It takes a village to ease ethnic tensions
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
Photos by Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser
Pacific Islanders often face a tough adjustment to American life and culture — so tough that some families decide to send their youth back to the home village.
Lama Lauvao, 20, performs with Dances of Paradise, a multicultural group that was founded to help defuse ethnic tensions.
That's not always an option, however, which might be why a grassroots movement quietly has begun to create a bit of the village here instead.
Two projects have sprung up independently, using two strands common to most Pacific cultures: music and the church.
One is a dance group in which youths from Micronesia, Samoa and other Pacific islands learn each other's dances.
The other is a Micronesian-Samoan-Tongan ministers conference, established out of concern about recent episodes of violence between the groups.
Their founders fervently hope these strands will help weave a comforting web of support for island people in an urban setting.
Members find support, and even cultural kinship, said Marleen Lafaele, 23, president of the youth group Dances of Paradise.
"The dances are very similar," said Lafaele, who founded the group at Mayor Wright Homes, across from Palama Settlement. "We dance about love, we dance about happiness, family ... and we all kind of understand what it means."
The group, with more than 60 dancers ranging in age from about 4 to 25, practices Fridays and Saturdays at the Mayor Wright community center and in its 18-month history has performed at cultural fairs and other events.
Doreka Edwin, 11, left, and Fa Lafaele, 13, make their dance look easy.
The dancers filtered in slowly at Friday night's rehearsal, some making the crosstown trek from other housing complexes. A trio of girls — one Marshallese, one Micronesian from Chuuk, and one Samoan — stood up happily when Lafaele asked if they were ready to dance.
"I've been ready for a long time," said Jumena Esah, 10, who moved here from Chuuk three years ago. She grinned, and the music started.
A newer development in the past few months has been the convening of the Pacific Islanders Conference, a coalition of pastors from about three dozen congregations, including Samoans, Micronesians and Tongans.
The assembly, which started monthly meetings in January, was created in part because of a fatal stabbing in October near Mayor Wright Homes. The death resulted from a fight that involved Micronesians and a part-Samoan victim, said Manny Sound, president of the community group Micronesians United that organized the first meeting.
Dances from nations including Micronesia, Tonga and Samoa — as well as hula — are performed by Dances of Paradise members, which include 10-year-old Jumena Esah, left, and Fa Lafaele. Mayor Wright Homes resident Marleen Lafaele, 23, founded the group.
But it was only the latest episode in ongoing tensions among residents and recent migrants, tensions often exacerbated by the use of drugs or alcohol, said some of the ministers who responded to the call for a pastors council.
It's not that such things don't happen in their home islands, said the Rev. To'o'olefua Paogofie, pastor to the Samoan congregation at United Church of Christ in Nu'uanu. It's that at home, the village systems of elders, common to most Pacific cultures, wouldn't stand for it.
"The law doesn't allow this," Paogofie said. "The village council plays a role. You don't put shame on your family's name. ... The council system, it's 24-7. You cannot get away from the eyes of the elders."
But in Hawai'i, far from those all-seeing eyes, something has to provide a substitute "village." The church, he said, is best positioned to do that.
A program on the first meeting of the Pacific Islanders Conference, a pastors coalition, will be shown at 8 p.m. Saturday on 'Olelo, Channel 54. For information on the conference, call 791-5644. For information on Dances of Paradise, call 848-1944.
"The psyche of the island people is where there is an official government agency asking people to do something, it's difficult for people to respond, but when an island pastor sends out the invitation, they come out in numbers," Paogofie said. "The nearest thing that represents the village here is the church."
A bit of the village
The Rev. Sekap Esah, young Jumena's uncle, heads a Baptist congregation of Chuukese migrants in Honolulu. He agreed that the ministers have a part to play and want "to share ideas and see where we can fit in dealing with the troubled youth."
"For the Samoans and Micronesians, the churches play a vital role in family values," he said. "We haven't seen any support groups that can do this. ... There are support groups, but the Micronesians are kind of left in the corner.
"It's good that somebody understands the culture and the customs," Esah said. "I think we know where we come from."
At the first conference meeting, some community members involved with the dance group also attended, listening with interest. The hope that Dances of Paradise has adopted is that reaching the Pacific Islanders while they're young will reshape attitudes and head off later problems, group founder Lafaele said.
Rosita Nardo, the group's vice president, said it all started casually, just neighborhood kids banging out rhythms for impromptu dancing, and evolved.
"We had problems, the Samoans, Micronesians and Hawaiians not getting along," Nardo said. "We started the group so they know what the other people's culture is about. Since then, in the group, it's been really good."
Tr Ham, right, appears to be concentrating intensely during a rehearsal of Dances of Paradise at the Mayor Wright Homes. The group's founder says members dance "about love ... happiness, family."
"We learn Micronesian, Samoan ... we have Tahitian, Maori. Some kids are beginning to learn some Tongan," Lafaele said. "And hula is our relaxing time!
"We even have a few Vietnamese kids, and they teach us some of their culture," she said.
One of the advantages is that parents are enlisted to help with the costuming and other tasks, and their involvement has been essential, Lafaele said.
"If the parents aren't there, if we don't have their support, there won't be positive changes," she said.
Already, the troupe has attracted members from other communities, and Lafaele hopes the group, a nonprofit, can expand its reach. For the moment, however, she's happy to have contributed something to Mayor Wright, her lifelong home.
"I want to leave from the housing knowing I did something for the community, not thinking, 'Oh, I could have done something,' " she said. "You got to step up to the plate and do what you can."
Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
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