“PISA [Pacific Islander Student Association] was really born out of that effort to find other people who were in a similar position as me, who were maybe feeling very isolated to bring this all together and like, find something common.”
But I think fundamentally, in most visions of the future, Indigenous people just aren’t represented. They aren’t seen. It’s almost implied that we disappear, and that all that is left . . . is this strange landscape of light and steel and circuits, and I always felt uncomfortable with that. So I began trying to find ways to incorporate my identity in something that I loved.
Gregory Loui, a Chinese Hawaiian UC San Diego alumnus enrolled from 2015 to 2019, shares his experiences navigating identity, community building, and academic growth in this oral history. Raised in Hawaii after being born in California, Loui reflects on the cultural disconnect he felt upon arriving at UCSD as a Pacific Islander student, which led him to co-found the Pacific Islander Student Association (PISA) to create a space for other Pacific Islanders. He discusses his involvement in various programs such as the UCSD Cross-Border Initiative and Indigenous Futures Lab, all of which helped him earn the Jim and Julie Lin Breaking Barriers Award by the Cross Cultural Center (CCC). There is also an emphasis on his transition to law school at UCLA, where he currently resides as a Graton Scholar.
This oral history covers topics such as Indigenous identities, community formation at UC San Diego, speculative design, Indigenous futurism (discussed in his novel, 21st Century Orc), and the intersection of law and Indigenous issues.
The interview was conducted via Zoom on February 28, 2025, as part of the Generating and Reclaiming Our Wisdoms (GROW) archive.
The interview was conducted by Abby Johnson, who at the time was an undergraduate student at UCSD studying Sociology-Law & Society.
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