An Unexpected Awakening

At the end of every Reroot trip, I try to condense my experience into a few paragraphs to share with you in our newsletters. This one in particular was very difficult to write and in many ways, I’m not finished telling the story. Since returning home to Trinidad and Tobago in May, I’ve had Oʻahu on my mind. The land, the lessons, the people…it’s been a lot to digest. Normally, I’d give you a rundown of all the activities and write about the breath-taking scenery we were blessed to spend time around but you can find all that on our Instagram. Instead, I’m writing you an account of my personal experience as a Reroot employee and also, a tourist. This trip changed the way I view myself and my place in the world.

WAIKIKI: The Beautiful Lie

My first couple days in Oʻahu was nothing short of mind blowing. When I landed, I had traveled almost 24 hours across 3 times zones from Trinidad and Tobago to be here for this tour but my excitement to be here wouldn’t let me feel the fatigue of this marathon of travel! You have to understand, my country’s population is the size of Dallas. Being able to travel outside of the country is a privilege most Trinbagonians don’t experience. Many citizens of Trinidad have never even visited Tobago - our twin island. This trip was literally, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You want to talk bucket list? This is the definition!

First of all, the photos of Hawai’i we’ve all seen? The beaches, the waterfalls, the mountains? They don’t even come close to capturing the beauty of this place. Indescribable is an understatement. As someone who is from and still lives on a Caribbean island, it’s hard for me to be impressed by a beach. Waikiki, however…WOW! I was almost brought to tears standing on Waikiki Beach. It felt like something from out of a dream. The few days before the tour began, Dr. Kiona drove me around Oʻahu scouting locations and activities for our 2026 trip. That was the plan at least, but I was a little preoccupied taking pictures of everything and just being in awe that I was actually spending time in places most people will only see on TV.

Honestly, I LOVE MY JOB!!

As the tour began and our classes took shape, things began to change. The glimmer in my eye after seeing this place for the first began to fade. Of all the adjectives I can use to describe Hawai’i, “OPPRESSED” was never one that sprung to mind. However, as we learned in our Hawaiian History class, the reality is that The Kingdom of Hawai’i has been under occupation by the U.S. Military since 1893 (132 years) and its kanaka continue to be marginalized as their land is exploited by the U.S. Government. Kumu Ka’ohu, our history teacher, managed to fit centuries of information into an expertly crafted lesson in the islands’ history but of all the amazing facts she dished out, the term MILITOURISM stuck out to me. She went on to explain that Waikiki was a city constructed to be the playground for U.S. military personnel who invaded Hawai’i. The elements of this city I stood in awe of 2 days ago were built through lies, theft and desecration.

Sacred spaces were destroyed and kanaka displaced to build a military base. An ancient monarchy usurped by the greed of man. The more I learned about Hawai’i’s illegal annexation, the harder it became to ignore the glaring signs of colonization and gentrification I had somehow missed before these classes began. Our lessons in Climate Change and Land Stewardship also revealed the sites where once stood ancient fish ponds that fed hundreds of thousands of kanaka are now luxury clothing stores, an iHop, Target and Amazon warehouses. None of this should be here, not even the sand on the beach! Not so fun fact: the white sand of Waikiki Beach was actually imported from the North Shore.

This is MILITOURISM - where the military actually creates an illusion of a thriving economy based in tourism to mask their oppression of the people. I was torn. Why didn’t I know any of this before? Why didn’t I see the signs? The truth is, you don’t know what you don’t know and there was A LOT I didn’t know. I spent a few nights walking around the city alone trying to balance my emotions about being in a place that, to me, was clearly a giant sham but also incredibly beautiful.

Everyday I visited these amazing spaces around the island and learned invaluable lessons about ancient Hawaiian history and its amazing culture but came back to Waikiki where tourists used up much of the island’s limited water resources and stuck their empty coffee cups in bushes. This incredible disrespect of the land and the the struggle of its people is exactly why so many native Hawaiians are against tourism. This is why they tell us not to come to Hawai’i. I thought I understood before but now, I GET IT. We always say in our social media that you need to come to a trip to really understand what it’s like to be here.

