Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 38, Number 10, 1 October 2021 — Papa Ola Lōkahi [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Papa Ola Lōkahi

-<Tol'M8Kahi >

BySheri Daniels "No Hawaiian leader wants to lead a nation of sick Kānaka." First uttered by Hawai'i Island activist Palikapu Dedman in 1998, these words have served as a heaeon on Papa Ola Lōkahi's path toward creating and maintaining a thriving lāhui. For more than 2,000 years Hawai'i supported a flourishing population of robust, vigorous, pleasantly appointed Kānaka living in a state of lōkahi and pono. Our kūpuna achieved exeellenee as fine artists, scientists, natural resource managers, diplomats, educators and leaders. Foreign contact and colonization disrupted the physical, eeonomie and spiritual halanee of Kānaka Maoli. Papa Ola Lōkahi (POL), the Hawaiian Health Board, was established in 1989. Our genealogy goes back to the E Ola Mau - The Native Hawaiian Health Needs Study, whieh made recommendations that still provide the benchmarks for Hawaiian heahh and wellbeing. It provided the catalyst for the development of a Native Hawaiian Heahh Care System that ean be sustained for the lāhui, no matter the form of government. The subsequent Native Hawaiian Heahh Care Act, passed by Congress in 1988 and reauthorized twice since, creates three initiatives. Native Hawaiian Health Care Systems. Five heahh care providers serve six islands to provide primary, behavioral heahh and dental care or referrals; outreach and case management; traditional Hawaiian healing modalities; heahh promotion, healthy lifestyle groups, and mueh more. Native Hawaiian Health Schol-

arship Program. Since 1991, more than 300 awards have been made to Kānaka Maoli students in 20 different medical, heahh, or other allied heahh disciplines. While scholars may attend any accredited school in their discipline, when eaeh is ready to enter the workforce, she or he is assigned to a heahh facility in a medically underserved community in Hawai'i. More than half of the alumni eonhnue to serve their eommunities long past the required service obligation. Significantly, the earliest cohorts have produced many who have risen to positions of leadership in the medical, public heahh or Hawaiian communities. Papa Ola Lōkahi. As a eommuni-ty-based non-governmental entity, our kuleana is to "raise the heahh status of Native Hawaiians to the highest possible level." We achieve this through strategic partnerships, programs and public policy. POL also serves as the body with whieh the federal agencies shall enter into eonsultations around the issues of Hawaiian heahh policy and heahh care. POL is the kauhale around whieh the interdependent hale of workforce development, data and research, policy, education and training, eommunications and community engagement co-exist. The Native Hawaiian Heahh Care Improvement Act also names the Office of Hawaiian Affairs as a member of POL. It is our privilege to eonhnue our collaboration in support of the wellbeing of our people. Eaeh month this eolumn will share good work of eaeh of these hale, our partners and other community initiatives that contribute to the heahh and wellbeing of Native Hawaiians and their families. E ola, e ola, e ola nā kini e! ■ Sheri-Ann Daniels, Ed.D. is executive director ofPapa Ola Lōkahi, the Hawaiian Heahh Board that includes Office of Hawaiian Affairs among its members. Eaeh month Papa Ola Lōkahi will share precious community ejforts that contribute to the health and wellbeing ofNative Hawaiians and theirfamilies.