Let's Celebrate What We Accomplished Together in 2019 and Gear Up for More in 2020!
Image: Closing Reception for 2019 Hawaii People's Congress and 2019 Kuleana Academy Cohort. Photo by Rebecca Goldschmidt.
Aloha,
Have you noticed the political awakening sweeping across Hawaiʻi? Communities are organizing to make their voices heard by government agencies. Direct-action protests are popping up on different islands. More Hawaiʻi residents are registering to vote.
People are entering the civic arena for a reason. They feel the status quo isn’t working. Many families in Hawaiʻi cannot make ends meet. Our natural resources are in peril. Our government is simply not delivering the kind of bold reforms needed.
KULEANA ACADEMY: ADDRESSING THE ROOT CAUSES OF INEQUITY
It is no coincidence that HAPA’s leadership training program, Kuleana Academy, received a record number of applications this year. Clearly, a new generation sees what is broken and wants to fix it. Kuleana Academy gives them the tools they need to do so.
For the 2019 cohort -- our fourth -- we received the greatest number of strong applicants to date. As graduates run for office, or lead campaigns serving the public good, they hit the ground running to restore humanity to public policy. Two of our alumni are now lawmakers serving in the State House of Representatives, three on the Maui County Council, and seven have been elected to neighborhood boards on Oʻahu. Dozens more are grassroots organizers and policy advocates.
Kuleana Academy is just one facet of HAPA’s “Reclaiming Democracy” programming, strategically designed to build people’s movements. We foster a social and cultural “ecosystem” that allows the voices of everyday people to rise in the halls of power. Slowly but surely, we are seeing community values prevail over corporate entrenchment.
Image: Inaugural Kuleana Academy Fellow, Sonny Ganaden addresses 2019 Kuleana Academy Cohort. Photo by Rebecca Goldschmidt.
CONGRATULATIONS, SONNY GANADEN!
The first annual Kuleana Fellowship was awarded this year to attorney, writer and Ethnic Studies professor Ernesto “Sonny” Ganaden for his work in criminal-justice reform advocacy. Ganaden helped to author a recent State task-force report that has been instrumental in ending Hawaiʻi’s relationships with private prisons, and moving the State towards more equitable and restorative justice practices.
Ganaden is using his fellowship to advocate for a less extravagant rebuild of Oahu Community Correctional Center (OCCC). The over-sized rebuild has been proposed to accommodate defendants on minor-offense charges who cannot afford bail. But rather than rebuilding the prison at a minimum of $525 million tax dollars, Ganaden is working toward reforming bail laws which would reduce the pre-trial jail population by one half. HAPA is pleased to support this solidly progressive solution to both wasteful taxation and unnecessary incarceration.
Image: 2019 Hawaii People's Congress Opening Plenary Panel - Towards a Just Transition. Panelists (L-R) Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, Maxine Burkett and Walter Ritte discuss Hawaii's homegrown soluation to the interconnected climate and inequity crises. Photo by Rebecca Goldschmidt.
HAWAIʻI PEOPLE’S CONGRESS: EXPLORING HAWAIʻI’S HOMEGROWN SOLUTIONS TO INTERCONNECTED CLIMATE & INEQUALITY CRISES
The 2019 Hawaiʻi People’s Congress took place Nov. 23 and featured more than 150 participants from across the islands. The theme was “Towards a Just Transition” -- moving away from extractive economies, looking at ideas in the Green New Dealand Aloha Aina movement, and what Hawaiʻi's homegrown approach might look like to address interconnected climate and inequality crises.
Community organizers, citizen activists, artists, educators, and elected officials gathered for a full day of revelatory conversations on diverse panels such as “Aina-based jobs and indigenous economies,” “Climate justice for Hawaiʻi,” and “G3ND: Gender, Globalization and the Green New Deal.”
OUR FOOD SYSTEMS CAN BE PART OF THE SOLUTION TO THE CLIMATE CRISIS
One common thread that ran throughout the discussions at the 2019 Hawaiʻi People’s Congress is that part of the solution to our climate crisis lies in the transformation of our local food systems. Agriculture is a key driver in climate and global environmental change, more than any other human activity. Efforts to restore the planet’s livability include replacing carbon-intensive industrial food systems with those that actually sequester carbon through healthy soils. By reactivating existing indigenous knowledge, we can increase the health of our islands and our communities, while increasing local food production. HAPA supports the transition to healthy food systems through County and State policy, as well as through grassroots organizing, network-building and addressing root causes in our local governance.
In 2020, we look forward to engaging our lawmakers to create safer, non-toxic communities free from pesticide exposure, to support regenerative food systems, to protect against water theft, and to support a food future that is both fair and sustainable.
Image: Star Advertiser coverage of the herbicide ban in Hawaii public schools. Photo by Koohan Paik.
HERBICIDES BANNED ON ALL HAWAIʻI PUBLIC SCHOOLS!
In June, the Protect Our Keiki Coalition* helped to host a multi-island tour for Dewayne “Lee” Johnson. Johnson was the plaintiff who was awarded $289 million in a lawsuit against Monsanto for his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma due to glyphosate exposure on the job. While in Hawai'i, he visited four counties, where he spoke with government officials about how using Monsanto’s glyphosate-based herbicides at his job as a school groundskeeper was connected to his cancer.
The results of Johnson's visit have been stunning. The morning after he spoke with the Board of Education (BOE), State Department of Education (DOE), parents and community members, the Superintendent of the DOE issued a memo announcing a ban on the use of herbicides in all public schools statewide. The ban will protect the nearly 180,000 students in the Hawaiʻi public school system, as well as thousands of teachers and employees, including school groundskeepers like Johnson, from being exposed to glyphosate.
We need your support to continue this important work. Thank you in advance for using the enclosed envelope to send a donation, or for visiting www.hapahi.org and clicking the “Donate” button.
NEXT STEPS
As we move forward into 2020, we look forward to building on our winning strategy. Kuleana Academy will train more promising leaders to address the root causes of system injustices. We will build more powerful coalitions with community-rooted groups and advocates at the legislature for a range of social, environmental and economic-justice issues. We will continue to support systemic shifts away from corporate influence on government, in favor of policy that reflects all of Hawaiʻi’s people.
Mahalo piha,
GARY HOOSER, Board President & Founder
ANNE FREDERICK, Executive Director
*The Protect Our Keiki coalition comprises HAPA, Hawaiʻi SEED, Beyond Pesticides, Pesticide Action Network and the Hawaiʻi Center for Food Safety.