Fa’aumu Kaimana

Fa’aumu Kaimana grew up in White Center, Washington State and earned her B.A. in Anthropology and Sociology from the University of Washington. She is a Ph.D. student in Anthropology interested in researching cultures of higher education institutions and how Black and Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) reframe norms and policies of such institutions for their own benefit. Fa’aumu’s involvement with Minnesota Transform aims to center the voices of Indigenous students and tribes. Her role in a campus tours and orientations project seeks to disrupt dominant settler colonial narratives about the University of Minnesota and bring attention to the institution's responsibility towards BIPOC communities. This is simply part of a larger global conversation about higher education institutions in relation to issues of tribal sovereignty, Indigenous economic empowerment, global Indigeneity, and decolonization.