1. What does leadership mean to you? What’s the most important quality in a leader?
Kaʻikaʻi means, depending on the context, to lift up, take up, to bear, to carry on, to lead. In this life, we all have our own huakaʻi, journey, that we go on that takes us on several different ala, or paths. This diversity of paths and (re)generative cycles by land, sea, air, and heavens in the plasmid, solid and liquid forms makes up our honua, earth, and what is beyond. As shared to me by my kūpuna (respected elder, a title bestowed and recognized by the community and not by the individual), named ʻAnakala Alika Silva, one way to say leader in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi (the Hawaiian language) is alakaʻi. As share by kūpuna to ʻAnakala to my sister (@aliahivine) and I (@Kumu_Lelemia), our kuleana (responsibility) in regards to leadership is to keep the path clean so our people can find their way back home and give the true light of our kūpuna.
2. What’s the most important issue facing young people in the Pacific?
My generation is next to carry the mantle forward to the next generation. On our huakaʻi as young people in the Pacific, we will face good times and rough times before we reach better times. In the rough and calm times we will be tested to respond to the many grand and wicked challenges that we inherited today, and we create for tomorrow. It is up to us to change from within. An important issue (of many) facing young people in my region of the Pacific is bullying and suicide.
3. What are you most looking forward to about #YPL18? What do you hope to achieve by the end of #YPL18?
I had no expectations entering the #YPL18 conference but hoped to make connections. Now that we are (re)united, I pray moving forward that we support and work with each other to keep the path clean so our people can find their way back home and give the true light of our kūpuna.