For this special newsletter, we reflected on the original intention of our monthly newsletters: to keep the community connected, highlight your work, and continue to inspire you. In our reflection, we thought about what it means to connect, highlight, and inspire while holding immense grief, mourning, loss, pain - as well as awe and dearest aloha - for our beloved Maui. 

As a team, we came up with contemplative questions that honor the inspirational practices of care we see on Maui and also the aloha we want to give to those who have pilina to Maui. We invite you to use these questions to guide practices of care with our students, staff, faculty, as well as in our environments communities. 

Aloha nui,

Native Hawaiian Place of Learning Advancement Office

We invite you to reflect on how we holistically and generationally support students from Maui and how lessons learned from how we mālama them can be applied to student success strategies for all students across the campus. Some questions for your consideration:

• How do we mālama our students and their families from Maui?

• How does our pilina to Maui guide us in supporting those who have kuleana to Maui?

• How can we help to alleviate material concerns (e.g., working, housing, class concerns) so that students have the space to take care of themselves, grieve, and heal?

Much of the focus right now is on students from Maui. We want to also invite thought, consideration, and care for our staff and faculty who are from Maui, who have family on Maui, who are working closely with students from Maui, and who might be organizing direct care for Maui through their teaching, research, and service. 

• What are the long-term needs of those from Maui that will affect them throughout the 2023-2024 academic year, and what are possible accommodations and support systems? 

• How can I provide support to those affected by the Maui fires in my office, department, school, and college?

• How can I become more aware of the interconnectedness between the wellbeing of faculty, staff, and students? How might their support also be interconnected?

A resource offering for your consideration

Trauma-Informed Education Resources provided by Hawaiʻi Community College 

We invite you to reflect on the lessons learned from Maui around community care and stewardship of land and water to help UH Mānoa campus become a physical, cultural, spiritual, and interactive environment that exemplifies the values of ʻohana and community, mālama ʻāina, and kuleana; thereby, perpetuating Native Hawaiian values, culture, language, traditions, and customs.

• What are some recent changes we may have noticed across campus as a result of what has happened on Maui?

• What are some of the lessons that our ʻāina has taught us in how to show up and care for each other and our environments? 

• Various practices and approaches grounded in Hawaiian knowledge systems are being utilized in Maui to re-build and take next steps. How might we utilize Hawaiian knowledge systems and values in our daily practices and campus interactions?

We invite you to deeply reflect on the ways community has and continues to show up for one another, Maui, and Hawaiʻi pae‘āina. How can we glean lessons to inform how UH Mānoa engages with Native Hawaiian communities to ensure pilina in order that there can be reciprocal teaching and learning for positive impact throughout Hawaiʻi?

A Few Resources:

• 8 Ways to Decolonize Disaster Relief 
• Why was there no water to fight the fire in Maui?Disaster Capitalism vs. Disaster Collectivism
• Indigenous determinants of health in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 
• Invitation to learn from/through Kanaeokana:
• Website
• Instagram
• Short Story to Help Support Keiki Deal with Trauma from Fires
• Early Childhood Action Strategy 
• Flux Magazine’s Index of Disaster Relief Resources-Kōkua Maui