Last rite of passage with Dignity
Death asks you for the same time and consideration you give birth. A companion to keep you warm, digitize your legacy, and sit vigil as the world continues to spin.
“The Art of medicine takes over, when science can no longer help” -Hospice care
Dr.Ciscely Saunders, one of the founders of Hospice care, she was recently in her mission and achieved a Doctorates for her mission to be respected and recognized
At the vulnerable milestones of birth and death, a ring of support is formed to honor souls’ transition. It is fascinating even liberating to ethically explore and appreciate the different processes in which cultures exercise the customs surrounding death. In America there was a group of physicians and psychologist advocates that pressured the U.S Government to make Medicare include Hospice care in 1978. At the time creating this new health system was re-inventive and had a price tag of billions. Imagine our elders being neglected in hospital hallways with no specific wing to shelter people on their last important journey/transition before the inclusion of death care into healthcare.
At the End of Life it is your right to live and die as they want!
Make it stand out
At the End of Life it is your right to live and die as they want!
What an immense weight lifted for us to create support to fall on. After all, no day is guaranteed. Today, End of Life Care is in need of a new reset with normalizing hiring an End of Life Companion/Doulas to meet the increasing needs End of Life demands to fulfill a dignified death. Everyday we are closer to becoming an ancestor.
Give the power of intention to the rituals which will mark our final transition. We only have the chance to navigate this path once, ensure that all your strings are tied so your loved ones can have the immediate space to grieve. If you have the means, meet an End of Life Companion at your final horizon. You gain a guide through the many resources and options to make the most informed decisions and invest in a meaningful and gentle way to process all the facets needed to navigate our final journey/transition..
Click to see the program. I am not paid to endorse but I did enjoy the course.
End of Life Companion Certificate
“Consider that love can only be as large, as grief demands… That grief is the growing up of the heart that burst boundaries like the old skin of a finished life.” ”-A.D.Brown
It Doesnʻt Matter how short a life is, It will cost you a lifetime of grief
The bitter alchemy of love to grief
Once deceased
Mark us in the
Present, to be loved
as Love presently!
-Camille Dee ʻ20
Children haunted by grief will need a lot of Play space to metabolize grief, contrasting to adult needs ranging sporadically between isolation and over-stimulation.
It is normal to Grieve members of our community that we arenʻt directly close to yet something about their story reflects in us an inescapable truth;It is valid to grieve. We must process and release somatically. Going through a labyrinth whether in person or on paper while meditating on our pain has been noted in studies to calm our nervous system.
Reading signs between Preparatory Grief for an anticipated death & Grief after passing versus Depression is pivotal to protect our loved ones from avoidable pitfalls. Creating a space for people at the end of life to be honest about their pain and self-determine how much pain they are willing to tolerate to live longer and pass with dignity.
Seeing Grief and difference and similarities between depression and the Companion of Grief.
Click to Find a Support Group
Complicated grief occurs when a life is taken unexpectedly, or if our grief is disrupted by the nature of your relationship with the deceased. Managing complicated grief often requires an immense amount of emotional weight to cope with alone. Seeking group support therapy significantly decreases the isolation and nervous system shock people experience with complicated grief.
I love you!
Grief is our companion in life when our loved (Love) ones die. I say Love in the present tense because their love is current. It lives on through the perpetuation of you and your customs of love that honor their memory! We only learn better how to surf the sets of waves grief brings each swell…day by day, Moment by moment.
Tell me your story…
In Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs, and Communications of the Dying by Maggie Calland and Patricia Kelley I learned that seeming like you are indifferent to death is more painful than saying the wrong thing. Opening up safe space to Listen with people experiencing loss severing the looming fear of never speaking about our passed love ones ever again.
Dying people give many different kinds of signals when they are moving closer to depart this shell. Some on this Journey find they need permission,Forgiveness, and sometimes solitude to pass on. Confusion is often diagnosed to people when they are actually trying to communicate through their dreams, visuals or dialogs that are repetitive and distressful
In Death, there are gifts of power and Grace. We just need to be curious of the Pain, whether Spiritual, or emotional that needs to be faced, also the guilt for what we did or how we identity with that shame comes to teach us one final lesson. Seeing the gifts we find through death is the rain we need to restore our garden of life. This is the work…
-
Description text goes here
Verified Health Information
https://www.verywellhealth.com
Health and Wellness Resource
https://www.uvmhealth.org/healthsource
Therapy Blog: UPR & Good Listening Skills
https://www.harleytherapy.co.uk/counselling/unconditional-positive-regard-what-it-is-and-why-you-need-it.htm
https://www.harleytherapy.co.uk/counselling/good-listener-person-centred-counselling.htm
Different types of care:
https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/complementary-alternative-or-integrative-health-whats-in-a-name
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
800-633-4227
877-486-2048 (TTY)
https://www.cms.gov
www.medicare.gov
-
Pharmacies in CA, San Jose
https://heypharmacy.com/San_Jose/
Find a care provider Search:
https://www.nhpco.org/find-a-care-provider/
Meal Services
https://meals-on-wheels.com
https://siliconvalleystrong.org/gpd/
Organizing/Finding Care Volunteers
https://www.mealtrain.com/learn/mealtrain_plus/
Organizing Care Community
https://lotsahelpinghands.com
Create, store, and share a custom document that captures your medical care preferences, free of charge
https://www.ourcarewishes.org
Support Groups
https://www.verywellmind.com/find-a-support-group-meeting-near-you-69433
-
Find a provider search center
https://www.nhpco.org/find-a-care-provider/
National Hospice and Palliative Care Org.
