Franceska De Oro (Chamoru/Taotao Tåno Ginen Guåhan)

Franceska De Oro is an Indigenous Chamoru and Micronesian youth environmental activist, Native rights advocate, and yoga teacher. She began her activism against militarization as a high school student when the Department of Defense released the draft environmental impact study for the relocation of 5,000 U.S. marines from Okinawa to Guam in 2010. Franceska has spent the last ten years learning from leaders in the local decolonization movement as well as in the Northern Mariana Islands. She volunteers with many environmental and political advocacy groups, such as Independent Guåhan and Prutehi Litekyan. In 2020, she also worked with Micronesia Climate Change Alliance to produce a five-part video series in 2020 about food sovereignty in Guåhan, From Our Nanas for Our Nenis, and is currently editing the second season about plastic waste. Franceska is also the designer and co-founder of Maga’håga Rising, an Indigenous Chamoru women’s empowerment brand that promotes wellness, creativity, and self-love through fashion, writing, and art. Eating in Indigenous ways has been her wellness journey’s main focus, along with connecting to the land, sea, and ancestors through movement and meditation. You can follow Franceska’s personal adventures on Instagram @youngbiha and see her work on www.magahaga.com and the Micronesia Climate Change Alliance YouTube channel.

Kammie Tavares (Kanaka ʻŌiwi)

Kammie Tavares is a Kanaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) geospatial analyst for the Coastal Geology Group at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where she earned a BS in global environmental science and an MS in geology and geophysics. It was on the beaches of Waiʻanae, her one hānau (birth sands, homeland), where her love and respect for the environment grew. Beaches are important to the lifestyle and identity of Kānaka Maoli and locals; however, they are threatened by beachfront development that has hardened the shoreline with seawalls. As a result, beaches are disappearing and the relationships to spaces are changing. In an effort to preserve sandy beaches and peoples’ relationships to places, Kammie works on updating the Hawaiʻi Shoreline Study to inform coastal managers on how beaches have changed and are projected to change in a future of rising sea levels.

’Qátuw̓as (Gahtuwos) Brown (Haíɫzaqv [Heiltsuk] and Nuučaan̓uł [Nuu-chah-nulth])

’Qátuw̓as (pronounced Gahtuwos) is proud of her North Pacific Coast Haíɫzaqv and Nuučaan̓uł existence that continues to ground her work with Indigenous language and cultural revitalization, as well as climate action advocacy. She holds a degree in environmental and Indigenous studies from the University of Victoria in British Columbia.

Currently, ’Qátuw̓as works for the Haíɫzaqv Climate Action Team as the community engagement coordinator to create a community-led clean energy plan. Her role is based on educating and engaging with the Haíɫzaqv community to ensure ownership of their collective climate action work creating climate solutions for and by Haíɫzaqv people. She is also a full-time Haíɫzaqvḷa Immersion School student, actively working to reclaim one of her ancestral languages and is humbled to speak with Indigenous relations from across the Pacific.

Moderator | Gabbi Lee (Kanaka ʻŌiwi)

Born and raised on the east side of the island of Oʻahu, Gabbi Lee is a Kanaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) cultural interpreter at the National Museum of the American Indian. She helps develop and facilitate educational programs and strives to bring a thoughtful and nuanced perspective to interpreting Indigenous histories, arts, and cultures. Gabbi holds a BA in anthropology and linguistics from New York University and an MA in museum education from the George Washington University.

This series is funded in part by generous support from the Rasmuson Foundation.

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