The Native Hawaiian Place of Learning Advancement Office at UH Mānoa focuses on implementing recommendations from Native Hawaiian reports authored over the last 30 years that guide UH Mānoa in becoming a Native Hawaiian place of learning; a place that is responsive to kanaka (Native Hawaiian) communities and reflective of Native Hawai‘i for ALL people to learn, connect, grow, and heal from:

  • Native Hawaiian Student Success
  • Native Hawaiian Staff and Faculty Development
  • Native Hawaiian Environment 
  • Native Hawaiian Community Engagement

We cannot do this work alone. It is our mission to foster the potential within each of you to positively contribute to our collective kuleana to make UH Mānoa a Native Hawaiian place of learning. These monthly newsletters are meant to keep you connected, highlight your work and continue to inspire you.

GOALS:
  • Native Hawaiian students are holistically supported from recruitment through post-graduation.
  • Best practices are gleaned from efforts to support Native Hawaiian students and are applied to student success strategies for all students across the campus.
Native Hawaiian Student Data
By Kawehionālani Goto
College of Social Sciences at UHM Logo
For this month’s newsletter, we highlight our Native Hawaiian (NH) undergraduate students. In fall 2021, the majority of NH undergraduate students at UH Mānoa were enrolled in the College of Social Sciences. This college also had the largest NH representation increase from fall 2020-2021 with a headcount increase of 59 NH students. To explore this data, visit our enrollment webpage

To supplement this data, we invite you to explore the Youth Voice Hawaiʻi Year 1 Report. This qualitative report suggests that current and recently graduated Hawaiʻi public high school students believe that systemic gaps and opportunities exist in three key areas: 
1. Mental health and student well-being 
2. Family engagement and collaboration 
3. Information and exposure to pathways 

Check out the report to learn more about pathways for our HIDOE students and help us think about the ways we can support our NH students coming from Hawaiʻi public schools.
GOALS:
  • Native Hawaiian staff & faculty are holistically supported from recruitment through promotion and leadership development in every unit across the campus.
  • All staff & faculty at UH Mānoa are more knowledgeable and culturally rooted in Mānoa and Hawai‘i.
LUNCH AND LAUNA
By Kaiwipuni Lipe
On March 9th, 2022 the Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Excellence held a gathering for faculty who had been hired during the pandemic. In order to connect these new faculty to Mānoa, I was invited to do a brief introduction to the ‘āina that embraces us. I utilized Dr. Keawe Lopes' mele, Welina Mānoa, to do so. In this mele Dr. Lopes introduces us to the Tuahine rain, the Kahaukani wind, and other kūpuna of Mānoa Valley. This mele is such a gift to us! Because my time with this group was brief, I did not teach them how to chant it but instead invited them to hold on to the words, practice saying them out loud, and take notice of the elements called out in the mele as they spend time on campus. Getting to know our ‘āina is such an important first step as we strive to become a Native Hawaiian place of learning. 

GOAL:
UH Mānoa campus is a physical, cultural, spiritual, and interactive environment that exemplifies the values of ‘ohana and community, mālama ‘āina, and kuleana; thereby, perpetuating Native Hawaiian values, culture, language, traditions, and customs.
Trauma-Informed Workshop
By Makanalani Gomes
UHM TRHT Logo
On March 17th, 2022 those who have been trained as Racial Healing Circle co-facilitators here at UH Mānoa had the opportunity to attend a trauma-informed workshop facilitated by members of our circle co-facilitators community of practice who specialize in both research in trauma-informed care as well as practitioners of trauma-informed care. The hope is to build a community of trauma-informed care practitioners to enhance and support work already being done through TRHT and through our circles. An important takeaway for me was that trauma-informed care is recognizing not just others' trauma and the ability to compassionately assist them in working through that trauma, but recognizing our own trauma and holding that compassion and grace for ourselves while doing this much needed difficult work.

For more information visit our TRHT website here.  
GOAL:
UH Mānoa and Native Hawaiian communities are consistently connected and engaged in order that there can be reciprocal teaching and learning for positive impact throughout Hawai‘i.
Community Highlight:
Each month we will highlight a community or community-based organization that inspires and teaches us about some aspect of our goal to become a Native Hawaiian Place of Learning.
We invite you to connect and learn more about them, too! 
Hawaiʻi Women in Filmmaking Logo
By Kaiwipuni Lipe
In connection with Women's History Month, we highlight Hawai‘i Women in Filmmaking (HWWF). I was first introduced to this amazing organization when the founder and executive director, Dr. Vera Zambonelli, asked me to be on her founding board. Her idea at the time seemed amazing: to get wahine in front of and behind cameras to tell their own stories. The work that HWWF now does is beyond anything I could have imagined and just keeps growing and growing. I am continually inspired by Vera's commitment to the girls, to their stories, and to Hawai‘i. I learn from her all the time about being responsive to her participants and creating the space for them to unleash their magic and power. She and her organization embody the principles of hānai, ho‘omalu, and mālama everyday (principles we aspire to in our UH Mānoa Strategic Plan).