https://www.nhpco.org
Visiting Nurses Association of Vermont
https://vnavt.org
Hospice and Palliative Nurse Association
https://advancingexpertcare.org
American Hospice Foundation
https://americanhospice.org/learning-about-hospice/
Insurance and Hospice Questions:
https://www.medicare.gov/what-medicare-covers/what-part-a-covers/how-hospice-works
Hospice and Palliative Care Agencies: Marin and Sonoma Counties
Hospice by the Bay
https://hospicebythebay.org/
707-935-7504 – Sonoma office
415-927-2273 – Larkspur office
Heartland Hospice
https://www.heartlandhospice.com/SantaRosa
707-523-0111 – Santa Rosa office
415-472-2637 – San Rafael office
Hired Hands Homecare Novato
http://www.hiredhandshomecare.com/
415-884-4343
At Home Caregivers
https://athomecaregivers.com/
415-898-4663
Marin General Hospital – Palliative Care Center
https://www.maringeneral.org/programs-services/palliative-care
415-925-7560
Marin County Health and Human Services – Seniors at Home
https://www.marinhhs.org/community-resource-guide/seniors-home-jfcs-palliative-care-consultation
415-449-3777
600 Fifth Ave., San Rafael, CA 94901
UCSF – Palliative Care (while in San Francisco, it may be accessible to some and is quite remarkable and well-respected).
https://www.ucsfhealth.org/programs/palliative_care/
415-514-1966
Death and Dying in Canada:
https://www.virtualhospice.ca/Assets/2018-05-07_FP_DeathDying-2018_20180607111418.pdf
-
EOL Doulas in Bay Area]
https://endoflifedoulas.care/meet-our-doulas/
Local Bay Resources page:
https://www.endoflifedoulaalliance.com/local-resources
Dignity Care Therapy
https://dignityincare.ca/en/the-model-in-detail.html
The State of Doula Care 2019 NYC
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/csi/doula-report-2019.pdf
Continuing Doula Care/E.D
https://www.joincake.com/blog/death-doula-resources/
Educational for Doula: Caregiving Demonstrations
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL47B0761255A1F993
Further Education: Center to Advance Palliative Care certifications
https://www.capc.org
Education: VITAS Healthcare offers free webinars by experienced hospice professionals to educate on the benefits of hospice
https://www.vitas.com/for-healthcare-professionals/education-and-training/earn-continuing-education-credits-for-training-in-end-of-life-care
Inspiring for Doula: Interview with Angel Kyodo Williams
https://onbeing.org/programs/angel-kyodo-williams-the-world-is-our-field-of-practice/
Further Education:
https://sacredartofliving.org
EOL Podcast
https://player.themoth.org/#/?actionType=ADD_AND_PLAY&storyId=15774
https://www.artofdyingwell.org/podcasts/
NEDA Alliance Resources
https://www.nedalliance.org/eold_study_guide.html
More Education/Certification
https://americanthanatology.com
More Education/Certification
https://cronevibes.com
More Education on Cultural Competence:
https://www.uab.edu/news/research/item/10969-community-members-train-doctors-on-culturally-appropriate-palliative-care?fbclid=IwAR1I9ORMyKugwFurKer9gxRhkvQ2zDhmal7f3BO7KbbCttLjrS7C-ewYS1Y
-
Find a Grief Counselor
https://www.centerforloss.com/grief/find-a-grief-counselor/
Founder Advocate for Death-Care E.Kubler-Ross Book
https://www.ekrfoundation.org/5-stages-of-grief/5-stages-grief/
Article about Responding to Suffering
National Respite Locator Service
www.archrespite.org/respitelocator
Well Spouse Association
800-838-0879
info@wellspouse.org
www.wellspouse.org
Amazing Documentary about Grief
https://speakinggrief.org/documentary
https://www.centerforloss.com/grief/
Coping with grief through relaxation
https://mindfulnessandgrief.com/coping-with-grief-relaxation/
Holding Grief
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKb1XKxwyhg
About Grieving:
https://ct.counseling.org/2019/04/grieving-everyday-losses/
Healing Your Grieving Heart: 100 Practical Ideas
https://www.centerforloss.com/bookstore/Healing-Your-Grieving-Heart-100-Practical-Ideas/?bid=3&partner=304
Grieving a parent with Complex relationship:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hat-like-grieve-parent-you-didnt-like_l_5d484b13e4b0aca34121b147/amp?fbclid=IwAR0BypZMF5cwDD8PSt06s25moxxscjBfahvM4I4E-vTEMgUpcK5IKuoPyYs
Support for Caregivers through Respite Services
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/what-respite-care
https://bb.uvm.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-4230241-dt-content-rid-11067240_1/courses/CDE_EOLD101_01_20170918/Back-JAMA-2015.pdf
