During the interview, Ju’ne Sablan Hawkins talked about how she, too, like many Chamorros, moved to the U.S. through the military. When her husband was in the military, she would travel with him, moving every six months, and during these periods, she would have small crafting projects, such as crocheted blankets. In this piece, I crocheted the Pacific Ocean and embedded plumeria—a flower associated with the Pacific Islands. The first time I had met Ju’ne in her boutique at the Sons and Daughters of Guam Club, she had shown us these beautifully handmade plumeria hairclips, telling us about how Native Hawai‘ians either bury plumerias in the ground or release them into the sea to return it to the earth. Combining these two experiences that she had shared with me, I created this piece to reflect the experience of crossing the Pacific Ocean for Asians and Pacific Islanders.
The experience that many Asians and Pacific Islanders have when we move to the United States is maintaining a Trans-Pacific relationship with relatives still back in the homeland as well as trying to preserve our cultures here. Our migration here does not cut us off from our homeland and our cultures. Rather, we learn to navigate a Trans-Pacific relationship. Our cultures also evolve and are redefined here in the creation of Asian and Pacific Islander America.
