Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 27, Number 10, 1 October 2010 — Gathering for indigenous healing attracts thousands [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Gathering for indigenous healing attracts

thousands

By Kathy Muneno t was the first standing ovation of the Healing Our Spirit Worldwide 2010 and the conference had just begun. On a bright, hot, sunny Labor Day, in the eool, dimly lit Hawai'i Convention Center ballroom, more than 2,000 people stood applauding and hollering, basking in the passion and emotion of a young Maori from Aotearoa. Johnny Seve, representing the conference's Youth Planning Committee, slowly, deliberately and choking back tears, declared in the opening ceremony that "It is our intention to keep this movement alive so that our children and our children's children will remember the ways of our ancestors." And with one heart and one spirit, he said, they will move forward "so there will be no poor amongst us . . . may we stand as an emhlem of truth and light to the world." Light, love and compassion are words that played prominent throughout the morning, setting the foundation for the next four days of panels and workshops, whieh attracted attendees from about 20 countries. For many attending the gathering that occurs every four years, these basic human values are the pathway to healing the wounded spirit of indigenous peoples and indeed raising up the spirit by acknowledging and celebrating the world's cultures, indigenous wisdom, kupuna and youth. Over the next four days, participants and attendees from Canada to New Zealand and California to Germany would tackle such issues as substance abuse, heahh disparities, mental health, higher education, seafaring, and language and cultural revitalization - all with a distinctively indigenous point of view.

Excursions, a welcoming 'awa ceremony, a film festival and an International Indigenous Culture Arts and Healing Festival at Waimea Valley, rounded out a full week of events. "The health and well-being of our people and nations is built on our ability to maintain compassionate functioning relationships within ourselves, with the earth, eaeh other, our families and communities," said Office of Hawaiian Affairs Chairperson Haunani Apoliona, who was the conference co-chair. OHA provided a $ 100,00 grant to support the gathering, whieh was held for the first time in Hawai'i since its inception in 1992. Apoliona told the audience that OHA is committed to strengthening and healing "the spirit of our people" and explained the benefit of such a conference is that "we are revitalized eaeh time we are engaged in a shared vision, a shared mission, a shared purpose." First-time conference attendee Russell Davis of Washington, D.C, would agree: "We who believe in spirituality are a very small minority and that minority has great strength and is growing exponentially and to be here with 2,000 other persons, on the same page, is so enriching to me." Davis said he has been in the health-care industry for 40 years and has long been fighting for spirituality to be seen as a major component in heahh and well-being. He said, "all of the problems that I think we're experiencing worldwide has to do with our loss of the understanding of the uniqueness of spirituality. And we've heeome so mechanistic as a people, particularly we on the mainland, we are experts in things and paupers in terms of spirit." Changing that "main- SEE HEALINO ON PAGE 25

HEALĪH

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stream with our energy and love" is the task at hand said eo-emeee Dave Baldridge of the Cherokee nation, "We are here to change the world ... we bring love to heal the world." Apoliona's co-chair, Kamehameha Schools Trustee and non-instrument navigator Nainoa Thompson spoke of the power of one man's love. He said the late master navigator Mau Piailug of Micronesia first navigated Hōkūle'a to Tahiti then taught Hawaiians to navigate themselves, and in doing so, "he helped us to remember who we were, to be proud of who we are." He "eame to us, strengthened us, helped to heal us," Thompson said, and in the end, "his teaching was because he loved us." He

said on this day Mau would surely implore everyone present to know your gift, to share it and "to be that light, to be that love." As song and dance closed the ceremony, about 100 youth gathered in a conference room for their first workshop. Before them was Russell Davis. He, an African-American, told them he grew up in a segregated city and learned of spirituality from his mother, who was disabled at a young age and later denied a teaching job because of her disability. He said he was always determined "to make sure that others did not suffer the kind of indignity that my mother endured." He told the youth from around the world, "The truth is, I've been looking for you and this kind of occasion for many, many years." And the conference began. ■ Kathy Muneno is a Contributing Writer for Ka Wai Ola. She is a weekenā weather anchor at KHON2.

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Young attendees listen intently at a workshop on native youth leadership. - Photo: Kathy Muneno