“COME SEE FOR YOURSELF” isn’t just a tag line we use, it’s a philosophy we believe is the key to truly learning and experiencing the true value of a foreign country and culture. You can read 100 books and view all the takes online about a destination but 7 days truly living it will teach you more than any of those things could. I was living that experience having all the things I thought I knew redefined by our kumus lesson after bittersweet lesson. I grew to love this island, the people and their spirit . They changed much more than my point of view on Hawai’i. They changed the way I see things back home.

Erasing Propaganda with Education

Colonizers have used many weapons against indigenous culture and history over the years, none more so than language. Words such as “DISCOVERY” and “DEVELOPMENT" are constantly used to help erase the indigenous and rewrite their history . Being duped by a colonizer campaign honestly enraged me. Coming from a nation with a long history of colonization with my ancestors being indentured laborers, I’m usually very good at recognizing signs of oppressive history. Waikiki showed me how dangerous taking things at face value was. It humbled me and reminded me that there is still so much I need to learn if I truly wanted to support the fight against modern day colonization.

I put myself in the shoes of our kumus and gained a totally different appreciation of their presence on this trip. Asking these kanaka experts who dedicate their lives to the preservation and restoration of Native Hawaiian life to teach TOURISTS, knowing fully well their stance against tourism, was an exercise in audacity to say the least. Luckily, they agreed to teach our classes because they believed in the sincerity of our vision. I admire them for their strength, pride, ancient knowledge, and also their kindness and understanding. They didn’t just put aside their feelings about tourism to make a dollar. They saw that our trip was full of people who genuinely wanted to make a difference and agreed to share their knowledge, risking backlash from their own communities. Suddenly all the hoops we gladly jumped through and favors we called in to recruit this special cast of kumus made more sense. Presenting the opportunity and platform for these educators and activists to remove the veil of ignorance from our group was something I was incredibly proud to be a part of and has been one of the highlights of my tenure at Reroot.

Native Hawaiians are fighting everyday against erasure. They hold on to their culture and history and wear it proudly in the face of military intimidation, threats of displacement from their own land and the bastardization of their culture. Hawaiians have never stopped fighting back. Resilience is a common theme for Reroot’s tours. We highlight Cubanos who innovate and create a life under 60+years of U.S. embargo. We celebrate Tahzin, our Nahuat elder, for his movement to preserve his almost-extinct language. Hawai’i wrote another chapter in our books and redefined the concept as kanaka continue to fight for and make progress in reclaiming THEIR LAND.

Their culture is alive, their language is alive, and they are doing all they can to ensure that the story being told about their islands will not be erased by propaganda masked behind discovery and development. Education can be both a weapon to misguide or a tool to enlighten. We’ve seen the colonizer version of history that positions white saviors at the forefront in tales of bringing civilized society to the “savage natives”. This trip spat in the face of that narrative. Our lessons completely erased the concept that Native Hawaiians were a conquered people. They have never succeeded to the U.S. They have not assimilated. They have passed down their history and culture throughout surviving generations and created a path to combat misinformation and propaganda with education.

Understanding “The Aloha Spirit”

This concept didn’t click with me. Just be friendly, right? That seems simple enough. Once again, I had a lot to learn and one seemingly casual incident ended up teaching me an invaluable lesson about Hawaiians. In case you didn’t know, Hawai’i has the highest rate of homelessness in the U.S., more than 3x the national average. There are actually more out-of-state homeless persons on the islands than local unhoused. Yet another lesson I learned as my eyes continued to be opened to the realities of Hawaiian life by our teachers. Once you see it, you truly can’t un-see it. Hawaiians call their local homeless “unhoused” because, as the kanaka explain, Hawai'i is their home. They belong on the āina, they are not “homeless”. They just don’t have a house to live in.

