Nakem Youth Hawaii strives to connect the next generation of Filipinos to their history, language

EWA—With over 275,000 Filipinos living in Hawaii, one youth organization is striving to launch the next generation’s dreams and goals into reality, starting with Oahu.

Nakem Youth, a University of Hawaii based group started in December 2009, has set out to educate Filipino youth and reconnect them with their culture. The group plans to serve as an outlet for teens and college students to achieve their aspirations in life by taking an active part in politics, publishing, and education.

“We are trying social change, someplace for our Filipino youth to be a part of,” said Rachelle Aurellano, Program Director of Nakem Youth. “We don’t have one organization for Filipinos or youth in general to be involved in that serves as an outlet and [is] educational in their own history and past. ... [Nakem Youth] is there to stimulate the minds of the youth.”

Aurellano, a UH alumni, and other members of Nakem were raised in Waipahu, a city filled with Filipino history. The 2000 census shows that a little over 20,000 residents of the Waipahu area are of Filipino decent, either full or mixed, which is comprises 65 percent of the people living in that area.

Hearing these numbers, Aurellano and friends came to realize how little they knew about their past and what kind of sacrifices their parents made to pave the way for young Filipinos—even with the rich Filipino history surrounding them in Waipahu.

Filipinos were the last immigrants to come to Hawaii because of labor shortage caused during World War II. Over 120,000 Filipino immigrants arrived on Oahu between 1906 and 1931. Many of these immigrants were men, due to the need for sugar plantation and mill laborers, or “sakadas,”  at sites including the Waipahu Sugar Mill, one of Oahu’s largest production mills at that time. Many Filipino men were forced to leave their families behind to come to Hawaii due to the shortage of jobs available in the Philippines. After generations of work in Hawaii, many have lost contact with their families. Once finding out the sacrifices made by their ancestors, Aurellano came to understand how many have forgotten about their Filipino history in Hawaii. With very few programs throughout the island that provide Filipino history education and language programs for youth raised using only the English language, Aurellano and Nakem Youth decided something had to change.

The roots of Nakem Youth were planted in 2006, branching from the first Nakem International Conference in the Philippines after being attended by Aurelio Agcaoili, now the executive director of the Hawaii group. Aurelio served as part of the Editorial Committee for the Nakem International Conference, which is an Ilokano advocacy. Nakem Youth was brought to UH to serve as an advocacy group not only for those of Ilokano background but those of any Filipino ethnicity. Filipino Americans have some of the highest educational rates in the United States with 47.9 percent of all Filipino Americans over the age of 25 having a bachelor’s degree and a little over 90 percent graduating college. Nakem Youth wanted to continue that trend in Hawaii.

“We want to give the Filipino youth a chance to do something that they aren’t capable of doing on their own,” said James Funtanilla, a member of Nakem Youth. “There are a lot of bad notions that come with being Filipino and we want to make a change and give us a voice for ourselves. Through educating the youth and giving them cultural awareness, we will show them that anything can be done. Even if you’re Filipino, you don’t have limit yourself to a certain career. We want them to know that they can make it as a Filipino and proud to be Filipino.”

Since officially beginning its work last December, Nakem Youth developed a creative writing workshop where students received lessons from Agcaoli, also a UH-Manoa Ikokano Language professor, on the mechanics of prose writing. Workshop participants were instructed to write their own biographies so that people could hear their eclectic life experiences through their own voices.

The group has also participated actively in activities to raise awareness about Filipino History, including group hikes and talk-story gatherings focused on social justice. With Filipinos taking part in politics, such as former governor Ben Cayetano and Senator Jon Ensign of Nevada, Nakem Youth hopes to get young Filipinos interested and active in having a voice in politics. The group also plans to set up different branches to act as a political arm and an educational arm, which involves a language program and a youth theater.

“We offer a way for the youth to be expressive through any avenues they believe to be true to themselves as a way to create social change,” Aurellano said. “We are not exclusive to only Ilokanos, but instead we cater to the whole community as a means of sharing issues of social, political, and ethical upheaval. The biggest thing someone would gain from our organization is self-consciousness and an understanding of who you are and where you come from, and knowledge that no one can take away.”

Nakem Youth will be hosting a college and high school mixer on Friday, April 16 at 7:00 p.m. gives high school students an opportunity to learn and ask questions about applying to college and college life in general. It will be held at the Pacific Peace and Justice Reconciliation Center in Chinatown.

Nakem Youth members will also volunteer their services to Makua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services, in their community education and beautification of Hooulu Aina on Saturday, April 17 from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

For more information, visit http://nakemyouth.wordpress.com, email [email protected], or call (808) 295-6787.