Mana’s Pasifika Night brings the heat and community bonding

On the evening of Friday, May 8, the space between the swimming pool and beach volleyball courts at the Liberal Arts Campus became a fairground for the Mana Pasifika Night, which was organized by LBCC’s Mana Program to celebrate cultures within the Pacific Islands as part of the Asian Pacific Islander Desi (APID) Heritage Month activities. 

Conceived to recognize Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students, the Mana Pasifika Night invited everyone from LBCC and local high schools to enjoy food and cultural performances while learning about and supporting the Pasifika community through workshops and a resource fair.

“Throughout tonight, you’ll hear us say ‘Pasifika’ instead of ‘Pacific Islander,’ and that’s very intentional. Pasifika is a statement of identity and visibility, rooted in the Pacific diaspora. That says, we deserve to be seen on our own terms,” LBCC Student Trustee Pise Leiataua said in the opening speech.

^{Performers from the organization Bula Vou Experience open the Mana Pasifika Night with a Fijian kava ceremony on Friday, May 8 at the LAC. The event celebrated the cultures of the Pacific Islands as part of the APID Heritage Month activities. (Tien Nguyen)}

The celebration officially began with a Fijian kava ceremony, in which kava, a drink made from the root of the yaqona, a relative of the pepper plant, is prepared into a large communal bowl and served to guests as a welcome.

After the blessings from a clergy member, attendees departed for different workshops on topics and activities like Polynesian art, Samoan language and culture, ukulele, leadership, athletics pathways and DIY fabric lei-making.

^{A performer from the organization Bula Vou Experience holds a kava drink cup made of a coconut shell during the Fijian kava ceremony at the Mana Pasifika Night on Friday, May 8 at the LAC. The event celebrated the cultures of the Pacific Islands as part of the APID Heritage Month activities. (Tien Nguyen)}

“With the APID community, there’s so many different cultures within it, but usually our native Hawaiian Pacific Islander students are kind of lost within the monolith of the name APID, right? So we want it to be intentional of uplifting them since we do a lot of programming with Asian culture,” Mana Program coordinator Emma Nguyen said.

Diverse cultures of the Pacific Islands were represented through performances where traditional dances conveyed tribal stories and community bonds in daily life.

Sydneysierra Naioti, whose mother and father are from American Samoa and Western Samoa, respectively, enjoyed CHamoru and Fijian dances the most, viewing them as eye opening. 

“Because I’m in the Polynesian community, I feel like we’re more saturated than other islands like Micronesia and Melanesia. So I think this is really cool to have them come out… Everyone has a voice, and (the event) motivates us who haven’t been in higher education to come out,” Naioti said.

^{Dancers from the Kutturan CHamoru Foundation perform a CHamoru cultural presentation at the Mana Pasifika Night on Friday, May 8 at the LAC. The event celebrated the cultures of the Pacific Islands as part of the APID Heritage Month activities. (Tien Nguyen)}

CSULB’s Pacific Islanders’ Association (PIA) and the Kutturan CHamoru Foundation were also in attendance, telling stories in energetic body movements along with live traditional music.

The Samoan fire knife dance, also known as Ailao Afi, was performed by Lopati Leaso and captured many attendees’ attention, as it was both dangerous and fascinating. 

Leaso, who is Blackfoot native born and raised in California, has been involved in various kinds of dancing, such as hula, Maori, Tahitian and Fijian dancing. Still, his main passions are fire knife dancing, hula and the Maori haka.

He has participated in many competitions during his 20-year career as a dancer and teacher. When invited to perform at the Mana Pasifika Night, Leaso was willing to and arranged his plans for the event.

^{Fire knife dancer Lopati Leaso twirls burning sticks during his performance at the Mana Pasifika Night on Friday, May 8 at the LAC. The event celebrated the cultures of the Pacific Islands as part of the APID Heritage Month activities. (Tien Nguyen)}

“I hope (the event) keeps growing every year, and hopefully we can bring back more performances. I’m hoping next year we can bring Maori, New Zealand with haka, and then Tahitian dancers and Hawaiian dancers… So make it more like a concert vibe,” Leaso said. 

Towards the end of the event, two winners of the scholarship opportunities were announced, with each winning $500.

Nguyen mentioned the event’s purpose for inviting high school students, and how the event increases belonging for LBCC students. 

“We intentionally outreach to high school students, too, and for them to bring their families. So that way they could come and see the campus, know about the Mana Program, so that they could hopefully enroll here when they graduate. And then, of course, like our current LBCC students, the more you build a sense of belonging on campus, the more they want to stay and succeed,” Nguyen said.