Hale Pai
Pacific American-News Journal
Iune-June 1996 Volume 2 Issue 6
Pacific American Hawaiian and Samoan
Students On Journey To Moloka`i
Six students from River Ridge High School located
in Lacey, Washington just 10 minutes from the state capital
Olympia have been selected to participate in The Moloka Journey:
Summer 1996, August 25 - 30.
This journey to the island of Molokai for our
young people is to experience the pleasures of growing up like
our parents and grandparents in the Hawaiian Island Style.
About a year ago River Ridge student Rosi Laronal
attended a mini concert of Brothers Noland and Tony Conjugacion
at Edmonds Community College, Edmonds, Washington. Noland asked
Rosi and her sister Kapiolani to dance a couple of hula numbers.
Melissa Ponder of the Center for Equity and Diversity had
arranged for this concert fundraiser and get together.
Rosi got to talk story with Noland and Tony. Both
brothers work at Kalihi-Palama Settlement a youth center in
Kalihi. Noland and Tony teach Native Hawaiian culture and arts to
help youth develop self esteem. She asked if they would visit
River Ridge and talk story with the kids about how kids in
Hawai`i deal with growing up and being a person of color. Talking
story was a success.
As a result the Moloka`i Journey was born. The
questions asked were straight forward. Living on the mainland we
can not experience the true culture of Hawai`i, being close to
the aina, the land. The students with the help of Liddell and
Associates (who is in charge of this project) the students are
responsible for fundraising the cost of their round trip airfare
tickets to Hawai`i. Their parents are asked not to provide the
money.
The Moloka`i Journey will be `auana - to travel
and discover, especially from the ocean. Learning to feed
yourself with skills in the ocean will bring pride and
confidence. The classroom and facility will be at Mo`omomi,
Moloka`i (northwest side of the island). History and Hawaiian
values will preempt and rule the students from the time they get
up to the time they go to sleep. River Ridge students will be
joined by students from Oahu high schools, twenty in all for this
first journey.
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Copyright © 1996 Hale Pai Pacific American-News Journal
Last modified: February 28, 1998
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