Erythrina Ngirkelau (Palauan) is a student at the University of California, Berkeley, and a host of the Oceanic Podcast, which features interviews with Pacific Island leaders, students and community members. As an Island Justice Fellow with the Critical Pacific Islands Studies Collective, Ngirkelau has contributed to projects on U.S. militarization, settler colonialism, environmental justice and narrative sovereignty in the Pacific. Her work has spanned archival research, documentary development, podcast production and community-centered storytelling.

Kianna Reyes (CHamorru and Micronesian) is a multimedia creative from the Northern Mariana Islands. She currently writes artist profiles and explores Indigenous cuisine for Marianas Press, where she covers the CNMI’s culture section. She has also contributed work to The Husk, a Pasifika Indigenous media outlet.

Outside of writing, Reyes is a filmmaker and freelance photographer who has produced three short documentaries centering Indigenous narratives through the art of carving, supported by a Fåha Digital Media grant. She is also a Natural Resource Management student at Northern Marianas College, which informs her interest in translating scientific research into accessible journalism centered on Indigenous knowledge systems. She recently participated in IJA’s Indigenous Journalism Fellowship.

Kamalani Moufa (Chuukese) attended Kapiolani Community College in Honolulu before transferring to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where she has focused on Pacific Island Studies and communications. She applied for the scholarship with the goal of using her degree to create a Pasifika-owned and led magazine that highlights Oceania, current events and people across the region and diaspora.

Kila Wani is dedicated to amplifying the voices of Pasifika peoples through independent and impactful journalism. She studied journalism at the University of Papua New Guinea and has served as managing director at Inside PNG, an online news outlet committed to providing fair, accurate and culturally relevant reporting. She has worked in the public and private sectors. These experiences broadened her perspective on governance, policy and community issues, which she has explored through her journalism.

Oskar Ugipa (Moni Tribe) is a Papuan journalist whose work has focused on the environment and Indigenous peoples. Drawing on his experience with Indigenous movements in Papua, Ugipa wants to report on communities whose struggles, cultures and environmental knowledge are often overlooked by mainstream media. He has been particularly interested in covering the impacts of palm oil, mining and deforestation on Indigenous lands and communities. The scholarship was awarded to support Ugipa’s education at Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia and help him pursue in-depth reporting, photography and documentary work that centers Indigenous Papuan perspectives.