00:00:00:00 – 00:00:28:08

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

Welcome to the power of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Cultural Practices in Healing webinar. This is a webinar that is an event that’s organized by SAMHSA’s Office of Behavioral Health Equity in collaboration with our ‘Ohana Center of Behavioral Health, Center of Excellence on Behavioral Health for AANHPI’s. As we see the room fill, I can see how many wonderful people are joining us from all over the continent, as well as the islands and other places.

00:00:28:08 – 00:00:59:00

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

It’s really great to see everyone sharing where they’re hailing from in the chat. We have 99 plus greetings from people from different parts of the world. So welcome. I’m Kathleen Wong(Lau). I am the project facilitator for the ‘Ohana Center of Excellence on Behavioral Health and APIs. I’m also a university diversity officer at California State University East Bay over in the Bay Area.

00:00:59:02 – 00:01:24:19

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

I’m going to share more about the ‘Ohana Center later in the broadcast, but I’m going to quickly state what the webinar learning objectives are. This is important for those of you who are wanting to get continuing education credit. So first, we’re going to learn about applying cultural frameworks essential to building trust and community engagement in behavioral health care services and support during times of community crisis for APIs.

00:01:24:21 – 00:01:47:19

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

We’re going to gain literacy on key cultural concepts of health, community identity and wellness for APIs. And we’re going to hear on the ground experiences of building behavioral health support using these principles during the continuing recovery and healing in Lahaina, Maui. We’re going to go over some logistics first before we start. All attendees will be muted. This is a webinar style.

00:01:47:19 – 00:02:15:16

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

You’ll be able to participate through Q&A. We have closed captioning that’s available and so it’s important for you to click on that for you. It is available. We encourage you again to share Q&A questions. We have people behind the scenes who can answer some simple sort of logistics questions or details about logistics, and then we will have a Q&A towards the end where we will have panelists answer more in-depth questions.

00:02:15:18 – 00:02:39:01

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

We have hashtags for the events today as well, and those will be shared, I believe, in the chat with you. So if you hear something interesting, you like what you’re seeing, please, we encourage you to post on social media. I want to give you a trigger warning for the topics in the event. We want to encourage you to practice self-care as well as gentle care with each other in chat.

00:02:39:03 – 00:03:03:19

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

Should people express that they’re having a difficult time, we’ll be talking about some events and crises that have really hit close to home for many in our community. So, I’m now going to share the continuing education language that we have on this webinar. For those of you that are interested in continuing education, credit. Papa Ola Lōkahi as our project partner has been designated as an approved provider of social work.

00:03:03:21 – 00:03:28:12

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

Continuing Education Contact hours by the National Association of Social Workers Hawai’i Chapter. Papa Ola Lōkahi maintains responsibility for the program. This training has also been approved by the Hawai’i Department of Health, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division for CSAC, CCS, CPS, CCJP, CSAPAc. While both credentialing bodies are nationally recognized, we recommend folks check with their local credentialing body to make sure that they will accept these credits.

00:03:28:14 – 00:03:49:06

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

For those wishing to claim continuing education credit, the link for your attendance verification will be dropped in the chat at the conclusion of today’s session, as well as sent via email the following day. Because you registered for this webinar, upon completion of the form, you’ll receive an email certifying your attendance and credit hours, and this will serve as your credit letter for licensure.

00:03:49:08 – 00:04:19:00

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

If you have any other questions, there are emails that are at the bottom of these slides for you to contact. It’s also dropped into the chat if you want to cut and paste that. Okay. So, what we’re going to do now is I’m going to welcome someone from our ‘Ohana team and also an important member of our community, Lilinoe Kauahikaua, and she’ll be sharing and opening the space for us today. So welcome, Lilinoe.

00:04:19:00 – 00:05:15:15

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

Aha hea kēia, nou lā e nā ʻ’Ohana,

Pua mae ʻole e, o ka ʻāina mālie, 
Ahe nani wale nō, ik a maka aloha

Eia kahi leo ē, e pane mai hoʻi lā.

Aloha ē, aloha ē, aloha ei…ei…ē

00:05:15:15 – 00:06:13:08

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

E Hiʻiaka paha ʻoe i hiʻialo, I kakahiaka nei

I ka lāʻau i ke kaukau aliʻi, i nui ke aho

A hiki iā mauli ola, i ola na mahinauli, *clap *clap

I ola iā mauli ola, I ola iā mauli ola, I ola iā mauli ola

00:06:13:14 – 00:06:42:00

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

Mahalo Lilinoe. Now it’s my honor to make an introduction for someone who is a great supporter of centers of excellence as well as the work in Lahaina and many of you know Dr. Miriam Delphin-Rittmon and have read about her work and support.

She is the assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. And it’s really an honor to welcome you to make opening remarks. Welcome, Doctor.

00:06:42:02 – 00:07:04:14

Dr. Miriam Delphin-Rittmon

Thank you so much. And good morning, everyone, or good afternoon, depending on where you’re joining from. You know, I have to say it is a such an honor to be here today as we celebrate Asian-American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in May.

This event was so thoughtfully organized and put together by the Asian-American and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Behavioral Health Center of Excellence, or the ‘Ohana Center, as you heard, and is also supported by our SAMHSA Office of Behavioral Health Equity. And it serves as a testament really to our shared values of centering, community voice and cultural wisdom in our work.

00:07:04:16 – 00:07:40:15

Dr. Miriam Delphin-Rittmon

Each year it seems that across the country we celebrate these important heritage months, and we believe it’s essential for us, and especially in the field of behavioral health and public service, to embrace and understand the richness of diverse cultures, their cultural histories, experiences and contributions to our rich nation. And as we reflect on the wisdom of today’s presentation or presenters, let us remember that Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities have unique histories, strengths, experiences that warrant individual attention and respect.

00:07:40:17 – 00:08:18:16

Dr. Miriam Delphin-Rittmon

Last year, I remember visiting Maui in the aftermath of the devastating wildfires, and it was overwhelming, really, to walk through the devastation of the fires and to see the loss of homes and livelihood and sacred landmarks and the total destruction of the town of Lahaina. It was profoundly moving and to see the tremendous loss. It was also, though, profoundly moving to see the way the community really came together and rose up on the occasion to draw upon cultural healing practices and to begin the recovery process.

00:08:18:18 – 00:08:46:18

Dr. Miriam Delphin-Rittmon

Today’s presenters are exemplary leaders in their respective communities and roles. Their stories are not just inspiring, but they are guiding pathways for how we can approach crises anywhere. We’ll hear from representatives from the ‘Ohana Center of Excellence, SAMHSA grantee, and we’re just so pleased that this is the first ever center focusing on the behavioral health needs of Asian-American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander population.

00:08:46:19 – 00:09:21:07

Dr. Miriam Delphin-Rittmon

A major focus of the Center of Excellence is training and technical assistance to increase provider capacity to deliver culturally appropriate care. Conducting community assessments to determine the level of focus and maintaining a repository of culturally and linguistically appropriate evidence based and behavioral health resources and products. We’ll also hear from community leaders who started a grassroots organization to reclaim and promote Native Hawaiian practices among indigenous families, enhancing their emotional and mental well-being.

00:09:21:09 – 00:09:56:10

Dr. Miriam Delphin-Rittmon

Additionally, we’ll hear from representatives from one of the winning organizations from SAMSHA’s first ever Behavioral Health Equity Challenge. And last year we held the second ever challenge an award of $50,000 to ten organizations for their innovative outreach and engagement strategies that increase access to behavioral health services for racial and ethnic and underserved communities. These presenters each in their own way to demonstrate how healing begins with cultural understanding and practices in their communities.

00:09:56:12 – 00:10:17:02

Dr. Miriam Delphin-Rittmon

So in closing, I’d like to thank all of the presenters for sharing with us here today and for being here. I’d like to thank everybody who’s joined us for this webinar and I look forward to the engaging discussions and the valuable insights that will be shared. And now I’d like to introduce SAMHSA’s representative from the Office of Behavioral Health Equity.

00:10:17:04 – 00:10:42:00

Dr. Miriam Delphin-Rittmon

And would like to welcome Victoria Chau, the project officer for the ‘Ohana Center of Excellence. So, Victoria, I’ll turn the floor over to you now.

00:10:42:02 – 00:11:07:03

Victoria Chau

Thank you, Dr. Delphin- Rittmon, for your thoughtful words, leadership and support in advancing behavioral health equity, and for taking the time to see firsthand the behavioral health needs, challenges and successes experienced within our diverse communities.

