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The Health & Education of Our First People -- Hawaiian culture and values are vital to shaping a healthy future for Hawai'i. I believe we are a product of our experiences. We are a part of the influences of things that we go through in our lives. On the canoes we have experiences that make our lives feel very special. But that's not true for all Native Hawaiians. If you take a look at the socioeconomic and the health indexes and statistics of our time, our people are in trouble. Why is that? What happened to such a rich people, such great explorers, the best in the world, and a culture that evolved over 2,000 years-not just exploring on canoes, but living in healthy, balanced, sustainable ways on our islands? Something happened in the last 200 years with the introduction of relationships from the outside. For one thing, our population declined. The estimates suggest that there were 800,000 pure Hawaiians prior to the European arrival. Over 100 years later there's only 40,000. Think about it; count 20 people you know. That means that of the 20, 19 died. And even today, though our Native Hawaiian population is growing, our health statistics are still poor. I think when the outside world comes in and dominates a people, you end up with cultural abuse. And we know the effects of abuse on a single individual-how it degrades one's self-esteem and lowers the immune system. If we consider this, then perhaps it's not so hard to understand why our people are the unhealthiest ethnic group in Hawai'i-in our own homeland. What do we do? I think good things, incredible things are going on. If abuse is the problem, then we need to get rid of the problem and replace abuse with renewal. This is what voyaging is about-to renew the pride and the dignity of our people, to make them strong so they can have the will to guide their own lives. Jacko Thayer, a Måori from Aotearoa, showed me how voyaging can lead to renewal. He is the individual who was chosen to be the navigator of Te 'Aurere when it sailed from Aotearoa to Hawai'i. The Måori did not choose a real experienced seaman to be trained in navigation. In the wisdom of the people that made the selection in Aotearoa, they chose an educator who would go back and teach their children. I remember training Jacko-he was not very confident because of his lack of sea experience. He was afraid. I would always sense a discomfort in him. He did not think he could make the voyage, yet he always said, "I'm willing to try." When he brought Te 'Aurere to Hawai'i, guided by the stars, and he did a haka, his traditional dance, on Hawaiian soil, he was full of pride; it was an expression of a renewal of the spirit. It's from Kenny Brown and my father that I understand how voyaging is connected to health in a very spiritual way. Kenny says, "If you want to help our people, then strengthen their spirit"; my dad says, "If you want our people to be healthy, raise their self-esteem." And I didn't realize till recently that my dad and Kenny were saying the same thing. We have to get our people to believe in themselves, to be strong. When you have healthy individuals, you end up with healthy families, and from healthy families come healthy communities. So our part is to step into the lives of our children, to influence their lives in a positive way through education. Consider our children spend 33,000 days in our educational system until the time they graduate. But among part-Hawaiians, less than 50% graduate from high school. We want to step in there. We want to bring education to the children. We want to get to those children who really want to learn and be motivated about the things that are so important ... like the ocean. Then I think they will be excited to want to learn. We want to integrate the academic work to improve literacy with very special and rare experiences that connect learning to real achievements. We want to have children do things that they want to do, to challenge themselves. If they're truly going to have powerful learning experiences, it must come from inside of them, from the challenge inside of them. What we want to do is provide that challenge through the canoes, through learning about the ocean. And hopefully, the children will recognize from the voyaging experience that they need to become a union of people, working together to make great changes. I know from being on crews that the navigator is only one person in that crew, only a part of the whole. He is only the eyes of the canoe, the crew does all the rest. Working together as a community is the only way that we can reach our goals. We also want to touch our children in a much deeper way than the school system does now. We want them to get in touch with their ancestry, connect them to their past, and give them the hope to look for a bright future. --Nainoa Thompson |