HONOLULU — Ki‘inaniokalani Kahoʻohanohano longed for a deeper connection to her Native Hawaiian ancestors and culture as she prepared to give birth to her first child at home on the north shore of Maui in 2003.
But generations of colonialist suppression had eroded many Hawaiian traditions, and it was hard to find information on how the islands’ Indigenous people honored pregnancy or childbirth. Nor could she find a Native Hawaiian midwife.
That experience led Kahoʻohanohano — now a mother of five — to become a Native Hawaiian midwife herself, a role in which she spent years helping to deliver as many as three babies a month, receiving them in a traditional cloth made of woven bark and uttering sacred, tremorous chants as she welcomed them into the world.
Her quest to preserve tradition also led her into a downtown Honolulu courtroom this week, where she and others are seeking to block a state law that they say endangers their ability to continue serving pregnant women who hope for such customary Native Hawaiian births.
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“To be able to have our babies in the places and in the ways of our kupuna, our ancestors, is very vital,” she testified. “To me, the point of what we do is to be able to return birth home to these places.”
Lawmakers enacted a midwife licensure law in 2019, finding that the “improper practice of midwifery poses a significant risk of harm to the mother or newborn, and may result in death.” Violations are punishable by up to a year in jail, plus thousands of dollars in criminal and civil fines.
The measure requires anyone who provides “assessment, monitoring, and care” during pregnancy, labor, childbirth and during the postpartum period to be licensed. The women’s lawsuit says that would include a wide range of people, including midwives, doulas, lactation consultants, and even family and friends of the new mother.
Ki’inaniokalani Kaho’ohanohano poses on Wednesday, June 12, 2024, in Honolulu. She is a Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner who is among those suing over a Hawaii law they say penalizes anyone who provides advice, information, or care, during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum who does not have a specific state license. Credit: AP/Jennifer Sinco Kelleher
Until last summer, the law provided an exception for “birth attendants,” which allowed Kahoʻohanohano to continue practicing Native Hawaiian birth customs. With that exception now expired, however, she and others face the licensing requirements — which, they say, include costly programs only available out of state or online that don’t align with Hawaiian culture and beliefs.
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In 2022, the average cost of an accredited midwifery program was $6,200 to $6,900 a year, according to court documents filed by the state.
Attorneys for the state argued in a court filing that the law “undoubtedly serves a compelling interest in protecting pregnant persons from receiving ill-advice from untrained individuals.”
State Deputy Attorney General Isaac Ickes told Judge Shirley Kawamura that the law doesn’t outlaw Native Hawaiian midwifery or homebirths, but that requiring a license reduces the risks of harm or death.
Supporters of a lawsuit challenging a Hawaii midwife licensure law gather outside a courthouse in Honolulu on Monday, June 10, 2024. Credit: AP/Jennifer Sinco Kelleher
The dispute is the latest in a long history of debate about how and whether Hawaii should regulate the practice of traditional healing arts that dates to well before the islands became the 50th state in 1959. Those arts were banished or severely restricted for much of the 20th century, but the Hawaiian Indigenous rights movement of the 1970s renewed interest in the customary ways.
Hawaii eventually adopted a system where councils versed in Native Hawaiian healing certify traditional practitioners, though those suing say their efforts to form such a council for midwifery have failed.
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Practicing midwifery without a license, meanwhile, was banned until 1998 — when, lawmakers say, they inadvertently decriminalized it when they altered the regulation of nurse-midwives, something the 2019 law sought to remedy.
Among the nine plaintiffs are women who seek traditional births and argue that the new licensing requirement violates their right of privacy and reproductive autonomy under Hawaii’s Constitution. They are represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights and the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation.
“For pregnant people whose own family may no longer hold the knowledge of the ceremonial and sacred aspects of birth, a midwife trained in Native Hawaiian traditional and customary birthing practices can be an invaluable, culturally informed health care provider,” the lawsuit states.
When Kahoʻohanohano was unable to find a Native Hawaiian midwife to attend the birth of her first child, she turned instead to a Native American one, who was open to incorporating traditional Hawaiian aspects that Kahoʻohanohano gleaned from her elders.
She surrounded herself with Hawaiian cultural practitioners focusing on pule, or prayer, and lomilomi, a traditional massage with physical and spiritual elements. It all helped ease her three days of labor, she said. And then, “two pushes and pau” — done — the boy was born.
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The births of her five children in various Maui communities, Kahoʻohanohano said, were her “greatest teachers” in herself becoming one of the very few midwives who know about Native Hawaiian birthing practices.
