Mālama I Ka Loʻi Kalo: Kānaka Hawaiʻi Health and Wellbeing Within the Continental U.S. Hawaiian Diaspora
Location
PANEL: Voices of Resistance & Resilience
CELA Moffett
Moderator: Jennifer Fraser
Document Type
Presentation - Open Access
Start Date
4-25-2025 4:00 PM
End Date
4-25-2025 5:00 PM
Abstract
Among diasporic Kānaka Hawaiʻi born and raised in the continental United States, many experience isolation and imposter syndrome about Hawaiian heritage, due to a lack of accessibility to traditional practices, cultural education and ways of knowing; and isolation from the Hawaiian community. While not unique to Diasporic Kānaka Hawaiʻi, many of these issues occur more prominently as a result of migration away from familial, cultural, spiritual, and educational support networks, and increased proximity to U.S. settler culture. In the Hawaiian health and wellbeing model titled, The Ahupuaʻa Model (Daniels et al. 2022), these support networks are supposed to serve as “protective factors” to the trauma of colonization, systemic poverty, and violence which determine Hawaiian health and wellbeing. In addition, protective factors are meant to uplift Hawaiian conceptions of health, including interconnected spiritual, cultural, mental, familial, and intergenerational. However, access to protective factors in the Ahupuaʻa Model are much more attainable and realistic in Hawaiʻi than in the continental U.S. Therefore, after identifying these distinct Hawaiian wellbeing issues linked with migration, the question becomes: how does the Ahupuaʻa Model shift when factoring in the Diasporic experience? In assessing this question, we can begin looking forward to protective factor development: what protective factors have already developed in the Diaspora? What practices do we have to implement to sustainably create and support protective factors that address these Diasporic issues? By addressing these issues, I hope to promote the creation of wellbeing support and resources for Kānaka Hawaiʻi living in the Diaspora.
Keywords:
Diaspora, Kānaka Hawaiʻi, Health, Decolonization
Recommended Citation
Kanoelani Handa, Isabel, "Mālama I Ka Loʻi Kalo: Kānaka Hawaiʻi Health and Wellbeing Within the Continental U.S. Hawaiian Diaspora" (2025). Research Symposium. 18.
https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/researchsymp/2025/presentations/18
Major
Art History
Award
Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship
OUR Summer Research Program
Project Mentor(s)
Jess Arnett, Comparative American Studies and Environmental Studies
2025
Mālama I Ka Loʻi Kalo: Kānaka Hawaiʻi Health and Wellbeing Within the Continental U.S. Hawaiian Diaspora
PANEL: Voices of Resistance & Resilience
CELA Moffett
Moderator: Jennifer Fraser
Among diasporic Kānaka Hawaiʻi born and raised in the continental United States, many experience isolation and imposter syndrome about Hawaiian heritage, due to a lack of accessibility to traditional practices, cultural education and ways of knowing; and isolation from the Hawaiian community. While not unique to Diasporic Kānaka Hawaiʻi, many of these issues occur more prominently as a result of migration away from familial, cultural, spiritual, and educational support networks, and increased proximity to U.S. settler culture. In the Hawaiian health and wellbeing model titled, The Ahupuaʻa Model (Daniels et al. 2022), these support networks are supposed to serve as “protective factors” to the trauma of colonization, systemic poverty, and violence which determine Hawaiian health and wellbeing. In addition, protective factors are meant to uplift Hawaiian conceptions of health, including interconnected spiritual, cultural, mental, familial, and intergenerational. However, access to protective factors in the Ahupuaʻa Model are much more attainable and realistic in Hawaiʻi than in the continental U.S. Therefore, after identifying these distinct Hawaiian wellbeing issues linked with migration, the question becomes: how does the Ahupuaʻa Model shift when factoring in the Diasporic experience? In assessing this question, we can begin looking forward to protective factor development: what protective factors have already developed in the Diaspora? What practices do we have to implement to sustainably create and support protective factors that address these Diasporic issues? By addressing these issues, I hope to promote the creation of wellbeing support and resources for Kānaka Hawaiʻi living in the Diaspora.