Founded in 1984 by Dr. Alan Wolfelt, the Center for Loss and Life Transition is dedicated to “companioning” grieving people as they mourn significant transitions and losses that transform their lives
https://www.centerforloss.com/bookstore/
Working through Death Yourself:
https://coalitionccc.org/common/Uploaded%20files/PDFs/Thinking-Ahead-Booklet_web.pdf
Support after Hospice
https://hospice-ncal.kaiserpermanente.org/support/after-your-loss/
Educational: Grief
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPvt_GXpwmZVv6UviCpK3Uw
What leaders have said for support through Covid & Mourning
http://recordmenow.org/index.php/covid-19-religious/?fbclid=IwAR3JTcd-vBpfyL3hkftCE40E6xG-mA4y-DYl_NcnKjFxSlJd85HTbW84oFk
On Suffering:
https://observer.com/2017/07/what-it-means-to-suffer-why-its-important-resistance-pain-emotional-mental-health/
GrievingOrganization
https://www.compassionatefriends.org/chapter/tcf-of-santa-clara-county-chapter/
-
Starting to the Conversation to EOL
https://theconversationproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/ConversationStarterGuide.pdf
The University of Arizona – a Global Leader in Aging Research, Education and Care
https://www.aging.arizona.edu
Support: What to say when people are dying
https://grief.com/faqs-on-death-dying/
Starting the talk care guide pdfs as well as Institute for healthcare Improvement Resource Section (state specific organization of resources)
https://theconversationproject.org/nhdd/advance-care-planning/
Serious Illness Conversation Guide PDF
http://www.instituteforhumancaring.org/documents/Providers/PSJH-Serious-Illness-Conversation-Guide.pdf
Area Agency On Aging
Pleasant Hill, CA · (925) 229-8434
Closed ⋅ Opens 8AM Wed
https://aging.ca.gov/Providers_and_Partners/Area_Agencies_on_Aging/
Advance Care Directive Form California
https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/consumers/ProbateCodeAdvancedHealthCareDirectiveForm-fillable.pdf
Autonomy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OXnZwOvjBc
Conversation Starters for aging
https://www.homeinstead.com/care-resources/care-planning/difficult-aging-conversations/
One physician’s opinions about Medical Aid in Dying
https://www.pallimed.org/2017/12/why-im-bored-with-debate-about.html?utm_source=Pallimed&utm_campaign=1715fc9093-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_WEEKLY&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_24a5418a01-1715fc9093-123905277
Taking Death into your own hands with a Terminal Illness
https://vtdigger.org/2018/09/10/westminster-west-man-at-peace-with-his-end-of-life-decision/
-
Christian Bereavement: https://christianity.org.uk/article/bereavement
Buddism Bereavemnt: https://www.hayagriva.org.au/wheel-of-life/loss-and-grief/
Hawaiian Bereavement:https://onipaa.org/kaumaha-helu-ekahi
Hindu Bereavement:
https://samhin.org/wp-content/uploads/Bereavement-and-Final-Samskara-in-Hindu-Tradition.pdf
Wiccan Bereavement: https://www.proquest.com/openview/7cdac40c10774ecef86166da500b331d/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y
Cultural Humility:
https://www.culturallyconnected.ca
Jewish Bereavement Support
https://jewishhealingcenter.org
https://centerforhealthjournalism.org/fellowships/projects/racial-disparities-end-life-care-how-mistrust-keeps-many-african-americans-away
https://centerforhealthjournalism.org/fellowships/projects/challenges-and-cultural-barriers-faced-asians-and-latinos-end-life
https://dying.lovetoknow.com/Death_Rituals
https://ideas.ted.com/11-fascinating-funeral-traditions-from-around-the-globe/
https://www.pbs.org/education/blog/beyond-sugar-skulls-the-history-and-culture-of-dia-de-los-muertos
LGBTQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1YZL6zuD8I
Indigenous Podcast
https://anchor.fm/around-grandfather-fire/episodes/AGF-30—On-Grief-and-Mourning-e6etg8
Decolonizing Death
https://radicaldeathstudies.com
https://uplift.love/the-ancient-hawaiian-practice-of-forgiveness/
https://rainbowhospice.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Legacy-Idea-Book-Newsletter.pdf
Standfordʻs:Welcome to the Multi-cultural Palliative Care Portal
https://palliative.stanford.edu
-
Giving inclusive care for people with Autism
https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/communication/tips#H2_1
-
https://catapult.co/stories/how-disability-helps-me-find-life-in-death
-
Musical Aid in Grief
McFerran, Katrina, and Meagan Hunt. “Learning from Experiences in Action: Music in Schools to Promote Healthy Coping with Grief and Loss.” Educational Action Research, vol. 16, no. 1, 2008, pp. 43–54.
