Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 8, 1 August 1993 — Pacific challenge: keep culture amid 'progress' [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Pacific challenge: keep culture amid 'progress'

This month the Maui Pacific Center (formerly the Kapalua Pacific Center) is hosting the third "Cultural Values in the Age of Technology" conference/workshop, during whieh representatives of Paciftc island nations will discuss how to pursue eeonomie development without stumbiiug into the pitfalls that have beset Hawai'i in its development. The OfRce of Hawaiian Aflfairs is co-sponsoring the workshop, to be held Aug. 16-20 at the Ritz-Cariton Kapalua Hotel, and will conduct the proceedings on one of the days, OHA Trustee Abraham Aiona, an ardent supporter of the eonference since its inception, is one of the conference coordinators. "The South Pacific appears to be the next area that might be developed economicalIy. Hawai'i's loeauon in the middle of the Pacific gives us the opportunity to work with the Pacific island continued on page 3

Pacific challenge: holding on to culture despite modern 'progress'

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nations, and the conference will bring into focus some of the issues they are facing," said Aiona, who asked hypothetically, "Do we sacrifice our ' culture for development,

or should we be able to do a fine balancing act if engage in eeonomie development?" OHA's culture division is taking a lead role by planning the opening and ctosing ceremonies and helping to coordinate OHA's involvement, and Trustee Moses K. Keale, Sr., cu!ture specialist Manu Boyd, and kupuna alaka'i Betty K. Jenkins will participate in the program. The conference Iheme will be "The Family in the Aquatic Continent-Impact of Development, Communication & Population Trends." OHA eeonomie development officer Linda Colburn said she wants to facilitate an interactive meeting in whieh participants ean share mana'o and eome up with characteristics of eeonomie development that are appropriate for the Pacific Basin. lt's hoped the participants ean develop a kind of dec!aration of right-minded eeonomie development to use as a standard against whieh proposals made by foreign investors ean be evaluated. The participants will also get to see

"Creatjng the Future," OHA's video on community-based eeonomie development (CBED), and raeet with some of the innovators the video introduces. Colburn said Hawai'i is viewed wtth dismay by other PaeiLie peoptes because of its assimilation of Westem ways and environ-mentally-destructive development. They clearly don"t want to follow Hawai'i's path. "There is a general tendency to reject eeonomie development as it has occurred here, with construction, high-density development, and tourism" whieh brought with it low-skilled, low-paying jobs. "If there's a better way to do it," Colburn asks, "what would that look like? We're saying eom-munity-based eeonomie deve!opment, whieh comes from the community. CBED emerges from communities that are ready to coalesce around an econqmic opportunity. The communities determitie the nature of the project, its scope, what values drive it, what the goals are and what the outcomes are." Either way, Pacific islanders will look to the conference to help them and their nations determine whieh eeonomie routes to take, so they ean arrive at destinations both culturaJly appropriate and financially rewarding. The Maui Paciftc Center is a non-profit Hawai'i corporation that focuscs on improving the understanding and resolution of issues of eoneem wilhin eommunities of the Pacific.

Abraham Aiona