Like many people from Hawaii Island, I was privileged to attend a small part of the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture, or FestPAC. The energy in the convention center, the range of engaging performances and displays, the diversity of people in Honolulu, all combined for an amazing experience even if I could only attend for a couple of hours.
Because so many of our Pacific colleagues were on Oahu, there was also opportunity to convene higher education meetings. In these meetings we discussed shared opportunities and challenges, and made commitments to work together.
Rather than looking at the Pacific as a barrier that separates island states, territories, and nations, we understand through these collaborative conversations that this vast ocean actually connect us. At UH Hilo we have standing partnerships that draw us closer to other Pacific communities. One of these, of which I am particularly proud given my interest in undergraduate student interest, is the Islands of Opportunity Alliance, funded by the National Science Foundation Louis A. Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP).
This partnership provides undergraduates, particularly first-generation college students and/or historically underserved students who are Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islanders, with funds to take on research, present their research, and gain important professionals skills and opportunities. UH Hilo is the lead campus, but the Alliance includes Manoa, Chaminade, Hawaii Pacific University, the University of Guam, and community colleges in Guam, Northern Marianas, Palau, Marshall Islands, American Samoa, and Micronesia.
LSAMP programs are geared toward STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) careers, and our Islands of Opportunity Alliance encourages students to combine traditional knowledge and modern science as they address the problems of today, such as climate change and endangered species protection. We know that indigenous island communities were resilient long before the advent of modern scientific thinking and that they have much to contribute to our current conversations. What makes these programs in Pacific Islands so powerful is the interweaving of knowledge from different sources, the generations of lived experience combined with the theories of modern science.
Far too often, indigenous students and students of color generally had historically been made to feel that they are at a disadvantage, and the way in which higher education was designed to serve only the privileged meant that an important part of our populations felt unwelcome. Colleges and universities in the past sought to improve their reputations by how many people they left behind. By treating indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage as the asset that it so clearly is, we level the playing field, to use the cliche.
Another asset our students often bring is knowledge of a language other than English. Students who master English as a second (or third) language tend to out perform those whose linguistic experience is limited to a single language or only a class or two in that second language. By looking at difference in new ways, those of us working at universities open our own thinking as well. Embracing the confluence of knowledge, truly tapping into its power, might help us to address another common problem, that of out migration from our islands.
Seeing the rich variety of cultural, artistic and linguistic traditions on display at FestPAC is truly inspiring. If we see islands as isolated, we fail to recognize the richness and combined strength of Pacific culture. Certainly leading institutions that are spread across different islands presents some true challenges, but it also makes us more creative. We are not only different people, we do things in different ways than those who live on those large continents on either side of us. Our students learn the importance of resilience; they learn the value of their own identity and heritage, and they realize that even with the differences among us, we have important things in common as well.
Island cultures, steeped in centuries of sustainable practices, disaster recovery, and cooperation, have much to teach the rest of the world, and our Pacific Island universities can lead the way. Meeting new colleagues from across the Pacific this week has indeed been a gift that I will cherish and learn from for years to come.
Bonnie D. Irwin is chancellor of the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Her column appears monthly in the Tribune-Herald.