Islands of Disappearance, Oceans of Renewal: Ryūkyūan Women and Indigenous Theological Futurity in Diaspora

The future of many Indigenous peoples is increasingly diasporic, shaped by imperial dispossession, militarization, and the threatened loss of land, language, and life. This paper argues that Ryūkyūan Christian women in Hawaiʻi are central architects of Ryūkyūan cultural and theological futures. Although diasporic Uchinānchu comprise only a small portion of Hawaiʻi’s population, they have had an outsized impact on the state’s associational and public life as well as global Uchinānchu networks. Drawing on yuntaku-structured interviews, participant observation, and close reading of community-produced materials, this paper examines how Ryūkyūan Christian women’s everyday labor—care work, ritual organization, intergenerational formation, and public mobilization—constitutes constructive theological work. Situating these practices within longer histories of women-centered religious authority in Ryūkyū, this paper demonstrates how cultural revitalization, identity formation, and sociopolitical commitment become Christian ethical responsibilities. In doing so, this paper offers a distinctly Ryūkyūan addition to global conversations on Indigenous futurities and diasporic theologies.