Lessons from Aloha ʻĀina Activism: Visioning and Planning for Our Islands and Communities in the Wake of COVID-19

The essay offers intergenerational perspectives on the lessons of aloha ʻāina activism rising from Kanaloa Kahoʻolawe to Wao Kele O Puna and Mauna a Wākea for responding to the Hulihia generated by climate change. Resilience and sustainability are achieved through reverence for akua (natural elements), honoring Natural Law, and employing ancestral Hawaiian science

Health Indicators of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders in the United States

This study aimed to describe health indicators and behaviors of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) adults and to compare findings to previous reports on US NHPI and the US population. A sample of N = 100 (56 M, 44 F) NHPI adults aged 40–59 years completed an anonymous questionnaire addressing education and household income, tobacco use, physical activity, fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption, cancer screening and health status. Objective measures of height and weight were taken to calculate body mass index (BMI). The study sample consisted of 49% current smokers and the majority was not meeting guidelines for physical activity (80%) or F&V consumption (99%). Cancer screening rates ranged from 0 to 57% and were higher among females. Mean BMI was 33.9 ± 7.5 kg/m2 and 95% were overweight or obese. While 36.7% were hypertensive, only 11.1% were taking prescribed medication. Compared to both the general US population and available data for US NHPI, study participants reported higher prevalence of obesity and chronic conditions (hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, and angina/CHD) and lower levels of physical activity, F&V consumption and cancer screening rates. Study findings contribute to the limited knowledge regarding health behaviors of US NHPI. Comparisons to US data increase evidence of NHPI health disparities, while comparisons to previous NHPI studies emphasize the magnitude of unhealthy lifestyle behaviors and subsequent adverse health conditions for this particular sample. Further improvements to community outreach and recruitment strategies could successfully encourage high-risk individuals to participate in health promotion and behavior intervention studies to improve NHPI health behaviors

Established Risk Factors Account for Most of the Racial Differences in Cardiovascular Disease Mortality

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality varies across racial and ethnic groups in the U.S., and the extent that known risk factors can explain the differences has not been extensively explored. METHODS: We examined the risk of dying from acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and other heart disease (OHD) among 139,406 African-American (AA), Native Hawaiian (NH), Japanese-American (JA), Latino and White men and women initially free from cardiovascular disease followed prospectively between 1993–1996 and 2003 in the Multiethnic Cohort Study (MEC). During this period, 946 deaths from AMI and 2,323 deaths from OHD were observed. Relative risks of AMI and OHD mortality were calculated accounting for established CVD risk factors: body mass index (BMI), hypertension, diabetes, smoking, alcohol consumption, amount of vigorous physical activity, educational level, diet and, for women, type and age at menopause and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) use. RESULTS: Established CVD risk factors explained much of the observed racial and ethnic differences in risk of AMI and OHD mortality. After adjustment, NH men and women had greater risks of OHD than Whites (69% excess, P<0.001 and 62% excess, P = 0.003, respectively), and AA women had greater risks of AMI (48% excess, P = 0.01) and OHD (35% excess, P = 0.007). JA men had lower risks of AMI (51% deficit, P<0.001) and OHD (27% deficit, P = 0.001), as did JA women (AMI, 37% deficit, P = 0.03; OHD, 40% deficit, P = 0.001). Latinos had underlying lower risk of AMI death (26% deficit in men and 35% in women, P = 0.03). CONCLUSION: Known risk factors explain the majority of racial and ethnic differences in mortality due to AMI and OHD. The unexplained excess in NH and AA and the deficits in JA suggest the presence of unmeasured determinants for cardiovascular mortality that are distributed unequally across these populations

Our Own Liberation: Reflections on Hawaiian Epistemology

As the Hawaiian political and cultural movement continues to gro w, issues of re presentation, power, and control are being critiqued—now by Hawaiian minds. In this essay I look at the fundamentals of Hawaiian epistemology and begin to link them with the educational re f o rm now underway in Hawai‘i. With the guidance of twenty mentors, I outline seven epistemological categories that begin to solidify a distinct way in which to view teaching, learning, intellect, and rigor. These categories, now struggling to be useful in the Hawaiian Charter School movement, will inevitably also serve as a way to critique the current colonial system in Hawaiian language immersion, spotlight the oppression embedded in well-meant content and performance standards, and highlight the hidden curriculum of assimilation and the acultural assumptions in pedagogy that exist in Hawai‘i’s colonial schools. This outline of a Hawaiian philosophy of knowledge expands, invigorates, and redefines ideas of empiricism, intellectual rigor, and knowledge priorities—all through Hawaiian ontological lenses. Like any definition of culture put forth by indigenous practitioners and scholars, it pushes the envelope of what it means to think, exist, and struggle as a nonmainstream “other,” and as it details the liberation found in identity, it must also, inevitably, outline the systems that deter its full blossoming

Book Reviews

Book Reviews: John A. Burns: the Man And His Times by Dan Boylan And T. Michael Holmes; Colonizing Hawai'i: the Cultural Power of Law by Sally Engle Merry; Staging Tourism: Bodies On Display From Waikiki To Sea World by Jane C. Desmond; Captain Cook's World: Maps of the Life And Voyages of James Cook R.N. by John Robso