Welcome and thank you to all those joining us today from across states, oceans, and territories to celebrate this May heritage event. I’m a social science analyst within the Office of Behavioral Health Equity. And as Dr. Delphin-Rittman said, I am the project officer for the ‘Ohana Center of Excellence. Today, I have the privilege of introducing OBHE, a policy office within SAMHSA that has a mission to advance equity in behavioral health care.

00:11:07:05 – 00:11:31:10

Victoria Chau

Our work is guided by three key principles: centering at the margins; using equitable data; and highlighting community voice to ensure policies and programs are tailored for and by communities. Today’s program reflects these key principles. SAMHSA data show that disparities in access to treatment do exist. Data disaggregation is needed and there is a need for us to do better.

00:11:31:12 – 00:11:56:14

Victoria Chau

Data show less than 1% of people admitted to substance use treatment in 2021 were Asian. And the same was true for Native Hawaiian Pacific Islanders. Despite 8% of Asian and 20% of Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander adults estimated to have a substance use disorder. Similarly, Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders have consistently had the lowest rates of mental health service utilization compared to other racial groups.

00:11:56:16 – 00:12:20:00

Victoria Chau

Additionally, CDC data show that suicide continues to be a concern in these populations. In 2022, suicide was a leading cause of death for Asians, 15 to 24 years old. And for this same age group, Native Hawaiian Pacific Islanders had the second highest rate of suicide following American Indian Alaska Natives. As the data show, the need for behavioral health services among these populations is evident.

00:12:20:02 – 00:12:44:11

Victoria Chau

Today’s programing highlights the importance of culture and community in one’s journey to healing. Though we will hear specifically about Asian-American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander cultural practices, the information and concepts shared are relevant to many other populations. We will hear about tailoring programs and practices in behavioral health to increase engagement and retention. And the bidirectional nature of cultural learning.

00:12:44:13 – 00:12:53:14

Victoria Chau

So let’s get started. I’ll pass it back to Kathy, our esteemed moderator for today. Thank you.

00:12:53:16 – 00:13:16:03

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

Thank you, Victoria. And I really appreciate all of those opening remarks. So, as promised, I’m going to talk a little bit about the ‘Ohana Center of Excellence. I want to share that for all the reasons that were stated by Victoria and also Dr. Delphin-Rittmon. We are a center that serves not only behavioral health care providers, but also people directly in the community.

00:13:16:03 – 00:13:41:15

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

So we also work with community based organizations because it’s important to build the capacity for behavioral health care providers, but it’s also important to get people into behavioral health seeking behavior. And so when you go to our website, you’ll be able to see that we have visuals and the way that the website is set up that is usable by the general public and not just people who are behavioral health care professionals.

00:13:41:17 – 00:13:58:00

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

So our center of excellence is in the second year of operation. And during this month, of course, it’s important for us to look at where we’ve been, what we you know, where we are right now, where we’re headed. I want to share the most important thing about our center that I think guides our work is that we use a decolonial framework.

00:13:58:02 – 00:14:44:21

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

We are purposely decolonial in that we recognize that Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, often in a AANHPI or AAPI initiatives, are often sidelined or reduced to cultural practitioners and performers, rather than providing a lot of the really important intellectual content that’s important for a center like arts in providing technical support. So, so the journey of our center is a decolonial project, one where we intentionally methodologically deconstructed and reconstructed our CoE design work products, working relationships and organization to address inequities in resources, research, infrastructure of knowledge, generation, representation and visibility of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in the behavioral health space in relationship to Asian-Americans.

00:14:44:23 – 00:15:06:19

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

And so our important message is that inclusion does not always equal equity. You’ve got to be purposeful, right? So, I want to remind people that there’s a growing use of the term Pacifica, which reflects a push within the community to recognize Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders as distinct from Asian-Americans. We resist as a center of excellence from lumping people together.

00:15:06:21 – 00:15:32:05

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

This is harmful not only for Asian Americans, but also for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. We have a very culturally specific framework that we work with, whether it is language, cultural practices, as well as historical inequities. And we also are inspired by critical theories that really look at strategic essentialism working together collaboratively for a common cause, at the same time not erasing each other’s histories.

00:15:32:07 – 00:16:05:06

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

And so we take seriously the NHPI within AANHPI. And so what does that look like in our in our center? That means that we have partners, equal partners between higher ed universities and you’ll see the partners on the bottom as well as for example, Papa Ola Lōkahi all locally as well as the State Department of Health in Hawaiʻi. We did this purposefully, so I’m a co PI and PI is actually over in Hawaiʻi so that we make sure that we are not again marginalizing native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders because we have a lot of work to do together.

00:16:05:08 – 00:16:32:22

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

Our retreats also reflect that constant decolonization. So just wanted to share that and hope that provides inspiration and a roadmap for those of you who are doing this work. I want to briefly talk about a little summary of framing of the Lahaina fires. And so as shared by Dr. Delphin-Rittmon on August 8, 2023, a wildfire began in Lahaina, Maui that spread to affect over 3200 acres of the island.

00:16:32:24 – 00:17:05:05

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

And as the former capital of the Hawaiian kingdom, Lahaina is a significant historical and cultural site for Native Hawaiians, though known to many non-Native Hawaiians in the continent as a quaint tourist attraction, Lahaina holds a deep meaning within the history of colonialism and industrialization that has been played out in Hawaiʻi. The Lahaina fires are the latest catastrophic event driven by climate change and made worse by generations of ecological mismanagement, which impacts indigenous communities all around the world, not just in Maui.

00:17:05:07 – 00:17:23:07

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

As of late April 2024, more than 4000 people were displaced by Lahaina wildfires and were still living in hotels. Many of them are no longer. We still have about a thousand people. That was a full seven months after the fire blaze. The fires displaced more than 5000 residents, destroyed 2000 homes and businesses and killed 101 people.

00:17:23:09 – 00:17:45:12

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

A disproportionate number of those people were elderly. And behind these numbers are children no longer in their homes, schools with their friends and family or teachers, loss of personal property and items, multiple generations sharing hotel rooms without kitchens, a loss of employment. The displaced are also grieving for the loss of family, neighbors and the land and symbolic capital of the historic sovereign kingdom of Hawaiʻi.

00:17:45:14 – 00:18:11:08

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

It is in this context that intensive behavioral health services had to be delivered. So our panels today will not only be talking about responses to the Lahaina fire, but really talking about culturally appropriate as shared by previous speakers, culturally appropriate and culturally informed ways in which we work on the important issues of behavioral health services in a way that is not only respectful but effective, but also encourages people to continue health seeking behavior.

00:18:11:10 – 00:18:45:07

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

And so today, the overview of the agenda is we’re going to have live presentations from five presenters, followed by a Q&A session. So, we’ll have an hour of presentations and then a Q&A session and so I’m going to start by introducing the speakers. Okay. So our first speaker we have heard from already today and that is Lilinoe Kauahikaua, and she’s the project manager of the ‘Ohana Center of Excellence and a program coordinator at Papa Ola Lōkahi.

00:18:45:09 – 00:19:12:23

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

And then we have Kumu Kanoelani Davis, who is the executive director of Ho‘akā Mana, Kumu Hula, Kahu Pono in Native Hawaiian Healing Arts – Hō‘ā Mana. John Oliver is the project director for the ‘Ohana CoE. He is a public health program manager in the Maui County branch chief, he is with the Hawai’i State Department of Health, Ka ‘Oihana Olakino.

00:19:13:00 – 00:19:43:02

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

We have Kamaile Luke, who is a wellness navigator coordinator at the Hawaiʻi State Department, who works with John. And then we have Nikki Wright, who is the director of Ho‘okuola Hale and Malama Recovery Services. She is a staff psychologist and faculty at Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center. We are going to start by having our first speaker, which is Lilinoe. Thank you so much, Lilinoe.

00:19:43:02 – 00:20:30:19

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

Aloha nui kākou,

ʻO Lilinoe Kauahikaua koʻu inoa,

No Hilo, no Piʻihonua mai au ma ka Moku o Keawe

ʻO Mauna a Wākea kuʻu mauna,

ʻO Wailuku kuʻu wai,

Eia koʻu mau kumu, a

Loaʻa ke ola i ka hālau a ola

Aloha nui everyone. Hello, my name is Lilinoe Kauahikaua and I am from Hilo, from the ahupua‘a of Pi‘ihuloa and Moku o Keawe, or Hawai‘I Island. I bring with me into this space Mauna Kea as my mountain source and the Wailuku River is my water source, which are sources that have always helped to ground me no matter where I am, and especially in these virtual spaces, I like to stay grounded.

