Taffy Maene-Johnson from UTOPIA Washington on Celebrating Pasifika Pride

Reverence, Respect, and Remembrance

“When the day comes that someone looks to you in strength, offer it freely. Take the lessons, take the pain, take the love that we leave for you and multiply it…” – Taffy Maene-Johnson

Taffy Maene-Johnson (she/her) is a proud Faʻafafine, and the Executive Director of United Territories of Pacific Islanders Alliance Washington(UTOPIA Washington). UTOPIA is a queer and trans people of color-led, grassroots organization, born out of the struggles, strength, and resilience of our communities.

In an interview with Noelani, Taffy shares about how, “UTOPIA’s mission is rooted in the liberation of Queer and Trans Pacific Islander communities through culturally grounded organizing, healing justice and systems transformations.”

Here, Taffy illuminates the numerous ways UTOPIA Washington creates safe, vibrant and thriving spaces specifically for LGBTQIA+ MVPFAFF relatives.

MVPFAFF+ is an acronym / initialism that stands for Māhū from Hawaii and Tahiti, Vakasalewa from Fiji, Palopa, Fa’afafine from Samoa, Akava’ine, Fakaleitī (Leiti) from Tonga, Fakafifine from Niue.

Check out the full video interview down below, right here on the Daybreak Star Radio‼️👇

UTOPIAʻs work is inspired and guided by Indigenous values such as alofa, aloha (love), va (our sacred relationships between ourselves, our bodies, each other, and the land) mālama (care and stewardship) and faloalo (respect). In Taffyʻs words,

“These values remind us that our liberation is collective, intergenerational and intimately connects us to our ancestors and our homelands.”

Creating Pu’uhonua: Places of Refuge

“There is power in being seen, heard, and affirmed in all that we are…in feeling culturally safe and spiritually rooted.”

Through creative and cultural celebrations and events like the Beauty Pageant: Miss Island Goddess, Healing Circles, Policy Advocacy and their QTPI Camp, UTOPIA weaves Pasifika gender roles, languages, and lineages in everyday life as a lived truth.

UTOPIA offers free gender affirming and culturally competent physical and mental healthcare through their Mapu Maia Clinic. In addition, they provide for anyone who is in need of food access with Makeki Market through their Food Access Network making sure that solutions for systemic inequities are led by the people.

Through this wide array of offerings, a fortified ʻupena (fishing net) of pilina (intimacies) is woven among and between these different initiatives in order to support and care for our Pasifika and Indigenous community.

“Our bodies hold the memories of our ancestors: every chant, every hula, every siva, every oli, every talanoa is an act of resistance and survival. These cultural practices are our medicine. They remind us that we are not new to this. We are ancient. Through MANA Arts and Culture, we give life through movement, story, through elders teaching youth to speaking our mother tongues. strengthens resilience and remembrance against systemic erasure.” – Taffy Maene-Johnson

“O le ala i le pule o le tautua

(the pathway to leadership is through service)”

This Samoan saying Taffy uplifted into the space rests in the piko (navel) of UTOPIAʻs values of intergenerational healing and reconnection. UTOPIA Washington intentionally creates safe spaces for MVPFAFF+ Indigenous Pasifika folks to breathe, be, and belong in order to reconnect with land, language, and lineage. Taffy articulates the unique perspectives and strengths between elders and youth, helping boundaries of separation to soften:

“Youth come with curiosity and hunger for truth. Elders come with stories, years of knowledge of wisdom, lullabies. Together we can shape a collective vision of liberation grounded in cultural revival and restoration. Processing intergenerational trauma, reclaiming joy, remembering power of our names, in our bodies, of our ancestors. The laughter we share around the fire, the healing shared in circle, and the sunrise songs in our native tongues, moments of reconnection and seeds of solidarity.”

This wisdom calls forth a perspective on leadership that is less about age and more about how one shows up for the people, honors legacy, and embodies service. Taffy teaches us that our elders are mentors, historians, spiritual anchors; and youth are empowered leaders in their own right.

In these times of hulihia, or challenging upheaval Taffy reveals pathways of perseverance,

“UTOPIA moves forward by rooting in the healing power of storytelling, gathering, cultural exchanges, we nurture a living dialogue and mutual transformation between generations, making space for both grief and vision in order to move forward.”

“O lālā nō wau nō kuʻu kumu”

(I am a branch of the tree / my teacher)

“When we sing, dance, chant, protest, demand equity, its with our ancestors breath in our lungs and their songs in our spirits. So we refuse to choose between tradition and transformation bc we’re not just organizers, we are healers, orators, performers, chiefs, torch bearers. As a Samoan I center my samoan identity, our fakatoma, Pasifika values – not as aesthetic but as strategy. Our values are of collective care, reciprocity, and accountability.”

In ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, the Hawaiian Language, kumu has multiple meanings: teacher, source, foundation, and/or tree. Taffy reminds us that reclaiming culture is a radical act and healing justice begins with returning home, to ourselves, our stories and to source.

Therefore, ʻŌlelo Noʻeau, or Hawaiian saying, gives insight into how connected we are to eachother and the land through the metaphor of being the lālā of our kumu. We are branches on the tree, the foundation, the source of our wisdom, our teachers.

In conclusion, UTOPIA embodies this interconnection and mutuality, serving our communities by creating opportunities for Indigenous LGBTQIA+ and MVPFAFF+ relatives to have safe places to land, (re)connect, and rest.

Arriving full circle, Taffy offered this deeply moving advice for the next generations:

“We see you, and we need you. Our next generation, your ideas, art, rage, all of your questions, all of it belongs. You do not need to earn your right to exist. You already do.

Your being is a gift, not a burden.

You’ll make mistakes, you’ll rise again. Every step you take in your truth is a victory for all of us. Always remember that colonization taught us to forget, and your joy is a form of remembrance.

So laugh without shame, dance with purpose, mourn with depth, and celebrate with abandon. Because you are the living prayer of our ancestors, of your people, of your lineage, of your community.

You carry more than you know. You carry our histories, our hopes, names that were nearly erased.

But you also carry possibilities.

You’re not just the future, you are the now and your breath is resistance. Your softness is strategy. Your boundaries are sacred.

You donʻt have to conform to be powerful. You donʻt have to strain to be loved. Know that we built this so you could rise, and fought so you wouldn’t have to fight alone.

Everything we planted, every march, every camp, every festival, every story, every chant, it was for you. So you could come into the world with your head high and your heart full…

Be the ancestor someone will one day thank in a whisper. And shout your name in joy. Because you are necessary. You are the spark, and we can’t wait to see how brightly you’ll burn.”

Check out the full video interview down below‼️👇

UTOPIA’s resources and programs:

• Sex Worker Empowerment Initiative: “SWEI is an initiative focused on culture change through public education, decriminalization policy and systems change, and community care to create real safety for QTBIPOC, gender diverse, intersex sex workers.”

• MANA Arts and Culture: Featuring Ala Mai, “a cultural awakening for our diasporic Queer and Trans Pacific Islanders through language revitalization, cultural art preservation and lessons on decolonization.” As well as Taloa: “The traditional Pasifika method of tying our stories together, through dialogue and discourse.”

• Community Services: Featuring Real Talk/ Peer Support, Care Management, Food Access Network, Civic Engagement Voter Registration and GOTV.

• SPEaC Change: Policy and Legislation: Featuring Systems, Environmental, Policy, and Culture Change.

• Mapu Maia Clinic– Featuring full spectrum healthcare services such as: Primary Care, Mental Health, Gender Affirming Care, and Sexual Health services.