Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 40, Number 1, 1 Ianuali 2023 — Task Force Report Reveals Troubling Data on Missing and Murdered Native Hawaiian Women and Girls [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Task Force Report Reveals Troubling Data on Missing and Murdered Native Hawaiian Women and Girls

By Ed McLaurin The OfRce of Hawaii Affairs (OHA), the Hawai'i State Commission on the Status of Women, and state legislators from the Native Hawaiian Legislative Caucus held a press conference on Dec. 14 at the Hawai'i State Capitol to launeh Holoi ā nalo Wahine 'Ōiwi: Missing and Murdered Native Hawaiian Women and Girls Task Force Report ( Part 1), the first ofhcial report on the epidemic of missing and murdered Native Hawaiian women and girls in Hawai'i. Advocates and members of the task force attended the press conference dressed in red, symbolizing the blood of Indigenous women who are missing or were murdered. The report contains findings ffom more than a year of data collection and analysis by the Missing and Murdered Native Hawaiian Women and Girls (MMNHWG) Task Force. The task force, created by the State Legislature in 2021, is administered through the Hawai'i State Commission on the Status of Women and OHA, and is comprised of individuals representing over 22 governmental and non-governmental organizations across Hawai'i that provide services to those impacted by violence against Native Hawaiians. The report found that the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girl ("MMIWG") crisis document-

ed in Canada and the continental United States is also devastating Hawai'i. More than a quarter of missing girls in Hawai'i are Native Hawaiian - although Native Hawaiian females represent only 10.2% of the total population of Hawai'i. The average profile of a missing child in Hawai'i is a 15 year old, female, Native Hawaiian missing ffom O'ahu. In addition, the majority (43%) of sex trafhcking cases are Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) girls trafhcked in Waikīkī, and 38% of arrests made for soliciting sex from 13-year-olds have been active-duty military personnel, according to Operation Keiki Shield. The task force believes that these and other lessons warrant cooperation from a broader pool of participants - including the military and tourism sectors during the second phase of the task force's work in 2023. The MMNHWG crisis extends beyond O'ahu. From 2018-2021, there were 182 cases of missing Kānaka Maoli girls on Hawai'i Island - whieh is higher than that of any other racial group. "The spirits of our stolen sisters are slipping through the pukas in our system. This report is a modest step in addressing violence against Kānaka Maoli women and girls," said Dr. Nikki Cristobal, principal investigator and author. Even among service providers reporting of data is limited. While these findings are incomplete, it is clear that Native Hawaiian women and girls experience violence at rates disproportionate to their population size. In the wake of the report, the group plans to produce a second report based on in-depth qualitative research in the eommunity. Cristobal identified data collection as one of the biggest obstacles to moving forward with reform-minded efforts as puhlie and private agencies don't always collect statistics on race. Also, because Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders are sometimes grouped together, it's difhcult to identify the degree to whieh Hawai'i's Indigenous people are affected. About 20% of the state's population is Native Hawaiian. "This report begins to unravel the complex historical trauma of sexual violence towards Indigenous women here in Hawai'i and the socio-political climate that allows this travesty to persist," said OHA Ka Pouhana/ CEO Dr. Sylvia Hussey. "The scarcity of information due to inconsistent data collection across law enforcement, state and community organizations is a huge eoneem. Major systemic changes need to be made to ensure that Indigenous women, and all women, ean live safely here in our kulāiwi." ■ To view Holoi ā nalo Wāhine 'Ōiwi: Missing and Murdered Native Hawaiian Women and Girls Task Force Report (Part 1), the report is available at www.oha.org/resources/ research/ demography / .

MMNHWG Task Force members dressed in red at the Dec. 14 press conference symbolizing the blood shed by missing and murdered lndigenous women. - Photos: Jason Lees

Kham Jabola-Carolus, executive director of the State Commission on the Status of Women, speaks at the press conference. To her left is report author and Principal lnvestigator Dr. Nikki Cristobal and on her right is OHA Research Director Dr. Lisa Watkins-Victorino.

The crisis of missing and murdered lndigenous women is an epidemic of violenee. The movement to eall attention to the violence and demand change began in Canada among First Nations women and was later joined by lndigenous women the U.S. where lndigenous women are murdered at a rate that is 10 times the national average.