00:20:30:21 – 00:21:02:17

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

I am a person with lived experience in healing or substance use and mental health issues and justice involvement. So, I’m very excited to be here with you folks today to share a little bit about our project. I’ll be sharing with you a little bit more about what the ‘Ohana Center of Excellence provides. We are an amazing online resource for empowerment education and support for both individuals and providers, as well as for families and communities all across the country.

00:21:02:19 – 00:21:35:08

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

Our resources are really rooted in culture, language and indigenous knowledge and that is incredibly important. We understand that the communities that we serve, our Asian American, our Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities are not monolithic, right? We are vast and diverse. So, our resources really aim to reflect that diversity. We provide a lot of different training opportunities. Free, culturally tailored training and technical assistance, along with a continuing education credit for those who work in the fields of substance use or behavioral health.

00:21:35:10 – 00:21:59:20

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

And we have an ever-growing resource library that’s available on our website. I believe they put the link in the chat, can go ahead and explore and look for resources by region, by topic, by culture, by language. We have a lot of different downloadable tools and links to other websites with more resources that we’ve tried to bring together on one place so that they’re easy for folks to access.

https://aanhpi-ohana.org/resources/

00:21:59:22 – 00:22:35:11

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

We recognize that there are not a lot of resources that are culturally tailored to the community that we serve. So, we’re doing our best to curate lists of resources that already exist and identify places that we need to uplift and create more tools to serve our communities. We have an incredible network of regional and national steering committees who help to guide our work by helping us to better understand the diverse needs of each of our regions throughout the country and the unique communities throughout the continental US, Hawaiʻi and Alaska and the Pacific Islands affiliated with the US.

00:22:35:13 – 00:22:54:08

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

And so we continue to grow this network. I know a lot of you folks are on here today joining us. If you’re interested in joining any of our steering committees or if your organization or communities interested in joining any of our referral networks, please go visit our website under the contact menu and connect with us.

https://aanhpi-ohana.org/contact/

00:22:54:10 – 00:23:19:22

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

Please also join our listserv today to be able to stay updated on all of our offerings that follow us on social media. So as Kathy mentioned, Papa Ola Lōkahi is a partner and I serve as a project manager for the Center of Excellence as well as a program coordinator for substance use and mental health projects with Papa Ola Lōkahi.

https://aanhpi-ohana.org/contact/email-subscribe/

00:23:19:22 – 00:23:39:00

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

Papa Ola Lōkahi is the Native Hawaiian Health Board, and so Papa Ola Lōkahi was authorized by the to find Health Care Improvement Act, which was originally passed by Congress in 1988. And our mandate is to raise the health status of Native Hawaiians and their families to the highest possible level. And we did this through our strategic partnerships, programs and public policy.

00:23:39:02 – 00:24:01:24

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

And we also serve as the body with which federal agencies shall enter into consultation with around on issues of Hawaiian health policy and Hawaiian health care. We also oversee the five Native Hawaiian health care systems, and you’ll see on the map on the right hand side, there’s one on each of our islands throughout Hawaiʻi that provide direct services to our communities.

00:24:02:01 – 00:24:27:03

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

And we house many different departments, which you’ll see on the left side that we utilize to serve our Kānaka Maoli or our native Hawaiians and their families throughout Hawaiʻi and the continental US. Now we are finding that more than half of our native population live on the continent for a lot of different reasons very cost of living, astronomical housing prices, limited housing options and a lot of other factors.

00:24:27:05 – 00:24:48:20

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

So we really aim to serve our Kānaka Maoli and their families wherever they may find themselves. And you can scan the code on the screen as well to check out our website. And I think it’s important I share with you a little bit of background about Papa Ola Lōkahi look here to share why we are really excited to be a part of this project.

00:24:48:20 – 00:25:14:05

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

Through the Center of Excellence, we are able to advocate for the importance and understanding of the unique histories, experience and needs and strengths of each of the cultures that we serve. And what Papa Ola Lōkahi primarily serves Kānaka Maoli. We are honored to have incredible pilina, or relationships with our wider Pacifica ‘ohana. And we want our Pacifica ‘ohana to be a part of these conversations along with us.

00:25:14:07 – 00:25:39:14

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

So our organization assists with bringing our Pacific voices to the table because we know again that the Pacific is not a monolith. We are the people of Oceania, Pacifica One Weakea, you know, but again, our history is our experiences, our needs and our unique cultural strengths are vastly different throughout Pacific.

00:25:39:14 – 00:26:02:13

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

Through our work, through the Center of Excellence, we are uplifting these lived experiences throughout each of the cultures and communities that we serve, creating space for these stories to be told. I’m really excited to be doing this because, as Kathy mentioned, a lot of other AANHPI projects and programs, we’re often forgotten or we often have to take a back seat and we’re really trying to do something special through this project.

00:26:02:13 – 00:26:26:01

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

So we are incredibly proud and excited to be able to start to share these stories in these spaces. Next slide, please. Now why it’s important for us to create space for these lived experiences and the stories to be told is because each of us have these unique experiences. Right? And I’m going to share a little bit from a Hawaiian perspective.

00:26:26:01 – 00:26:48:09

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

And if we had all the time in the world, I wish that we could take a walk through each of the cultures that we represent. But as you know, the AANHPI umbrella is quite large. So I’m going to use Hawaiian culture to paint a picture for you to show why it’s so important for us to focus on each of these cultures independently.

00:26:48:11 – 00:27:21:09

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

So I’m going to share a little about a little bit about Hawaiian history. If we look at cultural and historical trauma, right, this aspect is different for each of the cultures that we serve, offer Kānaka Maoli or native Hawaiians. Some of the issues that have impacted created this cultural and historical trauma that impacts behavioral health. Today, our rapid depopulation, which in Hawai‘i, prior to Captain Cook’s arrival in 1778, we had about 400,000 to 1,000,000 people here in Hawai‘i.

00:27:21:09 – 00:27:52:23

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

In two years post contact with Captain Cook, one in 17 native Hawaiians had died. By 1800, the population had declined by 48%, by 1820 71%, and by 1848 84%. By 1840, we had some 40,000 native Hawaiians left. Foreign exploitation or exploitation of labor, land and all natural resources, cultural conflict via forced assimilation and acculturation, criminalization of the native identity making, cultural practices such as hula illegal, right?

00:27:53:00 – 00:28:17:17

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

Banning Hawaiian language in our schools and in our homes. We had adoption of harmful foreign wings through forced imposition of Western concepts of land ownership, which led to massive land dispossession for Native Hawaiians. And historically our people had no concept of land ownership and tended to lands as a member of our own family, a relationship that can be traced through our genealogies.

00:28:17:19 – 00:28:42:16

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

Land division, enacted through Western notions of private property ownership led to huge dispossession of lands for Native Hawaiians who were forcefully removed from the lands that their families had tended for many generations and forced them to move into more populated areas, shifting from subsistence, living into a more capitalistic systems. We also had the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom.

00:28:42:16 – 00:29:23:19

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

So in 1893, a coup staged by a group of mostly American and European businessmen and politicians with the support from the United States government, which this group was often referred to as a committee of safety for any history, historians out there orchestrated the overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani government on January 17th, 1893. And so this group imprisoned our queen, and the coup ultimately paved the way for the annexation of Hawai‘i by the United States in 1898. An annexation that was vehemently opposed by over 90% of Native Hawaiians who signed the petitions to protest annexation.

00:29:23:21 – 00:29:51:00

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

Next slide, please. Now, cultural and historical trauma affects multiple generations and are linked to health disparities and agriculture. But as you can see through what I just walked through of native Hawaiian culture that is very specific to native Hawaiian culture, Samoan culture has a very different cultural and historical trauma picture, right? And so it’s important to understand and know that history and how it impacts the people that you’re serving.

00:29:51:02 – 00:30:21:13

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

That is why it is so important to not necessarily stick to this AANHPI umbrella term, but to rather to whittle down and look at each culture independently and uplift and unique cultural strengths within each of our cultures and uplift the unique experiences of each of our cultures so that we can create meaningful healing pathways. So the remedy for this cultural trauma, the cultural and historical trauma that has been linked to health disparities is cultural reclamation.

