Pacific Islander Culture Celebrated During Health Conference

By Yavonda Chase

Nia Aitaoto, Ph.D., M.P.H., speaks during the Gathering for Pacific Islander Health.

Nia Aitaoto, Ph.D., M.P.H., co-director of the UAMS Center for Pacific Islander Health, speaks during the Gathering for Pacific Islander Health.

This distinction was key for Nia Aitaoto, Ph.D., M.P.H., co-director of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ Center for Pacific Islander Health, which hosted the May 24-26 event in Fayetteville.

“We wanted to look at health holistically in our culture with this conference. We didn’t want to only include researchers and practitioners, but also patients and others involved in community health,” she said.

The goal of this conference and future ones is to build a community of researchers and practitioners in Pacific Islander health to develop and implement strategies to reduce health disparities.

“We wanted a gathering where people sit down and have a dialogue with people. Face-to-face meetings are an important part of the Pacific Islander culture,” she said.

“This needed to be a Pacific Islander conference on health in which the spirit of Pacific Islanders came out,” Aitaoto added. “We honored more than research and academics — we wanted to honor our culture. The emotional things are hard to measure, but easy to recognize.”

The emphasis on culture was evident throughout the conference, which started off with an optional Marshallese prayer breakfast that featured Pacific Islander pastors and a non-denominational prayer. During the opening ceremony, Dr. Joseph Keawe’aimoku Kaholokula, a professor and Chair of Native Hawaiian Health in the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, delivered a traditional Hawaiian Oli, or chant.

Conference attendees also were treated to a performance by the King’s Chapel Marshallese Church Youth Group from Springdale.

Centerpieces in hand-painted pots at the Gathering for Pacific Islander Health.

Centerpieces in hand-painted pots at the Gathering for Pacific Islander Health.

Even the centerpieces on the tables had a greater purpose. A Marshallese Girl Scout troop from northwest Arkansas painted flower pots, which held vegetables that after the conference were transplanted into gardens that UAMS and Feed Communities are building with local Marshallese and Hispanic churches in the region to increase access to healthy foods.

Northwest Arkansas is home to about 12,000 Marshallese, the largest population outside the Republic of the Marshall Islands, making that community a focus for the Center for Pacific Islander Health.

“We chose to hold the conference in Arkansas so that Pacific Islanders and others involved in the community’s health could learn about the Marshallese migration to Arkansas,” she said, adding that mid-America is the new front for migration of Pacific Islanders.

Presenters for the conference came from as far away as Massey University in New Zealand, Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of Palau. U.S. institutions were also represented, including Yale University, New York University, Washington State University, the University of Hawaii and UAMS.

The presenters included Kaholokula; Sheldon Riklon, M.D.; Raynald Samoa, M.D., a clinical endocrinologist with expertise in diabetes and obesity prevention and treatment; Kathy Ko Chin, president of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum; Sam Wu, from the Office of Minority Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Tina Kauh, Ph.D., from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; Russell Carey of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation; Alfred Capelle, the Republic of the Marshall Island’s Commissioner of Customary Law and Culture; JoAnn Tsark, research director of Papa Ola Lokahi, and Maureen Milne, a cancer survivor from the Marshall Islands.

Raynald Samoa, M.D., a clinical endocrinologist speaks about the state of Pacific Islander health .

Raynald Samoa, M.D., a clinical endocrinologist, speaks about the state of Pacific Islander health.

Topics addressed included the state of Pacific Islander health, the state of research and programs, and faith and wellness training for pastors. Sessions also addressed specific health issues, including cardio-metabolic diseases, maternal and child health, social, mental and behavioral health, and infectious diseases.

Riklon, who is one of only two native Marshallese physicians educated in the United States, will soon be calling northwest Arkansas home. On Aug. 1, Riklon joins UAMS as an associate professor in the College of Medicine’s Department of Family and Preventive Medicine and as the inaugural holder of a Distinguished Professorship for Health Disparities. He will be based at the northwest Arkansas campus in Fayetteville.

During the conference, Riklon praised UAMS for its work with the Pacific Islander community.

“One of the things I applaud at UAMS is I saw that they really cared about us, so much that they employed Pacific Islanders,” he said, adding, “What a great concept.”

Aitaoto said the Pacific Islanders in attendance were blown away by the way culture, health, research and academics were incorporated into the conference.

“The feedback was very positive. One person told me that this conference makes them proud to be a Pacific Islander,” she said. “I also heard from clinicians who said the conference gave them ideas on how to improve as a clinician. They have a better understanding of the Pacific experience and how we think.”

The great thing about this conference is the learning that was taking place outside of the presentations, she said. People from all of the areas — research, academic, clinicians and the Pacific Islander community — were learning from each other.