Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 25, Number 3, 1 Malaki 2008 — Kūhiō festival adds health focus [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Kūhiō festival adds health focus

By Lisa Asatū Public lnfurmatiun Specialist Health will be the theme of this month's annual Prinee Kūhiō Festival, and it's all because festival chairman Wayne Panoke heard a startling statement about

N a t i v e Hawaiians and diabetes that first infuriated him, and then prod-

ded him to take action.

In his recollection, the statement went something like, "If you Native Hawaiians don't take eontrol over this disease, all of this discussion that is going on about land and settlements will be for naught because there will be no Native Hawaiians." The words felt like a knife "piercing" his heart, he said. And his first reaction - after hearing it from Majken Mechling, executive

director of the American Diabetes Association in Hawai'i - was how dare a non-Hawaiian say that. "But then I had to really think about what she said," recalled Panoke. "She wasn't being sarcastic. She was really putting that plea out." Panoke answered the eall, and this year's signature event will blend culture and heahh, bringing together agencies and organizations to share information related to Native Hawaiian Heahh at the inaugural Native Hawaiian Heahh Festival and Hō'ike'ike March 9 at Bishop Museum. (See sidebar.) Qrganizers are also taking the theme a step further with the American Diabetes Association "Step Out" Walk on March 15 at Kapi'olani Park. "Our goal is to get out 500 Native Hawaiians to walk with us around Kapi'olani Park, and that is to make a statement that we recognize that diabetes is the leading disease that is killing our people," Panoke said. "I'm hoping that Native Hawaiians and their families, especially the young, will take two hours of their day to eome and join us."

Although the health-aware-ness theme is new to the festival, it wouldn't be a foreign concept to the festival's honoree, Prince lonah Kūhiō Kalaniana'ole. "He was also concerned with the health and wellness of the lāhui," Panoke said. Kūhiō, the founder of Hawaiian civic clubs, a longtime Congressional delegate and father of the Hawaiian Homes Connnission Act, was nicknamed "The Citizen Prince" for his eoncern for the maka'āinana. This year marks the 90th anniversary of Kūhiō's founding of the Hawaiian Civic Club of Honolulu, whieh produces the Holokū Ball, the festival's kick-off event on March 1 at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. Sponsors of the Kūhiō Festival are the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, Hawai'i Tourism Authority, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Kamehameha Schools, Queen Lili'uokalani Children's Center, Queen's Foundation, Papa Ola Lōkahi, state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, Bishop Museum and Hawai'i Maoli. I

NĀ HANANA • EVENTS

Prince Kūhiō, "The Citizen Prince," is revered for his dedication to his Native Hawaiian people. - Photo: Courtesy of Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs' Phnee Kūhiō eelekation committee

PANOKE