January 10th, 2026 from 3 - 5 pm.

 

As part of the TIDES exhibition, this January panel discussion brings together powerful Indigenous Pacific voices to explore how gender long understood across Oceania beyond Western binaries has endured, adapted, and returned through culture, care, and resistance. Featuring Keiva Lei Cadena, a Native Hawaiian transgender advocate and cultural practitioner; Kuʻumeaaloha Gomes, a revered Hawaiian healer, educator, and early leader of Nā Mamo o Hawaiʻi; Rodney “Ni” Powell, a Pacific Island social worker, tattooist, and longtime UTOPIA collaborator; and Peter Tuiolosega Silva, CEO of Kumukahi Health and Wellness and decades long māhū and LGBTQ advocate, the panel reflects on community led movements like UTOPIA and Nā Mamo o Hawaiʻi and asks how gender moves like tides shaped by displacement, resilience, and return.