Certified Therapeutic Music and Sound Practitioner Directory
https://directory.therapeuticmusician.world/dir/directory.php
Becoming a Certified Therapeutic Music Practitioner
https://www.mhtp.org
Reiki at the end of life
https://iarp.org/reiki-comforts-end-of-life/
Guided Imagery
http://envisionintegrativetherapies.com/PDF/SAFE%20PLACE%20GUIDED%20IMAGERY.pdf
Field of music-thanatology Support
https://www.mtai.org
Provides access and education of Network of Music & Memory certified organizations
https://musicandmemory.org
Dementia and Dance Therapy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyqfswPCKeQ
Threshold Choir – providing gentle song, by the bedside
Marin County – 415-259-9651
Sonoma County – 707-591–3008
Novato Music Association Chorus – https://www.novatomusicassociationchorus.org/
email for information: NMAChorus01@gmail.com
Musical Therapy in Bay Area:
https://thresholdchoir.org/solutions/what-we-do
Certified Musical Therapist in San Jose
https://www.credly.com/badges/6c761b55-e5b5-4e15-aff0-74d349b75906/linked_in_profile
Bay Area Musical Therapist
https://bayareamusictherapy.com/bio/
Energy Healer
https://www.wiseguideintuitive.com/services
Massage
http://www.heal-massage.com
https://www.banyanmassagesf.com
Holistic/reiki Healer
https://www.hemalivora.com/about (East Coast)
SEXOLOGIST * PSYCHOLOGIST * YOGA AND BODY MOVEMENT THERAPIST * PSYCHEDELIC INTEGRATIONIST * HOLISTIC LIFE COACH
https://www.wholepersonintegration.com/death-and-dying-psychotherapy (CA)
LMFT
https://www.proudtobetherapy.com (CA)
Psy.D. offers KAP therapy
https://www.drjosievalderrama.com/session.html (CA)
AMFT Culturally Competent
https://www.chosenfamilytherapy.com/madilynn-a-beck (CA)
AMFT
https://uncommonthreadstherapy.com/#service (CA)
Goat Therapy Bay Area
https://sfbay.goatyoga.net
-
Dementiacaregiver-support/supporting-caregivers-people-living-dementia/
Education Dementia
https://www.caregiver.org/resource/caregivers-guide-understanding-dementia-behaviors/
Education Dementia: Virtual Tour Be in Their Shoes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmsDvfcspIs
Education Dementia:
Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia Scale
Dementia Support
https://compassionandchoices.org/end-of-life-planning/learn/finish-strong-tools/
Dementia Values and Priorities
https://values-tool.compassionandchoices.org
-
Alive inside: Music Therapy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaB5Egej0TQ&ab_channel=RottenTomatoesIndie
-
Inspiring for Cancer: Palliative care and vlog of Support one with Cancer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sXYcxSyAhQ
Cancer Counseling EOL
https://www.cancercare.org/publications/63-caregiving_at_the_end_of_life
Caregiving Tips Aid
https://www.helpguide.org/articles/parenting-family/family-caregiving.htm
https://www.caringinfo.org
Dying with Dignity Fighting Cancer
https://www.saltwire.com/halifax/news/local/audrey-parker-honouring-a-lifetime-255685/#.W9wnciENZy0.facebook
-
Sharing Story App Resource
https://storycorps.org/participate/storycorps-app/
Leaving a Legacy:
https://www.joincake.com/blog/category/legacy-projects/
https://www.mdanderson.org/cancerwise/making-memories-last-the-art-of-legacy-work.h00-158673423.html
StoryCorps Always a Family Video Kid Friendly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k8HHfJe828
Questions Resource for Legacy Work
https://storycorps.org/participate/great-questions/
Organize tresuring EOL
https://beremembered.com
Healing relationship with Self
https://opuspeace.org
From proactively planning your end-of-life wishes to navigating what to do after experiencing a loss
https://www.lantern.co
How to Plan a Good Death Article
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jun/19/how-to-plan-for-a-good-death-sheila-kitzinger
Sitting Vigil Checklist
https://onthewaytodying.com/sitting-vigil-at-a-death-bed-a-checklist/
over 100 short audio stories about living, caregiving, dying, grieving and powerful human moments.