00:30:21:15 – 00:30:55:20

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

And so what does this look like in our communities? Next slide, please. So as the Center of Excellence, we often function as a bridge to the community and so through our partnerships with different organizations and from the perspective that I’m sharing today, through Papa Ola Lōkahi  involvement with the Center, I’m going to share a few examples of what this cultural reclamation can look like in our communities and why it’s so important to uplift what is what is working in our communities and listening to communities.

00:30:55:22 – 00:31:27:23

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

And I’m going to center a little bit on the response to Maui just because that’s kind of how we’re live. It’s a great example of how a community banding together is an important part to uplift within the way that we respond to behavioral health processes and disasters. So we recognize that a culturally grounded response is preferred in our communities and the importance of supporting and uplifting that work is really what’s working in our communities.

00:31:28:00 – 00:31:56:11

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

Lived experience is crucial to include in all of these conversations and decisions. We also recognize that it’s also important to financially support cultural and community efforts wherever possible. And the most important response is not telling communities what they need or showing up and inserting oneself, but instead to listen to what the community is saying and what they’re asking for, or observing the communities response to one another and supporting again what is working.

00:31:56:13 – 00:32:18:18

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

So some examples of this that we saw that were just absolutely incredible. Hoʻakā Mana and I won’t talk a bunch about it because she’s one of our speakers today. But you know culture is healing, right? And she Kanoe knows, right, that this culture is healing as a protective factor for so many things.

00:32:18:20 – 00:32:48:05

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

And she utilizes her cultural healing efforts in a way to uplift that within the community. Kula no nā poʻe o Hawaiʻi has donation drives and took supplies to homestead communities that were affected on Maui. Homestead communities are very, very tight. And Papakolea homestead has been so extensive work conducting needs assessments and native Hawaiian health needs throughout homestead communities in Hawai‘i.

00:32:48:05 – 00:33:19:05

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

Kawika Aspili, a traditional healing practitioner provided over 30 hours of lomilomi to 60 folks impacted by the fires. He traveled around providing both mele, which is music and many other and lomilomi to these to these folks free of charge of course, because he knew that traditional healing practices is what spoke to the inside of these people and that was how to help heal them on the inside.

00:33:19:05 – 00:34:08:11

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

Laulau Solutions believe that providing the community with access to the land, the traditional foods would greatly help to address addiction issues and mental health issues. And then we also have our ‘Ohana Resource and Cultural Fairs or Maui Ola. So, through partnerships with Hui No Ke Ola Pono and many other Maui based partners created these resource fairs to help folks that were impacted by the Lahina fires to navigate through what healing and recovery, finding housing, employment, mental health insurance resources and so much more.

00:34:08:13 – 00:34:31:23

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

Through our vast network of the NHPI 3R team, which was the COVID response team to help reach those communities that weren’t reached. And through these experiences we really learned that why it was so important to create more culturally resonant spaces where people felt safe showing up and not feeling like they needed to fit into any sort of box.

00:34:31:23 – 00:35:03:12

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

They could come in to a space that they could be their authentic selves in order to find help and healing. They could participate in healing practices and get connected to healing resources. I spoke to them because, you know, healing often looks different for a lot of our communities. And that’s an important thing to understand. Each of our cultures has different healing practices, so we need to be able to respect that and have those resources available to connect folks to.

00:35:03:14 – 00:35:28:13

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

And what we love about our vast network of our Native Hawaiian and Pacific Island folks is that, you know, we’re all connected to one another and Asian Americans too we’re all connected to one another. The ocean. Right. Is what connects each and every one of us. And I think that’s a beautiful kind of metaphor to remember that we are not separated by the ocean, we are connected by it.

00:35:28:13 – 00:35:53:12

Lilinoe Kauahikaua

We are one ‘Ohana. And while we do have many similarities, we also have many incredible differences that don’t separate us. Yet they make us unique and they’re important to recognize and uplift. And especially as we heal. And so I want to just mahalo, everyone, for joining us today. And again, you know, if this if this type of project resonates you and speaks to you, please, please, please reach out to us, Join us. We would love to hear from you. Mahalo.

00:35:53:14 – 00:36:47:19

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

Want to welcome Kumu Kanoelani. Thank you very much. Lilinoe.

Kanoelani Davis

Aloha mai kakou (hello everyone), O wau O Kanoelani Davis, mai Molokainuiahina mai au, no Kamiloloa no ku’u ‘aina, no Kamakou ku’u mauna no Kalohi ku’u kai. Aloha mai kakou, My name is Kanoelani Davis, I come from the island of Molokainuiahina.

00:36:47:22 – 00:37:15:22

Kanoelani Davis

It’s a small island here in Hawai‘i, and we serve the state of Hawai‘i as well as our families and friends on the continent that are native Hawaiian as well as indigenous. And the executive director for Ho‘akā Mana, Kumu Hula, Kahu Pono in Native Hawaiian Healing Arts here on the island of Moloka‘i.

00:37:15:24 – 00:37:48:00

Kanoelani Davis

Welcome. I wanted to share a little bit about what we are doing in Maui. It is at the forefront of our work right now to heal and to get folks back to their optimal well-being, back to where they were before the fires started. Nobody had any idea of what this was going to do, what this is doing and what well, what the undertaking would be.

00:37:48:06 – 00:38:10:11

Kanoelani Davis

And so we knew that as Kanaka, as native Hawaiians and the native Hawaiians, because Lahaina has a lot of native Hawaiians in the small area, that we knew that going in with the native Hawaiian perspective in view was more helpful. And the reason I say that is because that’s how we went in from day one.

00:38:10:13 – 00:38:45:12

Kanoelani Davis

And I was able to observe while inside the needs, assess and observe what they were going through and slowly figure out what they wanted. And it was just in the silence of giving and paying attention and listening. And that was the catalyst to everything that came from there and the work that we started after I left Lahaina and came home to work on EMS, their emotional, mental and spiritual well-being through a native Hawaiian cultural view.

00:38:45:14 – 00:39:16:04

Kanoelani Davis

And so I wanted to go ahead and share a little bit about what happened in Lahaina. Before I go into that, I want to share a little bit about Ho‘akā Mana. So we are a native led, Indigenous led nonprofit organization here in Hawai‘i on the island of Moloka‘i. We center health and culture, and that could look very indirect.

00:39:16:05 – 00:39:44:14

Kanoelani Davis

That would look very non-conventional in what we are, what we normally see, right? Because with culture, it is an indirect approach. Work at working with somebody. You could call it strength based, but you could just call it living your culture and getting to know who you are again and finding yourself again and connecting yourselves to what was lost.

00:39:44:16 – 00:40:12:21

Kanoelani Davis

As we had shared earlier, the reclamation of culture is important to our own feeling. Without that, we’re unable to start the process of getting optimal health. And so we continue to dig into who we are and where we come from. And reconnect to the land. Reconnect to our language, reconnect to the things that were taken from us abruptly and find the light in now.

00:40:13:02 – 00:40:47:05

Kanoelani Davis

And that’s what has helped us move forward. I’m going to share a really quick video of the women of Lahaina. We had six participants in our whole in our Hoʻīnana I Ke Ola program, and they were able to learn their healing methods through chant, through Oli. And these are some of the basic chants you would learn if you’re in Hawai‘i.

00:40:47:07 – 00:41:05:10

Kanoelani Davis

But what they didn’t know was that the depth of it, the healing of it, and so they were able to go into this. It was a six-week course where they got to kind of be free. They shared what they were going through. And these women that you see on your screen, they happened to be neighbors and they all lost their homes.

00:41:05:10 – 00:41:38:05

Kanoelani Davis

Well, majority of them lost their homes together. So you can only imagine that bond that they have now based off of this tragedy that happened in Lahaina. And so these women, they opted in and they started the journey to heal. And this healing was the catalyst to their voices when it came to legislature, when it came to policymaking, when it came to bringing their community together.

00:41:38:07 – 00:42:10:03

Kanoelani Davis

And in that they were able to find their why, their reason. And that was the biggest part of this journey, was remembering your why. Because when everything is burnt and you are left with nothing, you forget your why and you forget who you are because everything has disappeared. So I want to take a moment and have them play the video and enjoy reality or the whole.

00:42:10:05 – 00:42:42:14

From Video

Being a part of Lahaina and as a kupa of Lahaina, we’ve gone through a lot. But I think that my kupuna were calling me to come home, although there was loss that was like needed to clear the way to actually bring me home to who I was. I think I wasn’t, like, fulfilling my purpose. I was scared and frightened.

