I keep a map because the world is always trying to make me forget. Here is my father, who cleaned classrooms for 30 years, and my brothers, who clean classrooms today. My kuku wahine, who baked in the school cafeteria, and my obaasan, here, a different kind of custodian of education. She left school in the 9th grade because Jiichan said school wasn’t for girls. At 92, she still refers to her time in the classroom with delight. This is my mother, a ferocious leader and advocate, the principal of her school. And here is Bernice Pauahi Bishop. I come from a long legacy of custodians of education, and I hold these constellated histories to orient myself as a Kānaka Maoli and Yonsei teaching within a predominantly white institution. Continue reading Custodians of Education