https://vtethicsnetwork.org/articles-resources/wake-up-to-dying
Create, store, and share a custom document that captures your medical care preferences, free of charge
https://www.ourcarewishes.org
Tips in Writing an Obituary
https://www.joincake.com/blog/creative-obituaries/
-
Mandatory to Report Abuse, Neglect, or Exploitation
https://dlp.vermont.gov/make-report
International:
https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines
National:
SAMHSA’s National Helpline – 1-800-662-HELP (4357) also known as the Treatment Referral Routing Service) or TTY: 1-800-487-4889 is a confidential, free, 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year, information service, in English and Spanish, for individuals and family members facing mental and/or substance use disorders. This service provides referrals to local treatment facilities, support groups, and community-based organizations. Callers can also order free publications and other information.
1-800-273-8255 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline – The Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress, prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones, and best practices for professionals. https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
https://www.crisistextline.org/ Text HOME to 741741 to connect with a Crisis Couns
Crisis Support Alameda California
https://www.crisissupport.org
Suicide Loss Survivors
https://www.crisissupport.org/resources/suicide-loss-survivors/
Eldercare Locator
800-677-1116
eldercarelocator@n4a.org
https://eldercare.acl.gov
Protective Services to Report Elder Abuse:
Marin County Adult Protective Services
Marin County phone 415-473-2774
https://www.marinhhs.org/adult-protective-services
10 N. San Pedro Road
San Rafael, CA 94903
Human Services Department- Adult and Aging Services
Sonoma County phone 707-565-5940
3725 Westwind Blvd., first floor
Santa Rosa, CA 95403
24 Hour abuse hotline 800-667-0404
If you suspect abuse in a long-term care facility, contact the Long-Term Care (415) 473-7446.
Medical info Storage for Emergency Free
https://www.vialoflife.com/vial-is-free/
Store of Senior Safety S.O.S
https://www.seniorsafety.com
Medical info Storage for Emergency Free
https://www.vialoflife.com/vial-is-free/
-
Green Funeral Service Bay Area
https://www.fernwood.com/about-us
Cremation service Bay Area
https://www.neptune-society.com/location/oakland-ca/?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=web-button-9582
Online Rituals & Support
https://memoriam.services
Spirituality:
https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/what-spirituality
Assessing Spiritual Needs
https://www.professionalchaplains.org/files/publications/chaplaincy_today_online/volume_28_number_1/28_1laroccapitts.pdf
Home Funeral:
https://bestselfmedia.com/doing-death-differently/
Home Funeral:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=M8CtyH4U028
Home Funeral Alliance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ojoCwt-vEM
Green Funeral:
https://www.greenburialcouncil.org/uploads/1/2/4/2/124231485/going_out_green.pdf
https://recompose.life
https://www.cnn.com/2016/10/10/health/body-use-after-death/index.html
https://www.capsulamundi.it/en/
https://www.thelivingurn.com
https://urnabios.com
https://themindcircle.com/bye-bye-coffins-these-organic-burial-pods-turn-your-loved-ones-into-trees/
https://www.fastcompany.com/90391324/water-cremation-and-human-composting-the-new-eco-friendly-frontier-of-dying?fbclid=IwAR3ivlWfcg7FZTN6FvnnUWks4MJh4f2ctHkdtRq4oBBnPbxIpRJChPJz0fU
Cremation:
https://www.cremationassociation.org/page/alkalinehydrolysis
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/cremation-hottest-trend-funeral-industry-1B8068228
DIfferent Ideas for Funeral
http://deathlab.org/constellation-park/
Millennial Influence
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2016/11/128187/green-burials-funeral-services-trend
Diff Death with Chemistry
https://www.wired.com/story/alkaline-hydrolysis-liquid-biocremation/
Funeral Services Support:
https://www.dignitymemorial.com/support-friends-and-family
https://www.talkdeath.com/trans-death-exploring-deadnaming-death-positive-lens/
-
Infant Home Funeral Alliance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCE45uqIHuA
Pediatric Grief
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD_Fr3VAsYM
-
Support for people with substance abuse
https://endoflifecaresubstanceuse.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/good-practice-guidance-supporting-people-with-substance-problems-at-the-end-of-life.pdf
Substance abuse and palliative care:
https://www.mariecurie.org.uk/professionals/palliative-care-knowledge-zone/proving-good-quality-care/people-with-substance-use
-
https://www.lionsroar.com/for-the-children-weve-lost/?mc_cid=3ccd84301e&mc_eid=e68050dec4
-
https://www.npr.org/2019/05/14/723251416/in-once-more-we-saw-stars-grief-and-love-together
-
Organ Donor Stats
https://www.organdonor.gov/learn/organ-donation-statistics
Influence a Donor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExPIEn10Wn8
On talking openly About Death