00:42:42:15 – 00:43:11:08

From Video

Living in the fear of like, I don’t know if I’m enough, I don’t know if I am ready. And this hui, this cohort of women, I believe, was the kupuna speaking through Kanoe and through the hui of women that I surround myself with, to say it’s time for sis, like time to come home. And so that kuleana, I think, is fulfilled through this.

00:43:11:08 – 00:43:42:22

From Video

Kanoe and what she has created for us in Lahaina, the women in Lahaina, to bring us together to Oli and to bring us back to our kuleana. And that is why we’re here, is because Kanoe and Uilani co-procreated to bring us here. I was enjoying just being, you know, because all these past months it’s been six months almost since the fire happened.

00:43:42:24 – 00:44:06:18

From Video

There was no time for just space of like being. It was powerful because when you plant a tree by yourself, you are really building up pilina. But we all planted three trees together. And what that means for us is that when we went ahead and said, weʻre ready for kuleana to, we know we’re coming back and we’re going to always have to live in our kuleana.

00:44:06:24 – 00:44:30:15

From Video

And then I think the third one for me was creating a unity between Maui and Moloka‘i. Because when we planted it was the Waihine, yes, from Lahaina. But then the uncles came around us and they made sure to aloha us. And that just felt unity and like we were protected and we were good. Stepping into the towel patch is like help.

00:44:30:15 – 00:44:55:09

From Video

It’s that wellness because it’s like that all around circling of exercise, that spirituality, that duality, like all of the things really revives you, revives your spirit. And so that’s what it was for me. It was that revival. But most especially like right when we were done, that ua like right before, you know, the ua started to come down and like, you know, peace up on our faces.

00:44:55:09 – 00:45:21:10

From Video

And I felt like that was like an anointing to be like, You guys are ready. Like this is the time to now take this back home and ola and move on and share that with other people. I truly believe humans we have kuleana to nature and Moloka‘i has really shown us today the give and take, the pilina that we must build. Nature gives, but we have kuleana to nature.

00:45:21:12 – 00:45:55:24

From Video

Nature will always malama us and take care of us. If we malama take care of every piece of nature. Maui is so grateful we are not Lahaina strong, we are Maui strong, Maui, Nui a Kama, and where we are lacking. We got to be totally just enraptured by the beauty of what could be if we are dedicated and in devotion to this path that was prepared.

00:45:56:01 – 00:46:22:06

From Video

Everything about this was like taking us back to like who we are as a people, as a as kanaka Hawai‘i, as resilient people that no matter what, like you just thrive through pono. Never forget your mana, never forget that your mana is within you and you bring that mana and the mana around you. Amplify is when you know you’re mana that it all amplifies.

00:46:22:08 – 00:46:50:01

From Video

You got to be alone Kanoea teaches me You got to be the outsider. You got to be the weirdo and you got to be the leader that goes first. Ceremony is not for halau. Ceremony is not only for formal schools, but it’s meant to be in the homes. It’s meant to be on the beaches. And it’s not about like we reclaim our space where the tourists have taken over in Lahaina, everything’s extracted.

00:46:50:01 – 00:47:19:11

From Video

But through our embodiment, our medicine, we are reclaiming that and what will move forward. What we saw as we looked over Lahaina as we oli and Hanako, But there will be a line of wahine across that we just quietly come. We know, we listen, and we fill in the gaps of all the hurt, of all the misunderstanding of all that was lost.

00:47:19:11 – 00:47:41:04

From Video

Because we are the portals between the rooms through our own bodies. And that medicine is here and it is ancient and it is nothing we have to earn. We just can just be is be. That’s our concern. When there’s times that’s going to be really, really rough for you and you want to give up and you don’t see the future.

00:47:41:04 – 00:48:18:17

From Video

Just remember these oments. And I keep telling you to remember these moments because this will be the people, the beginning to us to come.

00:48:18:19 – 00:48:59:11

Kanoelani Davis

Mahalo. Thank you so much. So that was a little glimpse of what we did with the women in Lahaina.

Every time I watch it, I cry. And the reason for that, aside from, you know, knowing where everybody came from, is this deep understanding and revisiting this space and where we find our kuleana they mention that quite often. Kuleana in Hawaiian is responsibility, whereas in Western terminology, responsibility could sound very, you know, as a burden. In Hawaiian culture, kuleana or this, this understanding of responsibility is it’s drive, it’s your meaning, it’s your purpose.

00:48:59:13 – 00:49:45:13

Kanoelani Davis

When we find what that is, it then changes and shifts what we need to do. For the most part, I use what I’ve understood and recognized is that most people don’t know who they are and they don’t know what they want. And before they can even begin to heal, they have to get to those two sources first. We have dealt with so much trauma and so many historical attributes that have been have shaped a lot of the ways we think, the way we look at things, the perspectives it has shaped our, you know, even our experiences to an extent, because that’s all we know.

00:49:45:13 – 00:50:16:06

Kanoelani Davis

When we move away from that and refocus on who we are and our kuleana, it changes everything. It changes our purpose in life. We get to know our why. And if you folks could hear their laughter, I had these grown women and I’m driving a 15 passenger van and I can hear them in the back. Grown women with kids and families and trauma like things that have happened to them that were unbelievable, that you could hear them laugh.

00:50:16:08 – 00:50:46:00

Kanoelani Davis

If you’ve ever heard children laugh in safety and feeling secure, that’s what they sounded like. That was their joy. We were able to provide a space, and that’s kind of what a kahopono does, provide space so that one can be feel secure and safe to be free, to just be free. And as she said, be is. And that was our theme throughout the whole six weeks.

00:50:46:00 – 00:51:06:01

Kanoelani Davis

They’re currently on their second cohort. They wanted to do it again and we didn’t have funding, but we were like, No, this is going to happen no matter what. What do you need? Let’s just do it and they do their they do their hoʻike each year or they’re at the end, they do a they show up, share their experience with their community.

00:51:06:03 – 00:51:43:12

Kanoelani Davis

So this initiative provides needed cultural healing and prevention activities to assist individuals and communities in recovering from the effects of natural human caused disaster. As we deeply believe in our EMS, our emotional, mental and spiritual well-being. And we were able to work with, SAMHSA as well as others, Department of Health to have crisis counselors and what we learned was the community didn’t want to hear there were crisis counselors amongst them, so we changed their name to Ulu.

00:51:43:14 – 00:52:06:02

Kanoelani Davis

And the reason for that was because in Lahaina, it happened to be a place that was known for its Ulu tree, and the Ulu was known for protection. It wasn’t only for food, the bread to eat. It was also a place that somebody could rest their head underneath a tree before they went on their journey.

00:52:06:02 – 00:52:31:24

Kanoelani Davis

It was a place to have shade so that people, you know, so they could get out of the sun. And so with that metaphor, we use the word Ulu as our crisis couselor. Giving people space to feel relieved, even if it was for just a little while. And so we were able to work with our community and have crisis counselors on hand to listen to them and just listen.

00:52:31:24 – 00:52:56:06

Kanoelani Davis

That was the key to everything. It wasn’t about advising. It was about, you know, bringing up our own personal experiences. It was just to listen. And so we were able to work with other community members in on in Maui, and we’re able to bring them. A lot of the line of the Lahaina folks came to Moloka‘i. They’re such a close knit community.

00:52:56:08 – 00:53:30:21

Kanoelani Davis

We’re literally right across the ocean, the channel, and we can see Lahaina every day and Lahaina can see us and we have this relationship with Lahaina. And so a lot of the families came back to Moloka‘i to start either to live until they could get their homes recovered or to start fresh and brand new. And, you know, our children were dealing with a lot of issues in school, you know, through bullying and not understanding what was going on in the community.

00:53:30:21 – 00:53:56:14

Kanoelani Davis

It was really sad. And so we were there for the kumu, we were there for the keiki, we’re there for the ‘ohana. Our kumu, our teachers did not know how to work with those who are in, who were transferred over in this from Lahaina from to the schools. Our teachers did not know how to address some of the things that were coming up, so we were there to help and be alongside them.

00:53:56:16 – 00:54:28:18

Kanoelani Davis

I’m not going to go over all of this. This is a lot. But you know, we had to deal with a lot of observations. And so things have had to shift really quickly. And we were open to shifts. And the reason for that was because we nobody knew and nobody had an understanding of how to deal with something this catastrophic.

00:54:28:20 – 00:54:59:21

Kanoelani Davis

And so what I did was I started to observe how our Uku were our crisis counselors, along with the folks in in Lahaina. And so aside from the things that we could assume that would happen in a crisis to actually be in it, was a very different point of view, actually be in it with native Hawaiians on their native Hawaiian lands, along with the many historical trauma was a different point of view. No, I don’t think anybody would have expected some of the things that we observed.

