Kuuipoikaheepueone “Ipo” Wright has struggled with racial and cultural imposter syndrome since before she knew the terminology for it.
“It’s still there,” Wright, 36, said. “I hate to admit it, but to be honest, it is a lifelong struggle. And I know that I’m not alone.”
Born in Honolulu and raised in California, Wright stayed rooted in her Hawaiian culture through hula and family ties.
But she felt that she didn’t look the part, and non-islander peers didn’t know what to make of her – a light-skinned girl performing Polynesian dance routines at the school talent show. So, she’d work on her tan and wear hair extensions with flower accessories.
“I felt like I was living a split life,” Wright said.
This emotional crisis eventually sparked the idea for Hawaiian Diaspora, an organization she founded in 2024 to provide cultural education and mental health support to those struggling with their identities. The Seattle resident wants to create both virtual spaces and in-person workshops for Kānaka ‘Ōiwi on the continent.
Eventually, she aims to create a resource network for Hawaiians who plan to return to the ‘āina. “We need to support our Hawaiians living away from Hawai‘i in so many different ways,” Wright said.
In Hawai‘i, Wright’s early years were largely spent with her tūtū wahine on Kaua‘i or her babysitter in Kāneʻohe. The ʻohana resided in the family dormitories at Brigham Young University – Lāʻie while Wright’s mom, Dawnyl, finished college and her dad, Bob, worked.
A Kaua‘i native, Dawnyl was the first in her ‘ohana to raise her family away from Hawai‘i. Bob hailed from Mississippi and the pair met at a Tennessee amusement park where Bob worked training dolphins and Dawnyl took a part-time job while dancing with a touring hālau.
Hula runs deep in Wright’s family. Both her grandmother and great-grandmother were kumu hula and her mother danced at the Polynesian Cultural Center.
“I have early memories of just hanging around while my mom was dancing hula or working on a costume,” Wright recalled.
When her father secured a military job in San Diego, Wright and her siblings were uprooted from Hawaiʻi to grow up in Southern California. The local Pacific Islander community there helped Hawaiian culture feel close at hand: Wright’s mother enrolled her in a hālau, and they took part in weekend lūʻau.
Wright graduated from Mount Miguel High School in 2006. She dreamed of becoming an actress, a writer or a comedian in Hollywood. At age 22, she moved to Los Angeles after falling for her now-husband, Dihan, who she met through a friend. With Dihan’s Filipino and Saudi Arabian heritage, he understood Wright’s multiracial experience.
They lived together in Hollywood and Wright started a new phase of life defined by self-expression: she replaced hula with comedy classes and Muay Thai martial arts.
After several years in Los Angeles, she and Dihan moved to Austin, TX., in 2014 for an adventure in a more affordable city. Wright was frustrated by Southern California’s job market, which proved difficult to break into without a college degree, and she wanted to focus on developing her career.
In Texas, Wright began working at Virgin America airline, which offered her flight benefits to visit family in California and Hawai‘i and to explore as far away as Asia.
“My whole world was different,” Wright said.
Dihan proposed to her on a trip to Montréal, Canada, and the pair wed at the courthouse in Austin.
But Wright felt the absence of other Pacific Islanders in Texas. She missed her culture and ‘ohana and ended up taking hula classes held at an Austin ballet studio.
At Virgin America, Wright took a temporary assignment at its San Francisco Bay Area headquarters. She lived out of a hotel for about a year, and, after returning to Austin, she learned Alaska Airlines had acquired her employer.
After four years in Texas, Wright accepted position with Alaska Airlines based in Seattle. Eager to resettle on the West Coast, she and Dihan moved in 2018.
“As soon as we touched down, we could breathe again,” she said.
There, Wright began dancing with a Pacific Islander group. And one year later, she accepted a full-time job in Alaska Airlines’ corporate communications department. Then she joined the company’s Pacific Islander Alliance and in late 2020, she was asked to become the group’s co-chair.
Wright traveled with other leaders to Washington, D.C., to discuss Pacific Islander issues with lawmakers. The experience fanned the flames of her passion for the lāhui.
After participating in a cohort at Hawaiian nonprofit Purple Mai‘a Foundation, in 2023 she received a $2,500 grant from Kamehameha Schools for a research project. Originally conceived as an adult version of Kamehameha Schools’ Explorations Series programs, her “project” became a nonprofit.
Thus, “Hawaiian Diaspora” was born. And so was her son, Qasim Puakalehuaikawekiu, in January 2024.
Now, Wright is focused on making an impact: professionally at Alaska Airlines, culturally in her community, and personally on her firstborn. One day, Wright hopes to move back to the islands with Qasim and Dihan.
“As long as I get back to Hawai‘i at some point in my life, that’s all that matters,” she said.
To learn more about Ipo’s organization, Hawaiian Diaspora, go to: www.hawaiiandiaspora.org