https://www.npr.org/2014/10/08/352765943/a-mortician-talks-openly-about-death-and-wants-you-to-too
-
Resource YMCA camp for families Grieving
https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/better-together-at-camp-knock-knock-grieving-families-find-support-and-solidarity/Content?oid=35270546
Childrenʻs Grief:
https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/better-together-at-camp-knock-knock-grieving-families-find-support-and-solidarity/Content?oid=35270546
Hope in Grief Childʻs Speech
https://endwellproject.org/hope-in-grief/
Terminally Ill Child resources
https://www.ninr.nih.gov/newsandinformation/conversationsmatter/conversationsmatter-patients
-
https://thepawington.com
https://www.doggylamapetcare.com
Animal Services
https://www.furryfriends.org
https://www.animalassistedhappiness.org
https://www.squarepegfoundation.org
-
Living with ASL Podcast
https://www.stitcher.com/show/living-while-dying
Coming OUt
2020 Blog Post Amid Covid outbreak, Camille Dee realizes life is short and true love is better than lies.
Honest disclosure, informed consent…
& respecting peopleʻs mental & physical health space/boundaries has been my bread and butter since Camille D was born into the Independent Companion industry. This past year has given me so much practice in difficult, necessary, and important conversations…. Tomorrow is not promised and I want the people I love, love me for who I am 100%
This epiphany prompted me to open up my career as a Provider to my most close loved ones at home in Honolulu…
Entering this industry as an adult entertainer and masseuse was a choice I made to sustain my Degree, feed me, and pay off the debt accrued from Vet bills.
At the time I faced immense strife that Hoku (my fur-baby) was harmful to others and a danger at any moment to cause more harm. Not only physically to other animals but a chain and ball to financial consequence… At the time, I was proud to be working three jobs, paying for my food, school expenses and an affordable lowered tuition. Pre-med College and juggling my three jobs was a workload that consumed me. I regrettably could have been helping Hoku overcome her aggression issues but my scholarship had a deadline. Because of the financial scarcity culture in my household growing up, this pattern of barely being comfortable, instilled a positively self-sufficient independence within me of being viable. Love was exemplifying not being a burden. Flash back to Hoku and The weight of the debt incurred from the vet bills… summer to my junior year was the pinnacle to my entrance into this Demie Monde. It took me almost a decade to come out as a sex worker because unpacking the social and systemic stigma and navigating internalized whorephobia. You need space from the place where so much change occurred to learn and grow from those experiences.
Patriarchy overtly and covertly in-stills that women donʻt have any agency or autonomy over their body and therefore places moral judgements based on her decisions about her body and private relations with consenting adults.
Criminalization of Seggx work is a topic I have been studying since 2015 (my entrance into the demimonde). I love what being a professional companion of dates has instilled in me; creating and enforcing boundaries, negotiating, making websites, designing sets, Marketing, advertising, branding and the stability/flexibility to pursue my healing arts. Most of all just being a great listener, understanding and loving to many wonderful different people with many wondrous different needs in care.
I am a healer and I still want to become an accredited healer in the civilian world…but a healer must heal first before they can heal communities…I opened the door to this world and hurdled through, The academic knowledge I accrued pursuing Biology and naturopathy helps me immensely to care for myself.
Burning Desires Aflame
Part of coming out as an Independent Companion of special time is sharing how I keep myself safe: sharing my screening methods of receiving clientele work residence, ID card, Linkeden report card, or recent references/reviews from established providers. Through Covid 19 in 2020, I was super privileged to be able to sustain myself for months solely on deposits. When in person dates were necessary, I enforced and currently still do Covid cautionary measures adopting a plan to keep me best protected with client questionnaires, mandatory temperature check and Space sanitizations. As well as monthly seggxual health checks I aksi keep a strict testing schedule of weekly Covid tests with cushions between tests/travels/work to provide clear days. I wish to give you all the greatest peace of mind with discretion and meticulously preserve well being above all. I have a growing and solid seggx work community in The Bay. Providers are such amazing people to have an community members we share collective ways of care and special mutual experiences in this magickal demimonde.
I donʻt want to feel isolated, and like half of myself is present. I need my family and loved ones to accept & acknowledge me, as I am and whom I love to be!
