community.

The gains and setbacks experienced by the community from the late 70s to the end of the 20th century are noted in the segment, “The Filipino Diaspora in the Political Arena” including the creation of Pamantasan to ensure that Filipinos are represented in Hawaii’s higher education system and the election of the first governor of Filipino ancestry in Hawai’i and the nation.

This phase of our history also notes the establishment of a transnational apparatus by the Philippine government to encourage out-migration of Filipino workers.

During this phase, the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a verdict during the Marcos’ family’s exile in Hawai’i that the late Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos was responsible for human rights violations of Filipinos during his presidency.

During the last 25 years, Hawai’i saw the opening of Filipino community centers on Oahu, Maui and Kauai.

Aptly titled “Hawai`i Filipinos in the 21st Century” this segment also highlights the gains earned by Filipino women in various sectors as well as the creation of “The Filipino Curriculum Project” to train Hawai’i’s K-12 teachers to create Filipino-centered courses in their schools. Just recently, teachers from the Philippines (under the J-1 visa program) have been recruited to teach in public schools to address the shortage statewide.

The first quarter of this century also experienced the formation of progressive groups such as the Tagnawa of Maui which was created to assist victims of wild fires that burned Lahaina and the rest of West Maui, the Hawaiʻi Workers Center which was formed as an informational resource center for low waged, non-unionized workers most of which are Filipino, the Hawaiʻi Filipinos for Truth Justice and Democracy (HFTJD) which was established initially to engage Hawaiʻi-based dual-citizens in the Philippine elections and challenge historical revisionisms and organized disinformation.

The exhibit was created by Ellen Rae Cachola and Marie Antonette Ramos. The artworks were contributions from local artists such as Zack Angeles, Grace Caligtan, and students from Farrington and Lanai High School. Other contributions include photographs and memorabilia from sakada descendants.

The exhibit was made possible by a grant from the Hawai’i Council for the Humanities and can be viewed at the Hawai’i State Library during its regular hours until February 22, Saturday.