Biography

Alika Bourgette is a Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) historian and scholar of Native American and Indigenous Studies from Āliamanu, Oʻahu. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in Spring 2024. His research historicizes the long struggle for Native Hawaiian land and water justice along the urbanizing Honolulu waterfront in the early twentieth century. His work demonstrates how Indigenous lands and waters themselves participated as important agents in feeding and protecting all against the shifting winds of colonization. He documents how Native Hawaiians of multiple genders developed expanded kin and food networks from mountains to sea to braid a constellation of care and anti-eviction efforts across Honolulu. In his community work, he has participated in Tribal Canoe Journeys in the Salish Sea with the Carvers’ Camp and č̓away̓altxʷ ʔiišəd (Shellhouse) Canoe Families. Alika serves as a President’s and Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral fellow in the UCLA Department of Asian American Studies.