Celebrating Hawaiian culture: political science, ethnic studies student advocates for Pacific Islander and Hawaiian inclusion

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Tihani Mitchell

By Katie Livermore, CLA Student Writer - May 28, 2025

Tihani Mitchell remembers sitting in her political science class freshman year, analyzing countless statistics of different groups. None of them included Pacific Islander and Hawaiian demographics–instead, they were included in the “other” category. Even more so, she discovered many students and faculty at OSU were unfamiliar with Hawaiian history and culture.

She returned to her dorm that day in tears. Instead of giving up, Mitchell leaned into her deep connection to her Hawaiian homeland and decided to make her own change. 

That’s exactly what she did. 

Now, Mitchell is the founder of Ka ʻIkena Hawaiʻi, an Oregon State University club that focuses on preserving and practicing the Hawaiian language. She is a third-year, first-generation student double majoring in political science and ethnic studies with a minor in Indigenous studies. 

Mitchell is from Puʻuanahulu, Hawaiʻi, raised in a multigenerational household with six other siblings, her parents, her grandparents, and great grandmother. In addition to her family were her hānai siblings, a kind of adopted family she grew up with. 

“My parents raised all of me and my siblings up to be very outspoken individuals,” Mitchell said. “They always taught us to challenge authority.”

With her outspokenness, Mitchell was exposed to activism at an early age. Her uncle was dedicated to the Land Back Movement, which focuses on advocating for returning ancestral lands in Hawaiʻi. Growing up, she would tag along with her uncle as he led workshops across the island. She recalls one workshop where they performed Kui Kalo, the action of using a rock to mash up taro to make poi. 

“We would go around the island, having classes and teaching other people of our community how to reconnect with their culture and their roots,” Mitchell said. “I was always super involved.”

These memories led her to grow her Hawaiian roots for future advocacy.

She began her education at Kealakehe, a public school in her area for elementary and middle school. When she hit seventh grade, Mitchell left the Big Island to attend the Kamehameha boarding school in Oahu–with a full-ride scholarship. 

At Kamehameha, Mitchell lived in a dorm with young women from different islands and states. 

“The school I attended was founded with the goal of providing Hawaiian students with access to higher education and the support needed to succeed,” Mitchell said. “There was a lot more access to learning things about Hawaiian language, culture, history, than like a traditional school managed by the U.S. Department of Education.”

Mitchell cheered, danced Hula and Tahitian, played rugby, basketball, and ran track throughout her school career. She continued her activism journey with friends, even camping out on Mauna Kea for 10 days during the Thirty Meter Telescope Protests of July 2019. 

“I remember that was the first and probably the most intense protest that I've been to,” said Mitchell. “I was 14, and they had the National Guard and, like, the army come because there’s an army base at the base of the mountain. They lined up in front of us with guns and stuff, and they were threatening us with sound bombs, pepper spray, and Child Protective Services.”

When it came to attending college, Mitchell initially refused to go to the mainland. She felt lucky enough to be educated about Hawaiian history and its oppression, and didn’t want to be part of communities that contributed.

“I wanted to major in Hawaiian language and Hawaiian history,” Mitchell said. “My thoughts were always, ‘Okay, I'm going to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. America wasn't even in my head.” 

Instead, her parents encouraged her to pursue experiences outside of Hawaiʻi for higher education. With reluctance, she agreed, and was accepted into all the schools she applied to scattered across the United States. 

OSU was the closest to home, as well as most affordable with the most to offer. Though Mitchell planned different majors for her undergraduate degree, eventually becoming a lawyer was always the goal. She landed on political science, and though many studies are Western European centric, Mitchell tailors her work on Pacific Island and Hawaiian studies. 

“When I was focusing on those things that I was most passionate about, that's when I thrived the most, and got the most support from my professors,” Mitchell said. “Having that idea that I was always able to bring it back to having to do with my identity and my experiences as a person, especially like moving from Hawaiʻi to Oregon and experiencing a completely, totally different lens of how life can be, just made it so much easier.”

Mitchell has been on the board of the People of Color (POC) in Law and Politics Club, which her friend Summer Wong founded for marginalized groups pursuing careers in law. 

On top of this, Mitchell founded her own club called Ka ʻIkena Hawaiʻi, or the “Hawaiian Experience,” focused on educating and participating in cultural practices in the States. 

“The club was meant to encapsulate the different lived experiences of Hawaiian people, both from Hawaiʻi, living in Hawaiʻi, or those that grew up in the diaspora,” Mitchell said.

The turning point of the statistics class and being “othered” led her to create spaces of discussion. Mitchell felt this hopelessness and nearly transferred to a university in Hawaiʻi. Instead, she met Dr. Patricia Fifita, assistant professor of ethnic studies in the School of Language, Culture, and Society. Dr. Fifita helped Mitchell start the club by being her adviser.  

“I know I'm not the first person to have realized this. I'm not the only person to feel like this, either,” Mitchell said. “We did find our community, and we were able to make that community for other folks that were lacking that support. So that was super awesome.”

The club is supported by other nonprofit organizations from Hawaiʻi and the Ka ʻAha Lāhui O ʻOlekona Hawaiian Civic Club of Oregon & SW Washington (KALO). KALO helped fund their first year of club events, such as a lei making workshop, or t-shirt printing, where materials were shipped to Oregon from Hawaiʻi. All club events are free to attend, whether or not attendees are Hawaiian. 

“Our responsibility is to offer space for Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian folks to learn about Hawaiian culture,” Mitchell said. “We've been doing a lot of ‘No one is illegal on stolen land’ for the recent political movements.”

With the club in full force, Mitchell found another opportunity to work with Dr. Fifita in an ethnography research project on the island of Kauaʻi. 

The project focuses on recording oral histories through interviewing members of the community in Anahola, Kauaʻi. Originally managed by the Department of Hawaiian Homelands (DHHL), the agency turned over 432 acres of pristine coastline to a local nonprofit that’s developing a restoration plan centered on Kānaka ʻŌiwi self-determination, histories, ecological health, and healing. The goal is to re-envision what the island used to be prior to colonial impact, natural disasters, and overall devastation. 

Mitchell spent last summer on Kauaʻi interviewing community members, which she now considers her favorite summer yet. 

“The whole re-envisioning process is talking to elders to see how the community used to look back in the day,” Mitchell said. “We found there was a lot of reconstructing of waterways. So folks would come in, buy, and privatize the land, which is illegal because it's DHHL–it's supposed to be for Hawaiian people.”

Those who privatized DHHL lands disturbed the natural flow of water for personal quarries and ponds on their properties. Since they lived in the mountains, this blocked water flow from reaching communities residing below them. The lack of water access led to many worries, a main one being how to extinguish brush fires if they occurred. 

Mitchell found it interesting to discover Kauaʻi through a different lens. Though she has visited plenty, she was able to put herself in a more analytical position to view into the island’s past. 

“We've done all the research, we've done all of the interviews and ethnographies and oral histories that we can do,” Mitchell said. “Now, we’re looking at how we can take all of these notes and stories from these community members and re-envision what this place can look like in the future.”

After she graduates, Mitchell plans to apply to Richardson Law School at the University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa, to study law with a focus on land conservation and real estate. 

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Tihani would like to dedicate this piece to her parents, Regina and Coogan, for their hard work and commitment to their family. Thank you for your sacrifices, I hope to do you justice. Hoʻi hou I ka ʻiwikuamoʻo