She is believed to be the first person in a century to give birth on her husband’s ancestral lands in Kahakuloa, a remote west Maui valley of mostly Native Hawaiians, where her daughter was born in 2015. The community is at least 40 minutes along winding roads to the island’s only hospital.
Kahoʻohanohano testified about helping low-risk pregnant women and identifying instances where she transferred someone to receive care at the hospital but said she’s never experienced any emergency situations.
Among the other plaintiffs are midwives she has helped train and women she has aided through birth. Makalani Franco-Francis testified that she learned about customary birth practices from Kahoʻohanohano, including how to receive a newborn in kapa, or traditional cloth, and cultural protocols for a placenta, including taking it to the ocean or burying it to connect a newborn to its ancestral lands.
The law has halted her education, Franco-Francis said. She testified that she’s not interested in resuming her midwifery education through out-of-state or online programs.
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“It’s not in alignment with our cultural practices, and it’s also a financial obligation,” she said.
The judge heard testimony through the week. It’s not clear how soon a ruling might come.
(BIVN) – YAS Fest, aka the Youth Art Series Festival, is returning to Kalākaua Park in Downtown Hilo.
The East Hawaiʻi Cultural Center is hosting the event on Saturday, March 14th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. “Keiki and their families will be treated to an exciting array of performances, craft and information booths, and art activities,” a press release promoted.
From event organizers:
YAS Fest brings together local organizations dedicated to providing arts opportunities to keiki and teens from around Hawaiʻi Island. By spotlighting their activities, YAS Fest celebrates the importance of arts education for everyone.
Booths include the Hilo High School Art Club, Hawaiʻi Handweavers’ Hui, Friends of the Palace Theatre, and over a dozen more.
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Headlining the performers is HAAStile (a teen rock band from Hawaiʻi Academy of Arts and Sciences, directed by Trever Veilleux). Audiences will also enjoy performances by Big Wave Dance Academy, Aloha Teen Theatre, N2 Dance, Hawaii’s Volcano Circus, Prince Dance Institute, and Kona Dance and Performing Arts.
YAS Fest is made possible by support from County Council District 2 and Coldwell Banker Island Properties. EHCC also thanks KTA Super Stores, Kelsey Ito, and Lō‘ihi Studios for their contributions.
Says YAS Fest organizer Kellie Miyazu, who is EHCC’s Youth Education Director, “Last year we had around 300 visitors to the first YAS Fest. There was a lot of nice feedback from visitors, and also from the organizations who were able to network with each other and the community. We’re expecting an even more successful festival this year.”
Visitors are also encouraged to stop by the EHCC patio across the street to learn more about EHCC’s vision for the year and how community support helps keep EHCC’s unique gallery and keiki programs accessible to all.
For more information, visit EHCC online at ehcc.org, call 961-5711, or visit EHCC at 141 Kalakaua Street. Current gallery and office hours are from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, and Friday noon to 6 p.m.
A boy was killed after being struck by a vehicle today in Hawaii Kai, police said.
At about 11:02 a.m., a 37-year-old woman “was attempting to travel northbound” on Kukuau Place when the vehicle hit a boy who was in the road in front of the vehicle, according to a Honolulu Police Department’s Traffic Division news release. The child was taken to a hospital in critical conition where he was pronounced dead.
The driver remained at the scene and was uninjured, police said.
HPD did not release the boy’s age or say whether speed, drugs or alcohol were possible factors in the collision.
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This was Oahu’s ninth fatality in 2026, compared with 15 at the same time last year.
Leaders from Pacific Island nations and territories gathered this week at the East-West Center in Manoa for an inaugural diplomatic and business summit aimed at promoting private sector investments and contracts across island communities in Oceania.
Through Monday and Tuesday the Pacific Agenda summit brought representatives from more than a dozen countries and more than 80 companies, as presidents and prime ministers from across the region rubbed shoulders and held meetings with American corporate executives, investors and experts to discuss everything from infrastructure, energy, tourism, telecommunications and satellite technology.
Among the companies participating were national giants like Salesforce, Boeing, Google, SpaceX and JP Morgan along with local companies like L&L Hawaiian Barbecue, Hawaiian Airlines and Hawaiian Electric.
“Over these past two days, we have listened and shared through the roundtables and dialogues,” said Solomon Islands Prime Minister and Pacific Islands Forum Chair Jeremiah Manele as the summit wrapped up Tuesday evening. “I have noted some candid and frank discussions centered on the topics of this summit. Whilst the past and present may have influenced our perspectives, what we take forward as partners in commercial diplomacy following this summit is critical. Indeed, investment and security are inseparable and critical for prosperity.”