00:54:59:23 – 00:55:31:03

Kanoelani Davis

There was ever changing shifts. There were ever changing movement within all of this. The numbers on the side, it’s really tiny, can’t really see it. But, you know, some of the things that came up were the reports of suicides within the spaces there and how they were undocumented as they were.

00:55:31:05 – 00:55:54:21

Kanoelani Davis

When I say that they weren’t documented or they weren’t, they weren’t public, and a lot of that information came from working with the families and actually witnessing some of these ourselves or even having those phone calls come in, as well as crisis counselors. And so we were able to gather enough information to kind of come up with these numbers.

00:55:54:23 – 00:56:26:14

Kanoelani Davis

And honestly the reason why, because we had we had done some more research, the reason why they weren’t reporting these suicides in Lahaina were because they couldn’t specifically say that it was because of the fires. And so it was really hard for us, the families or anybody to accept that that was the truth. But it was important for us to continue for if that was their truth, we’re going to move forward because our fight is not them right now.

00:56:26:14 – 00:57:03:18

Kanoelani Davis

Our fight is for the health and well-being of our people. And so we continued working with them. We did do more research in regards to how many calls came in, how many times there were ideations. And so because of the extent of the fire, we were not able to come up with a conclusion that that the state was willing to share their information with us because it was inconclusive, that it was not directly for the fires, that it could be indirectly because of the fires. So very hard. Right.

00:57:03:18 – 00:57:43:05

Kanoelani Davis

So we’re but we’re going to focus on our kuleana, our responsibilities. We’re going to focus on the culture we’re going to focus on the things that matter. We’re going to focus on working with our families. And I just want to leave off with a quote from one of our ladies “As wahine are women, we are in need of cultural resilience through these touch times we have leaned on our counterparts for far too long and the journey to stand once again in our bodies and our mana, our power, is a gift.”

00:57:43:07 – 00:58:17:02

Kanoelani Davis

That is to hear something like that is so powerful. When I first got the women and they were they were just a loss for words. They were angry, they were mad. They didn’t understand. They lost everything. They lost their history. They lost their memories. They lost their homes. They lost family members. They lost their pets. It was rough.

00:58:17:04 – 00:58:36:03

Kanoelani Davis

And I just wanted to put that out there as a means to know that these things, we’re doing our best to help our families and we’re doing our best and we’re doing it through culture. And culture has been working as a means to health and well-being. Our Maui Ola, our optimal. So mahalo.

00:58:36:03 – 00:59:11:23

Kanoelani Davis

And I believe that is our last slide. Oh, one more too. Okay, we do have more, moʻolelo. The other thing to I want to acknowledge is healing our healers. Let us not forget to heal our healers. We tend to look at our superheroes, to go out there and do the job. Don’t forget that they need healing to amongst the crisis counselors that I had in all transparency, the amount of suicides and ideations that they had to deal with.

00:59:11:23 – 00:59:38:13

Kanoelani Davis

It triggered one of my Ulu, who also had ideation at a younger age. It triggered her and I had one who actually had ideation and that is saying a lot. How do we take care of our healers, how do we take care of our crisis counselors? How do we take care of our workers? Because they need help, too.

00:59:38:15 – 01:00:02:19

Kanoelani Davis

And they’re required to culturally go jump in the ocean or be sprinkled with saltwater. That’s pikai we call it once a week. They are required to. And the reason for that is because I need them to be as full as possible, as whole as possible when they go to work and. They can’t do that if they do not take care of themselves.

01:00:02:21 – 01:00:37:11

Kanoelani Davis

And so, yes, they get scoldings if they don’t go, but it’s important that they do indirect approaches of healing is absolutely helpful. As she had shared being in the kalo patch in the taro patch, that was an indirect approach to healing. And, you know, it’s important to create the healers in the community. So our women of Hoʻīnana are now the next leaders of she and within their community instead of us, we have to deal with this colonizer mentality.

01:00:37:11 – 01:00:57:09

Kanoelani Davis

All the time, people coming in who want to save you, people want to come in and see that they’re they are going to come and do all these great things for you. Our method is I would rather find the person in your community and give them the tools that they need to be the best that they could be for the rest of their community.

01:00:57:11 – 01:01:15:19

Kanoelani Davis

So those are some of the things I wanted to share with you folks. And I know they’re going to share this with you folks. We do our best practices. These are some of the things that came up during this work that we wanted to document.

01:01:15:21 – 01:01:38:05

Kanoelani Davis

And this is part of ‘Ohana Center of Excellence with this also be something that they’ll have access to. And I hope that you take a look at it. These are all things that we learned during this work and it’s not over. We’re going to continue learning and we’re going to continue building our support and resources and our best practices.

01:01:38:07 – 01:01:58:21

Kanoelani Davis

So if you are interested, we do have been connecting. We do have another six week course of the same that what you had just witnessed, but more on a broader scale for those outside of Lahaina we’re learning that folks want to use utilize culture as their healing medicine. And so we do have a course coming up soon. Feel free to use the QR code or visit us at our website. Mahalo.

01:01:59:01 – 01:02:34:15

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

Thank you, Kanoelani! I’m going to thank you so much. I hope that you and Lilinoe are able to look at all the comments that came in. They’re really wonderful. I’m going to we’re going to move on now to the next two presentations. We have two more presentations for the remainder of the time, which means we probably won’t have time for Q&A so that we can close.

01:02:34:17 – 01:02:55:20

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

Certainly appreciate all the wisdom that was shared and really appreciate the deep I think the deep work that people are doing that’s really informative for everyone. I want everyone to take a breath. I think a lot of what has been covered is really bittersweet, meaningful as well as difficult. But thank you both for all of your sharing and your wisdom and expertise.

01:02:55:22 – 01:03:19:03

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

So we’re now going to we’re going to have a different format for the next one, which is with John Oliver and Kamaile Luke, who are with the Hawai’i State Department of Health in Maui County. And so I’m going to be moderating a discussion with them. And in an effort to save time, I’m going to jump straight to the questions.

01:03:19:03 – 01:03:42:09

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

And so let’s have John and Kamaile on camera so that we can have them answer some questions. But I’ll start with the questions first as they get you on camera. So we can’t talk about culturally relevant service delivery in Maui without talking about the devastating wildfires that occurred in August. The trauma and devastation that occurred in the fire is almost impossible to understand.

01:03:42:12 – 01:04:13:21

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

We’ve heard a lot about it from the first two presentations. What was needed by the AANHPI community in the immediate aftermath of the fire?

John Oliver

Aloha Kathy, and welcome, everybody. Thanks for having us on here. And so as you said, I’m John Oliver with the State Department of Health. And really, you know, what we experienced as far as what was needed immediately was pretty much everything. Individuals, as we saw, they had to quickly leave their homes.

01:04:13:23 – 01:04:36:19

John Oliver

It was a fast moving fire. And within just a few short hours, pretty much people had lost everything that they had. So often they just left once, sometimes even without their shoes on to flee. So they didn’t have any other documents, they didn’t have any papers. So there was just enormous need. And in addition to the trauma that they had just experienced.

01:04:36:21 – 01:04:55:06

John Oliver

So, this slide just kind of shows just kind of a just given idea. We’ve seen lots of different pictures on the news, but just of a before and after to sort of see what this might look like, I guess for someone as far as from what they experience one day to the next. So a whole new reality. What else would you think Kamaile?

01:04:55:08 – 01:05:22:09

Kamaile Luke

Since we are talking about the culture, the biggest need was understanding and having cultural empathy. And I think as Lilinoe and Kanoe both shared Lahina is there are a lot of native Hawaiians Kanaka Maoli and mental health is not something that in Hawai‘i and we talk about very often not in our ‘ohana is not in the households that we grew up in. And so having folks behavior health folks respond who are aware of those barriers was really important.

01:05:22:09 – 01:05:58:13

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

And I forgot to mention during the introduction that you both worked with the Department of Health’s Hawai‘i’s Department of Health, Maui County Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic, which was referred to as the CCBHC. Right. And here is your staff here so you can go ahead and talk about them and we’ll talk about how what sort of strategies that you used and the partnerships and community outreach that you did.