While I am no longer on her board, our office partners with HWWF to provide circle co-facilitation to help create brave, safe, and connected spaces for the participants to share their stories with each other and the world. This opportunity to partner helps me to stay connected with young people and to learn and support awesome community-based work. 
Participants learning how to use the camera and tripod from their respective media mentors
A Recent Collaboration 
By Makanalani Gomes

During spring break 2022 Dr. Kaiwipuni Lipe and I were invited to work in collaboration with Hawaiʻi Women in Filmmaking in their Reel Camp for Girls focused on mental health and well-being. In particular, we were asked to help the participants imagine what mental wellness might look like to them. To begin that work we started with a Pilina Circle, a circle process inspired by Racial Healing Circles, a component of our Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Campus Center work. In our Pilina Circle we aim to do just that: build pilina with parts of ourselves that might often get left out or pushed out, with others in the circle, and with the places and spaces around us. Starting with a Pilina Circle allowed the participants to create the safe and brave space they needed to be in conversation about the challenges of mental wellness and also the beauty and promise of it. 

As with all of the reel camps, the participants have a week to make a film about the topic at hand. Even though time was indeed of the essence, they were able to produce true masterpieces that spoke both to their personal and collective journeys of wellness and visibility. During the camp, I reflected that when the foundation is solid and the intentions are set and aligned then alchemy takes place or in this case, the pilina is woven and forged. The right and necessary conversations are had. The creative juices flow and when they aren’t, there’s support; there’s redirection instead of rejection, and there’s ultimate belonging. One of the most beautiful things I witnessed was the honoring of processes, self, and each other. Regardless if some groups went from 5 members to 2, they pivoted with grace and seemed cool under pressure. They embraced the lack of control over obstacles because support was there, compassion led the way, and they were able to be their best most authentic selves. The power that process has in the creation and creative process surely showed up in their films and in their lasting relationships. Conversations and relationships became a community of practice of mental wellness and wellbeing. 

For more information on this specific camp, daily documentation, and to watch their beautiful masterpieces check out this link here.
Hawai‘i Department of Transportation (HDOT) ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i News
The HDOT will be using Hawaiian diacritical markings on new and replacement highways signs. How can UH Mānoa possibly support this effort and learn from it?
NĀ LAMAKŪ O KE ALOHA ʻĀINA
Kanaka Highlight Series
Picture of C. Makanani Salā the Highlighted Alumna
C. Makanani Salā

Birthplace/Hometown:
Hālawa, Oʻahu

High School:
Kamehameha Schools

UHM Degrees:
BA Hawaiian Studies, 2008
MA Hawaiian Studies, 2014

Current Occupation(s):
Executive Director, Mayor's Office of Culture and the Arts

What inspired/inspires the path for your academic major?
I was always drawn to Hawaiian Studies and Hawaiian language but there were so many people who told me I couldn’t do anything with those degrees besides teach. I think it is the reason I took so long to finish my undergraduate degree. I bounced from Psychology to Elementary Education, and then finally to Hawaiian Studies where I ended up doing really well in school (finally).

What are your future goals in your work?
My degree directly influences my work in the Mayor’s office. I run an office charged with several programs related to Arts, Culture, and International Relations. It is essential for me to have a clear understanding of the complicated political and social history of Hawaiʻi and its relation to Oceania, the United States, and beyond. Hawaiian language fluency is also an important tool in my role and something I use daily.

We believe that at the heart of a Hawaiian place of learning is aloha ʻāina: the constant care for and reciprocation with Hawaiʻi’s people, places and practices.” How do you see your time at UH shaping the way you aloha ʻāina?  
I think the biggest take away for me is that aloha ʻāina is everyone’s kuleana. Though it is a core Hawaiian value, it cannot only be up to Native people to aloha ‘āina. Though we give it freely, aloha is not free. Aloha costs of our time, our resources, and our energy, so there is no greater insult than when aloha goes unreciprocated.

What are your future goals in your work?
(1) Hawaiian language parity in governmental operations and public communications
(2) Increasing economic opportunity for artists and creatives in Honolulu
(3) supporting and amplifying the work of community Arts and Culture organizations
 
AND about a million other things :)

What does UHM as a Hawaiian place of learning mean to you? 
It means inclusivity, transparency, and equity. It means there is an expressed kuleana to the Native people, culture, and ʻike that make Hawaiʻi what it is.