Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 17, Number 6, 1 June 2000 — Discrimination [ARTICLE]

Discrimination

I am a Hawaiian psychologist in Sacramento. I would like to write about the discrimination I have endured from the California Youth Authority for practicing Native Hawaiian therapy called ho'oponopono. I worked for the Cahfornia Youth Authority treating men 18-25 at the N. A. Chadeijian Youth Correctional Facihty in Stockton. In my practice of ho'oponopono, I encourage lōkahi and the aloha spirit. My supervisor has shared that my methods are effective. When assessing a ward of the CYSA, after treating him using ho'oponopono and cognitive behavioral methods, I determined he was ready for release from incarceration. The committing county disagreed with my recommendation and began to attack me and my methods at whieh time CYSA officials turned their back on me. I shared, "I believe in this wisdom of the kūpuna (elders) and I discovered that lōkahi and the aloha spirit, protected by law in the Hawaiian Revised Statutes Section 5-7.5, are very effective in treating delinquency." The aloha spirit is completely foreign to most Californians. The discrimination I experienced is in violation of my freedom to practice cultural methods as protected by U.S. Code Title 42, Section 1996. S. Kūhiō Blondek, Ph.D. via the lnternet