01:05:58:15 – 01:06:21:19

John Oliver

Right? Absolutely. So, you know, I love this photo. This is one of the photos that we took just throughout, I guess, the first few months as far as this is that our Lahaina Comprehensive Health Center in which are our Maui for my community behavioral clinic operates. So and you know this as this is some CCBHC stuff, but really this kind of speaks to what the whole community needed.

01:06:21:21 – 01:06:46:13

John Oliver

It was a collaborative effort as far as having individuals from all over Hawai‘i and all over the continent came to support us and we’re truly grateful. So, for example, here we have representatives of as far as our district health office for Maui County. We have our Department of Health Area Health Administration here. We also have members of our Native Hawaiian Health Collaborative.

01:06:46:15 – 01:07:19:07

John Oliver

Organizations including Hui. And we have like Waianae Comprehensive Health Center that came from O‘ahu. And so we have federally qualified health centers. We just have volunteers. There’s just everyone came together with one single purpose, which is really just to support and to kind of provide wraparound services to our impacted Maui community.

01:07:19:07 – 01:07:37:02

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

Great. I’m going to jump to the next question and maybe Kamaile can inform us a little, given your experiences of being hired there. So what strategies have you used to build a workforce that is responsive to the unique needs of the population that you’re serving? And you’re cognizant, of course, of the cultural and historical context? I know that maybe you shared a little bit about your being hired, what and what it’s like to work there in terms of that. So would you mind sharing that?

01:07:37:04 – 01:08:00:21

Kamaile Luke

Yeah. So I actually when I was first hired and I interviewed with John, one of the first questions he asked me was my from Maui and do I have any connection to Lahaina? And I thought that was a really important question to ask, given how incredibly close that community was. I spent most of my childhood in the Lahaina.

01:08:00:21 – 01:08:22:04

Kamaile Luke

My mom was a radio host for a really long time at a Hawaiian music radio station. And so when I first got on board, John was really specific about having those connections to Lahaina. And when I first got here to one of the first people I met was Auntie Mary, who works for adult mental health division.

01:08:22:06 – 01:08:55:15

Kamaile Luke

And I think the hiring process really speaks volumes because you are a ‘ohana. So many people that I’ve come across are family members or friends. And so in being the clinic coordinator and hiring, moving forward and, one of the things that we really look for is people who have a connection to Lahaina or also have the desire and the empathy to want to embrace Lahaina and be open minded that our clinic operates on a very much a ‘ohana level.

01:08:55:17 – 01:09:29:07

Kamaile Luke

When you walk into the clinic, there’s usually music playing. There’s a lot of laughing at the front desk. You might hear it in this presentation, and so it feels like a home and not like a clinic.

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

Right? Great. Anything you want to add to that, John, about the workforce and about.

John Oliver

Yeah. So I guess, you know, if you look at our partnerships and our strategies as far as being a sort of like community health clinic and trying to really address sort of, you know, a much greater need than we had anticipated when we first began our journey.

01:09:29:09 – 01:09:55:23

John Oliver

And highlighting Hawai‘iʻs first CCBHC. So, you know, I guess this slide sort of shows, you know, we had this the first contingent of members of the Mission Corps of the USPHS that came in August. And, you know, it was wonderful having the support as far having individuals that came from all over from Hawai‘i as well as from the continent, and to provide support to everyone here.

01:09:56:01 – 01:10:20:22

John Oliver

And next slide, please. So, you know, as far as our strategies, we really tried to incorporate what people love here. And, you know, one of those things actually pineapple. So, you know, we had individuals that donated different resources to us. We then tailored as far as our approach to working with the community as the different hotel shelters.

01:10:20:24 – 01:10:51:18

John Oliver

As far as instead of doing typical wellness checks, there’s just like a clipboard. We would actually go and bring these carts that were donated by Hawaiian Airlines, and we had a loaded with different fresh produce and healthy snacks for individuals as far as something that they were lacking, oftentimes when they were at their stays. This is just a closeup view, again, of these carts, as you can imagine, going down the hall of the hotel.

01:10:51:18 – 01:11:11:23

John Oliver

And we believe was Queens Medical, they actually had the idea of putting bicycle bells on them. So we had that going. So it was almost like the ice cream truck coming by. And so people were more willing to come out and it was really just about engaging the community at a time when people tended to want to more isolate, which could be very damaging after a trauma like this.

01:11:11:23 – 01:11:48:18

John Oliver

So it’s just trying to get people to come out, to engage, to eat, to enjoy, just even simple pleasures like this. And, it’s also very important for us, our strategy and our strategies is to try to create tailored workshops that would actually speak more to community. And I think Kamaile will talk more about this.

01:11:48:22 – 01:12:16:03

Kamaile Luke

When I first got on board and I saw the first attempt to the flyer, and then I was a little bit concerned about how that was going to be received. And being somebody from Maui, I was it was just I felt like a barrier. And when talking to John and actually one of our therapist, Lori, we really talked to John about it having be something that is culturally embracing. And as a little kid and as even an adult, you go to Minute Stop in Hawai‘i, you get a Musubi and you get a green tea and maybe some chicken and a potato wedge.

01:12:16:03 – 01:12:36:24

Kamaile Luke

And so when John was talking about green groups, we really wanted to embrace the people of Lahaina. And Minute Stop was actually one of the first places to reopen. So you can imagine being in a hotel where there’s no there’s no way to cook food. And Minute Stop did become kind of a gathering place to go get those things.

01:12:37:01 – 01:13:03:16

Kamaile Luke

And then I am not advertising Minute Stop, but it was just a very pivotal place where people were gathered. And so when we were talking about how to have people connect, it really was food. It was being able to have conversation and it not be seen as something really scary and clinical.

01:13:03:18 – 01:13:26:06

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

Thank you. In the interests of time, I think we’re going to jump to the last question. So we’re here today with so many leaders, community based organizations and AANHPIs who may not be connected to any organizations, what are a few key takeaways you want folks here to know about your experience of your work, as well as your collaboration with community and with each other? What advice do you have?

01:13:26:06 – 01:13:49:07

John Oliver

I guess, especially for this presentation I mean, I would just say that it’s really important to know your community and to really focus on its diversity. You know, I think when we look at when we look at Maui in general, when we look at Lahaina, you know, it’s it’s made up extensively with Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders. And so understanding that each culture approaches healing differently and really trying to embrace those differences.

01:13:49:07 – 01:14:13:06

John Oliver

So I think as a leader, for me, it’s trying to act as a bridge across systems and cultures as far as it’s and showing that learning is bi-directional. We can learn from each other’s cultures and we can take pieces of it that means something to us and apply them in our own lives. So just really celebrate diversity and, embrace those.

01:14:13:08 – 01:14:44:08

Kamaile Luke

Right. I definitely agree with what John has to say is knowing the community and knowing the community that you serve is, that’s so important because if you go into that, not knowing you within itself create barriers and that makes it a lot more difficult to have healing, to be able to reach folks who may not have the, you know, the resources to do so, especially in the Lahaina and also to be in touch with the community.

01:14:44:08 – 01:15:17:02

Kamaile Luke

Because even though we are nine months after the fires, we are still doing outreach in the hotels. We are still going into reentry with families, into the burn zones. We have more of our ‘ohana seeking services nine months later and remembering that it is still prevalent, even though it’s been nine months. So I think the biggest takeaway is that this is still very real for a lot of our ‘ohana and a lot of our staff here.

01:15:17:04 – 01:15:36:24

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

Thank you very much. Really appreciate it. Thank you, John and Kamaile, we will I would love you for you to look at the chat also in the comments that have gone by as you’ve been speaking. Thank you so much for the work that you’re doing. Mahalo. We’re now going to move quickly to our last presentation by Nikki Wright. And really looking forward to it. I know, again that a lot of this material is very difficult, really heartwarming as well as heartbreaking. So, again, we welcome you, Nikki.

01:15:36:24 – 01:15:59:17

Niki Wright

Thank you so much for sharing with us. Thank you. Kathleen. Aloha, everyone. My name is Nikki, Wright. And I work for the oldest and largest of the federally qualified health centers in our state.

01:15:59:19 – 01:16:24:04

Niki Wright

Almost 50% of our patient population is native Hawaiian, followed by Pacific Islanders and Asian Americans. I am deeply honored to be here today with these amazing health care champions who are spearheading some truly pioneering work in Hawai‘i. I want to start out by thanking SAMHSA for honoring Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center as one of the first ten Behavioral Health Equity Challenge recipients.

