Kaiya Laguardia-Yonamine
与那嶺海椰
Kaiya is an Uchinānchu (Indigenous Ryūkyūan) and Afro-Cuban filmmaker, storyteller, and multimedia journalist. Born and raised in Portland, she focuses her work on community-centered storytelling and uplifting historically marginalized voices, from Oregon to Oceania and beyond.
As an Indigenous storyteller with ties to Oceania, she is passionate about amplifying community voices and using multimedia production for features and oral storytelling. Whether it's covering land and water protections, revitalization of cultural practices, demilitarization and social movements, or simply preserving a special piece of oral history for loved ones, Kaiya grounds her work in the beauty of community resilience, organizing, and solidarity.
Kaiya's most recent documentary, Mī Nai Chichi Nai, follows the life of a Uchinānchu elder in Hawai‘i through oral history and memory. At its center, the project reflects her core values: community care, intergenerational connection, critical reflections on colonial history, and honoring the people being covered as fully as their stories.
Kaiya received her Master's in Multimedia Journalism at the University of Oregon, specializing in documentary and audio storytelling.
She hopes to continue sharing these stories of resilience and empowering communities to rewrite our own narratives in history - for our community, by our community.
