Maio Buenafe

Maio Buenafe (Executive Administrative Coordinator)

Maio Buenafe (she/they/siya) is a bilingual immigrant, genderqueer, multi-ethnic Indigenous Filipina (Itneg, Ifugao, Ilokano, Tagalog, Fujian Chinese) who has lived most of her life between the ‘Philippines’ and ‘California’. She is the middle child of 5 siblings and the only one born on the kitchen floor of her maternal grandmother’s home in Caloocan City, Metro Manila, Philippines - infamously known as the drug pushing capital of Metro Manila. Hoping to escape poverty and build a new life for their family, Maio’s parents sold everything they had to immigrate to the Bay Area, California in 1989.  They mainly lived around the Outer Mission in San Francisco and Hillside in Daly City, moving often due to unstable housing, crime, and unemployment. With the exception of her youngest sister, the rest of the family were undocumented and would be deported in 1998.  Maio moved back to Caloocan City, Metro Manila, Philippines with her family at age 13 and learned her native language and culture for the first time, mainly for survival.  Maio lived in the Philippines from age 13 to 25 and fell in love with her language, culture, and people - one of the main reasons she pursued being an Applied Cultural Anthropologist and educator for the past 17 years. She was finally able to come back to the US in 2010 through the grace of God and her benevolent ancestors by being awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to get her Masters in Anthropology (Specializing in International Human Rights and Diversity) at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln.  Maio also holds a PhD (All But Dissertation) in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology from Leiden University (the Netherlands), and has lived in the SF Bay Area since 2016.

Maio is a scholar, educator, researcher, mentor, facilitator, community organizer, food and cultural events experience curator, cultural strategist, and community consultant. They are the visionary, co-builder, and Oracle in Service of the Unlearning Community School which focuses on Liberatory Cultural and Political Education for Radical Transformation. With specializations in Indigenous knowledge systems and practices, international human rights and diversity, food and water sovereignty, Maio's teaching and research philosophy is centered on decolonization and indigeneity, intersectional social justice, and grassroots community movements focused on collective liberation. Their aim is to decolonize education and research by centering Indigenous knowledge systems and practices, and supporting youth leadership and development through intergenerational community-based mentorship.