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Friends, family and colleagues are mourning the death of Caroline “Sina” Sinavaiana-Gabbard, a retired professor from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa English Department. A pioneer in her field, Sinavaiana-Gabbard is being remembered for her passion and profound commitment to her craft.
She died on May 24 in Samoa where she resided after retiring from UH Mānoa after 20 years. Born in Utulei, American Samoa and raised in California and Hawaiʻi, Sinavaiana-Gabbard is the first Samoan in the country to achieve the highest academic rank of professor. In 2020, the award-winning author and poet was recognized as one of the influential women from U.S. territories and made USA Today’s Women of the Century list.
Sinavaiana-Gabbard joined the faculty at UH Mānoa in 1997, and colleagues say she played an essential role in reshaping the English department’s curriculum to embrace Pacific literatures and cultures.
The scarred body moves
in green water,
brown arms slicing
a canvas of blue
green ocean sky.
Spirits of moana
pasifika, have mercy on us.
—Excerpt from Gabbard’s poem “Waimanalo Litany” as a tribute to a friend’s passing
“One of the many things I admired about Sina was her generous spirit and inclusive imagination,” said John Zuern, professor and chair of the UH Mānoa English department. “So much of her poetry and scholarship was grounded in Samoa, where she was born, but she worked to foster connections among Indigenous writers in and beyond the Pacific.”
Sinavaiana-Gabbard authored several poetry collections that her colleagues say were a testament to her heritage and worldview, including Alchemies of Distance and Mohawk/Samoa: Transmigrations.
“Sina was a truth teller; she was ethical to her core. Sina laughed and laughed. Sina took the Tibetan Buddhist precepts to heart, right speech, especially. And compassion,” said Susan Schultz, a UH Mānoa English professor emerita who worked with Sinavaiana-Gabbard since the mid 90’s. “Sina was a mirror to others; I’m not sure many people saw her behind the mirror, because she didn’t put herself forward.”
Sinavaiana-Gabbard’s teaching journey began in Pago Pago, American Samoa, where she found her passion for English literature in the hearts of students at Samoana High School in 1969. She moved on to inspire students in both creative writing and literary studies at UH Mānoa. Many of the graduate students she mentored have achieved successful careers as writers and educators, and carry on Sinavaiana-Gabbard’s legacy.
“Sina’s power often came from her contradictions: she was kind but also a warrior,” Schultz said. “She could bend like bamboo and she could also be utterly unwavering in her convictions. A mutual friend remarked that we should compose a piece called ‘What Sina taught us.’”
Sinavaiana-Gabbard is survived by two adult children, daughter Michelle Gabbard Bamrah and son Liam Enright. She is also the sister of Hawaiʻi State Senator Mike Gabbard and the aunt of former Hawaiʻi Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard.