… or be honest and let me know if space from a relationship with me is best. I do hope after listening to me coming out…some research, and thought, you come to be an ally, advocate, friend, or just a reciprocal figure of true love that is a present part of my “family”
Regardless of your choice and response I love you
Post Post Note:
This writing was taken from the original e-mail I sent to my HI fam end of 2020 Entitled Coming out.
I made some edits for cyber protections of course but itʻs pretty much the meaty original. Xoxo
Love you all!
*Hawaii has generational trauma of diseases being carried over that decimated the Native population. So I recalled my tickets…even though I came out as an Independent Companion in California to my HI fam, my naʻau (stomach gut feeling) was telling me to wait to visit. I am almost all vaccinated and will be returning soon…. I already feel wholesome in being myself. I look forward to uninhibited hours of enjoying time with the people I love. Being comfortable with my truth has sprung a love for myself that I hope to ignite in everyone I come close too!
Blessed Be.
I am a gentle healer and time is my currency…
Post Note:
I am very Privileged to feel safe enough to disclose to my family and I am very lucky that “they” (after initial shock) have responded with cherishing words of love.
Decolonize and Indigenize When you Fly HI
So you want to travel to Hawaiʻi and be culturally conscienses? The often purposefully untold story of what pieces of the puzzle make Hawaiʻi such a special place and even more divine to be a part of it authentically and malama pono (take care, righteously) ?
Is ethical-tourism in Hawaiʻi an oxymoron?
Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ʻĀina i ka Pono
“The sovereignty of the Hawaiian kingdom is perpetuated in just action (righteousness).”
Kamehameha III proclaimed this famous saying after England returned political power to The Hawaiian Monarchy on November 28, 1843. It is celebrated every November 28 as Lā Kūʻokoʻa (Independence Day). This quote became an emblem on the Hawaiian monarchy’s royal crest. After the 1893 U.S overthrow this saying was taken for the Stateʻs motto.
The Ethnographic Map of Hawaiʻi
The 10.5 million tourists that visit Hawaiʻi per year swallow the 1.5 million island residents (Sharma, 228). Considering all the Hawaiian families who must move away to survive, it is a privilege to have grown up in Hawaiʻi. Hawaiʻi remains a majority space of color with Asian settlers/locals owning the most capital, replacing the initial haole oligarchy that overthrew the monarchy in 1893. According to the 2022 Census Hawaiʻi is populated by 37.1% Asian, 25.2%, Caucasian 11%, Hispanic/Latino, 3.5 % Black, and 0.4% Native American (U.S Census Bureau QuickFacts, 2022). Despite Kanaka Māoli (Native Hawaiians) making up only 10.3% of Hawaiʻiʻs population, they represent over half of the prison and unhoused population (135,Sharma). There are more than six thousand unhoused people in Hawaiʻi (National National Alliance to End Homelessness 2023) “The analysis of 2020 census data determined that 76,622 homes were vacant in the Islands.”(MEIERDIERCKS 2022) According to Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice, 2017 report 1 in 24 home units in Hawaiʻi are vacation rentals. (Nagaoga, 2023).
There are more Kanaka Māoli living in the continental U.S compared to their homeland (Magbual 2022). Governor Greenʻs 2022 emergency housing proclamation bypasses environmental mandates; even though Hawaiʻi is still in a water crisis, Greenʻs plan calls for 50,000 housing units needed to satiate the Stateʻs housing deficit (Greene, 2023).
Initial contact with Colonizers resulted in seven different pandemics which eradicated 90% of Kanaka Māoli (Sharma 2021).
King Kalakaua in 1880 traveled to Japan, China and India inviting workers to assist in his nationʻs economy and be part of Hawaiiʻs people. When the haole plantation owners had a shortage of labor workers in 1891 many migrant workers from China, Japan, Okinawa, Philippines, Korea, Mexico, India, Puerto Rico, Spain, Ireland and Portugal were trafficked to work in the sugar and pineapple plantations (2018,Puette). Migrant plantation workers were coerced into abusive work contracts that enforced racist economic work structures where people with the closest proximity to whiteness were considered the Luna (bosses) and worker income was racialized to keep ethnic groups from unifying. Labor activism persisted and protests developed, solidifying a common language among the makaʻāinana (people of the land) known as Pidgin.
Pidgin is recognized by the State of Hawaii as an official State language along with ʻŌlelo Hawaii (Hawaiian language). Your proximity to Pidgin informs your positionality in Hawaiʻiʻs social hierarchy; the currency being “localness”. Hawaii has a 1:2 ratio of interracial, panracial and interethnic families. Since 98% of Kanaka Māoli are hapa haole (of mixed ancestries), applying a racial framework to Kanaka Māoli can have the consequence of erasing and denying the political rights of indigeneity. Even though I inherit 10 different ethnicities, I identify closest to being Kanaka Māoli. I grew up surrounded by, and practicing Hawaiian culture. Hawaiʻi is home to over seven generations of ancestors from diasporic migration, settlers, colonizing people, and Kanaka Maoli lienages. Engaging with and perpetuating Hawaiian language, culture and values creates a sense of belonging in Hawaiʻi. A unifying mana (Strength/power) that is woven into each of our own identities.
