Harvard Medical School (HMS) has once again invited 10 native Hawaiian sophomore and junior high school students to attend a three week summer program in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Selected Native communities and schools have established a partnership with Harvard University (under the auspices of the Harvard University Native American Program and HMS) to create a summer program, “Opening the Biomedical Pipeline for Native High Schools.” Other participants are from the Hopi, Sioux and Wampanoag Native American tribes. Our native Hawaiian students will attend classes with students from the Hopi Nation.

The PA'I Foundation has established a 5-year curatorship agreement (currently completing 2nd year) with the Department of land and Natural Resources, Division of State Parks, to oversee the protection and restoration of Keaiwa heiau, a recognized traditional cultural property in upper mountainous region of 'Aiea. Future plans include the development of a restoration plan for the historic property and the surrounding area of the state park.

http://www.paifoundation.org/heiau_cleanup.htm

Funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation, PA'I is currently conducting a cultural practitioner assessment tool to identify Native Hawaiian practitioners, resource areas that are in need of protection and vital to the sustainability of a identified practice, and other contemporary issues that these practitioners need to address.

PA'I developed and hosted the 1st and 2nd Annual Hapa Haole Hula, Music and Film Festival, which celebrates the songs and hula from the 1950's and 1960's. This two-week long event includes a series of film presentations held at the Honolulu Academy of Arts and a vocal and hula competition held in Waikiki.

 

PA'I conducted a preliminary study of recorded oral traditions that provide information as to the historical and cultural landscape of the North Western Hawaiian Islands.

 

PA'I is currently conducting a housing needs assessment for Native Hawaiians on behalf of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.