Stevie Merino

Stevie Merino is a living arts practitioner, community organizer, mom, anthropologist, birthworker, and proud indigenous islander woman--CHamoru & Boricua. Stevie's life work focuses on Pacific Islander birth traditions and health disparities highlighting CHamoru experiences in Southern California. Stevie presents her research at various conferences around the country, where she centers the experience and voices of Pacific Islanders that are often left out of these spaces. She is the co-founder & executive director of The Birth Workers of Color Collective. Stevie co-curated an exhibit at the Pacific Islander Ethnic Art Museum (PIEAM) that was the first of it's kind which shares the same name as her contribution, "Carrying the Pacific: Pregnancy, Birth, and Parenting." Stevie believes representation, reclamation, visibility, & sovereignty are vital components not only to help address health equity and disparities but to disrupt the systems and barriers that our community face.

Offered Piece: I Carry The Pacific Within Me — Birth Stories & Traditions of CHamoru in Sanlagu, a continued meditation on pregnancy and birth traditions of CHamoru living in Southern California, this piece offers a reclamation, reconnection, and hopefully a revitalization of the age-old calling.

solandrootsdoula.com / @solandrootsdoula

birthworkersofcolor.com / @birthworkersofcolor