01:16:24:04 – 01:16:52:07

Niki Wright

Last year. Thank you for the incredible recognition and also for the opportunity today to share our journey in health care innovation during Asian American and Native Hawaiian Pacific Heritage Month. Today, I’m here to discuss how integrating cultural education and activities into traditional medicine has transformed our health care delivery and outcomes, specifically in addressing a different crisis in Hawai’i, the addiction crisis.

01:16:52:09 – 01:17:18:24

Niki Wright

Here is our main campus. It sits on five acres of land on the West Coast on the island of O‘ahu. Our organization was founded as a response to a health care crisis in the 1970’s. There were no other health care facilities four miles from our community. When our native residents traveled out of the community for health care, they were often refused services.

01:17:19:04 – 01:17:42:24

Niki Wright

So our health center started as a one doctor office and grew in next five decades to what you see before you plus five satellite clinics on our West coast. I am director of two of the clinical departments in three different clinics. Malama Recovery Services is an intensive outpatient substance use disorder treatment program, and Ho‘okuola Hale is an integrated chronic pain management department.

01:17:43:01 – 01:18:08:18

Niki Wright

Here is the building where our chronic pain management program is housed on the main campus. We work in the most beautiful place in the world. Of course, I’m a little biased because I get to stare out of my office window every day at work, directly at the beach. Seriously, we have some of the most beautiful beaches in the world on the West Coast, On the island. On the island of Oahu.

01:18:08:21 – 01:18:35:06

Niki Wright

This is a picture taken directly across from my clinic by my brother. I’ll give you a second to absorb some of the beauty. And yet, we have some of the people in our state residing in our service area. Our service area is comprised of almost 50,000 residents with some of the highest rates of chronic diseases and the lowest per capita income in the state.

01:18:35:12 – 01:19:01:09

Niki Wright

With next point, these high rates of unfortunate situations such as infant mortality deaths in our state. As we can see from this slide, the mental health and substance use statistics among Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are quite alarming, despite the high prevalence of mental illness and substance use disorders.

01:19:01:11 – 01:19:36:02

Niki Wright

Service utilization remains low. Next slide. There was a news report in April of last year with the title “Alarming Figures Show Hawai‘i Set New Record Last Year for Fentanyl Drug Overdoses”. Now, looking at these numbers on this slide, especially if you’re from another state, this doesn’t too bad. There were over 80,000 opioid overdose deaths just last year in 2023 in the United States, which is like 200 people dying per day or a standard 747 planes full of people dying every 2 to 3 days.

01:19:36:04 – 01:19:59:24

Niki Wright

So just looking at this slide. Hawai‘i looks like we’re in pretty good shape. However, due to Hawai‘i’s location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, drug trends typically hit us about 5 to 8 years after whatever is going on in the other states. So it’s like we have a crystal ball into the future to warn us about what issues could be affecting our state when it comes to drugs.

01:20:00:01 – 01:20:24:01

Niki Wright

Now the, numbers again might look pretty low to those of you on the webinar, but there was actually a 700% increase in opioid overdose deaths in Hawai’i between 2018 to 2022. So I hope that helps to put these numbers into perspective and let you understand that in Hawai‘i we are in the midst of a crisis when it comes to opioid use disorder.

01:20:24:02 – 01:20:51:06

Niki Wright

Our health center opened its own intensive outpatient Substance Use Disorder treatment program in 1994. This was in response to the crystal methamphetamine crisis of the nineties. We actually had so many people in our community using meth. At one point in the early 2000, we had the highest number of people addicted to meth per capita. So we earned the nickname the meth capital of the country.

01:20:51:07 – 01:21:17:12

Niki Wright

Not one of our proudest moments. And in 2017, we opened our integrated chronic pain management department as our health centers response to the growing opioid crisis. So our health center has a demonstrated history of responding to the crises affecting our service area. For Malama Recovery Services, it took us almost two decades to develop our evidence based practices and our sound workflows.

01:21:17:14 – 01:21:39:05

Niki Wright

We collected outcome measures during that time and we were able to achieve higher rates of success in national and state averages in regards to long-term recovery for our graduates. But wanted to increase our positive outcomes even further. So we partnered with a cultural educator, Kumu Makani Tabura, who is pictured on the far left on this slide.

01:21:39:07 – 01:22:17:17

Niki Wright

And he developed and implemented for us an eight week cultural curriculum to accompany our evidence based program. And we found within a very short period of time, twelve months, we were able to improve our positive outcomes for our clients by over 25% just by incorporating cultural education and activities. So when we opened our integrated chronic pain management department, we learned from that previous experience the importance of cultural practices and made sure to include our true cultural educators in every aspect of our program plan.

01:22:17:19 – 01:22:44:17

Niki Wright

They attend our weekly clinical treatment team meetings. We consult with them about all of our clinical workflows, and they are intimately involved in each client’s treatment plan and overall medical care. This is actually a kahili that was made by our clients in culture flask. It’s a traditional symbol of Hawaiian royalty. So for the first two years of our chronic pain program, we served 1,488 patients in 15,660 encounters, and we found a significant reduction in low acuity. E.D. visits, emergency room visits.

01:22:44:17 – 01:23:14:08

Niki Wright

And we were also able to significantly reduce patients opioid doses to safe levels of opioid use. And probably our biggest accomplishment since opening our doors in 2017, I didn’t list this on the slide, we have had zero opioid overdose deaths to date.

01:23:14:10 – 01:23:44:08

Niki Wright

As more programs incorporate cultural education and practices into their medical programs, we’re finding that insurance companies are noticing not only the health and healing ramifications of culture, but also how cost effective they can be. So in 2022, Aloha Care was the first insurance plan in our state to reimburse for Native Hawaiian healing practices. And now other insurance companies are following suit.

01:23:44:10 – 01:24:14:00

Niki Wright

So all the stats and numbers and news coverage is great for positive feedback for our programs. However, I’m most interested in what our patients to say. Here is some anonymous feedback that we’ve gathered from some of our clients from last year, specifically about our cultural curriculum. This gentleman said “I was empty. Something was missing inside me until I figured out who I am and where I came from culture class.”

01:24:14:00 – 01:24:35:23

Niki Wright

This other woman said “Makani and Kupu, two cultural educators showed me there’s a different way to live life.” This client said “fear is not an effective motivator.” And another client said, “My kumu is someone I can talk to.” We have a couple more comments. My kumu talk to my girl. My kumu believes in me, he gave me hope.

01:24:35:24 – 01:25:04:24

Niki Wright

And learning about my culture makes me feel better. I teach college classes and I know how important it is to get everybody out on time. So I’m going to cut the rest of my slides short and just let you know that. Thank you for letting us share today. I hope that what we share today inspires you to get out there and innovate and heal with heart and use some cultural practices to promote healing.

01:25:05:01 – 01:25:25:03

Niki Wright

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about our programs, here’s my contact information. Mahalo for your time.

01:25:25:04 – 01:25:43:16

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

Thank you so much, Nikki, for sharing the incredible work that you are doing and that all of your staff are doing. Unbelievable. And thank you to all of our presenters today. I’m going to turn it over quickly to Cori.

I do want to remind everyone that if this session has brought up feelings for you and as well as has really hit you very in a way that’s very challenging, we encourage you, of course, to seek a support and services for yourselves as well as for other people who are attending this. I’m going to turn it over to Cori very quickly. Again, thank you to all mahalo, all of our presenters. This has been incredible session. Go ahead, Cori.

01:25:43:16 – 01:26:10:18

Cori Cafaro

Thank you for that, Kathy. So I just want to thank everyone for joining us today. It’s both May Heritage Month as well as May Mental Health Awareness Month, which is just right on theme for our discussion today. And as we close the session, I just want to express my appreciation to the panelists and our facilitator today.

01:26:10:20 – 01:26:31:12

Cori Cafaro

A special thank you to Assistant Secretary Dr. Delphin-Rittmon for the opening remarks and of course, the ‘Ohana Center of Excellence, Office of Behavioral Health Equity and Contracts Staff for working behind the scenes to make this webinar happen today. We would love to hear your input about this event in the chat. That’s going to be a feedback survey.

01:26:31:14 – 01:26:59:06

Cori Cafaro

It’s very brief. If you could help us out and let us know what what you think of the event. We also want to share that if you’re on social media, you can follow the organization’s Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. We have the two hashtags, #AANHPIHeritageMonth and #SAMHSAEquity2024, and following these hashtags will link to various behavioral health resources as well.

01:26:59:08 – 01:27:29:07

Cori Cafaro

So thanks again for joining us. We’ll be sharing related resources. The video recording once available on the ‘Ohana and NNED websites.