Imagine what it’s like to belong to a people and culture that treats you with love, kindness, respect and honor simply for existing. Where you are supported because you are kanaka and that means you’re family regardless of your last name or social status. I think about that term, “unhoused”, and remember the incident where a security guard asked me to wait outside before using a public restroom to give an unhoused man a chance to take a bath. A simple act that gave this person some privacy, and the chance to reclaim a bit of dignity for himself. It was a stark contrast to how other cities and countries treat their homeless by investing in hostile architecture as if these people are discards. Even when out-of-state homeless persons are returned to the mainland, it is done so with care and the intention to place them in a safe space.

The Aloha Spirit, I came to understand, is not performative with giving tourists a fancy lei and hula dancing at the airport. It’s an expression of divine humanity. Where there is no reward, no likes on social media, no praise from your peers, doing the right thing and being good just because it’s the right thing to do. Imagine what our world would be if our words and actions were guided by the Aloha Spirit.

Unpacking The Journey

I realized sitting at the airport getting ready to return home that I had grown very distant from my authentic self. My feeling of helplessness to make the world a better place fueled a disillusion that bred apathy. Everyday we’re bombarded with news and images of war, bigotry and genocide that I personally feel like there’s nothing I can do to help. What can I possibly do to heal a world that is on fire? “It is what it is”. Just make the most of your time here, right?

As a Hindu there’s something extremely unnatural about that mindset to me. I was taught that all life is precious and should be honored, so how can I sit here and just NOT CARE? That’s not who I am and it’s who my ancestors were. I spent two weeks with people who have actively been fighting greater battles than I have ever faced yet continue to be their authentic selves. Apathy is not a luxury you are afforded when you battle over a century of oppression. Hawaiians have showed me the key to saving their people and culture was a strong knowledge of self reinforced by remembering and honoring the battles of your ancestors with your actions today. It’s funny that I had to travel all this way to remember the core values I’ve held as my guiding light my entire life.

I realized that I could not effect change if I did not heal myself and return to those values I lost sight of- being kind, generous, respectful, curious, open minded. Learning to forgive others and myself. Doing better because I know better. It’s not about changing the world but being a better person for myself and my loved ones. Positive change doesn’t begin with a policy or a law. It begins when people value themselves and others as humans. Maybe if I improve MY world for me and my immediate circle, that’s the spark that creates bigger change.

Maybe the key to restoring humanity is simply being human.

What Travel Should Feel Like

We get asked all the time what it's like being on a Reroot trip and I think I finally found a way to answer that question. Picture this:

You’re 19yrs old back in college. Your roommate for the last year has become your new bestie. It’s thanksgiving weekend and she invites you to come home with her for the holidays and you’re thinking “HELL YEAH!” So you head to a place you’ve never seen before but FEEL LIKE YOU KNOW because your bestie tells stories of home all the time. The first thing you feel when you get there is anxiety because literally EVERYTHING is different. The sounds, the weather, the people…everything! Your mind begins to race until you step out of baggage claim and you get a big hug from this stranger - it’s your bestie’s Dad. Instantly, you feel calm, safe and your anxiety turns into excitement. You spend the next few days meeting her family and friends, putting faces to the names in the stories she’s been telling you for the last year. You eat their food, listen to their stories, learn their inside jokes and even make new ones together.

Every morning when you have breakfast with her mom you trade stories about life while she shows you how to make that meal you love. Everyday your bestie and her friends take you to the spots only they know. The secret spots, the paths that lead to THEIR private little beach. Everyone you meet teaches you something new- a song, a phrase, a dance. You share things about your home and they learn more about who you are and where you come from. You realize those stories you heard the past year don’t even scratch the surface. The image you had in your head of this place, these people, does not compare. Now, you understand your friend’s quirks and points of view that you would fight about before.

Now you’re not just a visitor, you’re part of the family. That’s Reroot.

This is your invitation to book a trip and experience it all for yourself. You’re already subscribed to our newsletters so, you have one foot in the door. Make your deposits and let us show you what an authentic, immersive, cultural experience looks like. You’ll be surprised what you learn about new spaces and also yourself.