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The summit was hosted and co-organized by the East-West Center, U.S. State Department and Oahu-based U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. It’s part of a long effort that is in part aimed at countering China’s growing influence across the Pacific Islands as the U.S. and its allies work to maintain a footing in strategically important island chains.
Many Pacific Island countries have signed onto China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a series of Beijing-funded infrastructure projects aimed at promoting trade with China. Some analysts argue that many of the projects are “dual use” endeavors that also may be supporting Chinese intelligence and military operations in the region.
“We’ve seen other countries coming in the Pacific in quite an aggressive manner,” said U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. “And in a sense, maybe that’s not a bad thing, and it’s given us a little bit of a kick in the butt to up our game in this region.”
Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that it’s been something he’s brought up frequently with American officials, saying that U.S. government agencies are “helping us build infrastructure, schools, health care facilities, roads. But when it comes to private sector, we don’t see you. You’re absent, but China’s there. So what we want to see is we want to see U.S. investment. We want to see Taiwanese investment. We want to see Japanese investment in our islands. We want to see Australian investment.”
The U.S. military has been investing heavily in Palau on infrastructure to support its operations as it pursues port renovations, building radars and stockpiling weapons and equipment for a potential Pacific conflict.
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It also has begun building a new fuel depot in Papua New Guinea to offset effects of the ongoing shutdown of Red Hill and working on airstrips and other facilities across the region.
INDOPACOM Commander Adm. Samuel Paparo told attendees and the summit “we do need you in the private sector to move in and to help us build the vibrant commerce that brings this infrastructure to life. I ask you to work with our partners to develop and connect markets, to lower risk, to enhance transparency and to ensure a level playing field.”
As the summit concluded, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency announced it would fund a “hospital relocation project feasibility study” around Palau’s Belau National Hospital — the only hospital in the small island nation — in hopes of rebuilding and modernizing the aging facility, with local company Architects Hawaii Ltd. taking on the work.
Several other Pacific Island leaders told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser they had reached memorandums of understanding with companies to work on future projects across the region. Manele said top issues for island communities included “whether our child has electricity to study at night and whether farmers can reach markets, whether digital connections allow young people to participate in the global economy.”
Gov. Josh Green, who sits on the EWC’s board of governors, called the summit “an extraordinary success from the East-West Center perspective to gather all of these leaders … a lot of serious business partners that are interested in looking at Hawaii as a potential bridge deep into the Pacific.”
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Landau said that he foresees looking to the EWC more to engage with Pacific Island nations, saying “the location here in Hawaii makes it a natural choice.” But he said that it would ultimately take years as deals discussed at the summit actually take shape before anyone can measure the impact of the summit.
“We welcome the realignment of foreign policy, and this is the first step in engaging us,” Tongan Prime Minister Fatafehi Fakafanua told the Star-Advertiser. “I think it’s a smart move to use the private sector to encourage investment into the Pacific. Evidently, there is not that much U.S. investment in the Pacific Islands, and we think this is a great catalyst for us to deepen our relationship.”
During closing remarks, Manele told Landau he would like him to “to help us with the establishment of a Pacific trade investment office in the U.S. similar to those that we have in New Zealand, Australia, China, Japan and in Geneva. It will greatly help our efforts in connecting trade and investment opportunities for us into the future.”
But while Pacific Island leaders welcomed the attention of American officials and companies, many still have deep disagreements with the United States. This month President Donald Trump’s administration rescinded the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which allowed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
Trump and much of his Cabinet have insisted that climate change is a hoax. The White House has been rolling back environmental regulations while seeking to boost production of fossil fuels, encouraging other countries to import American oil and coal and deriding renewable energy sources.
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In a keynote opening the summit, Manele said “climate change remains the greatest security threat impacting our livelihoods, communities and economic prosperity. Rising seas and intensifying disasters erode development gains and strain national budgets. A flooded school or damaged hospital is not only a humanitarian issue, that is strategic one.”
Fakafanua said that during the conference his delegation had conversations with an American company on the prospect of underwater geothermal energy, a renewable source that could help Tonga become less dependent on imported fossil fuels.
“United States administration has prioritized some key areas that they’re focusing on,” Fakafanua said. “But at the same time, it’s a free conversation, and we’re also putting on the table our own priorities.”