In dismantling the binaries of White/Black, local/non-local, native/settler, it is necessary to examine the historical context of Hawaii.
Hawaiʻi united politically between 1795-1810 by King Kamehameha, who established the internationally recognized Hawaiian Monarchy, a sovereign nation-state. As a nation, Hawaii exercised international trades and treaties, and established delegations across the globe. In the 1852 Hawaiian Kingdom constitution outlawed slavery and decreed that any slave that arrived in Hawaiʻi would be emancipated; this was 20 years before the U.S Civil War. “Involuntary servitude is forever prohibited in this Kingdom '' (79, Sharma). Betsy Stockton was the First Black Woman recorded in Hawaiʻi in 1823, a hundred years before the illegal annexation by the U.S. She learned ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language) and started a school for Kanaka Māoli. Blackness was seen as a symbol of strength and connection to King Kamehamehaʻs royal lineage. There were Black officials in the Hawaiian Monarchy that served as advisors to the King such as Anthony Allen (100, Sharma). Historically Hawaii has centuries old relationships with diasporic people who have been stolen from their homelands or forced to escape other imperialist forces.
In 1887, King Kalakaua was held at gunpoint by wealthy plantation owners, descendants of missionaries, and under duress The King was forced to sign the infamous Bayonet Constitution. The Bayonet Constitution stripped Kanaka of rights, specifically of their right to vote if they did not own land and gave a new cabinet of power to the plantation owners known as the Big 5 and later the “Committee of Safety. After Kalakaua died “mysteriously” in San Francisco his sister the predecessor Queen Liliʻuokalani listened to her people who implored her to change the Bayonet Constitution which disenfranchised Kanaka Māoli (Dougherty, 2000).
Overthrow
In 1893, U.S Plantation Ownerʻs conspired with the U.S military navy in a militant coup that forcibly overthrew The Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. Queen Liliʻuokalani was imprisoned in her room in the top corner of her palace, the ʻIʻolani palace. Petitions Against Annexation was signed by 21,269 Kanaka Māoli out of the 39,000 in the 1897 census (Schamel, 1999). President Cleveland takes accountability in a letter to U.S congress that “Hawaiʻi was taken without consent or compensation,” but Congress refused to reinstate power to Queen Liliʻuokalani who had believed as a Christian herself that their shared faith would evoke moral obligation. In 1898, President Mckinley annexed Hawaii in the infamous ‘joint resolution’ which lacked the consent “resolution” from the “joint party” The Queen herself. The Hawaiian Kingdomʻs land and the Monarchʻs personal land were ‘ceded’. Stolen lands were prime lands; educational systems, export/import harbors, the Island of Kahoʻolawe (taken for bomb practice), and agricultural lands. Lands that really supported the function of a people. The state of Hawaiʻi currently makes 394.3 Million off revenue from these ceded lands annually(ceded-lands, 2023).
Occupation
A republic followed the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom as the U.S military grew with the arms race for WWII. In 1896, the provisional government banned Hawaiian Language in schools and social spaces, lasting for four generations. After almost a century of being a military republic, Hawaii was voted as the 51st state in 1959. Not until the 1970ʻs when there was finally a cultural renaissance and a call for self-determination, did land-reclamations begin and Native sovereignty was again a topic of conversation. ʻŌlelo Hawaii and culture was reintroduced into schools like Hawaiian Charter Schools and Immersion Schools.
Navigating systems of power
From Missionary influence, Colonial land grabs, Military occupation, and now to the majority Asian settler colonial state; itʻs important to break down Hawaiiʻs History to understand the local culture/dynamics and indigenous resistance persisting. This all begs the question,how can you take responsibility, and sit in the discomfort, that your trip to Hawaii creates foreseeable harm? If you are coming to “work” in Hawaii, does securing the bag negate your environmental impact? Does the intersection of your marginalized identities, and experienced commonalities with generational oppression from white supremacy neutralize these responsibilities? These questions encourage necessary self and community dialogs that can inspire positive social changes.
There are strong Indigenous activist communities in Hawaii whose roots are informed and inspired much from The Black liberation Movements. The BIPOC communities in Hawaii have adopted the presence of Black ideologies and culture like; Rastafarniasm, reggae and hip-hop (Sharma 198).
In Kanaka Māoli culture, power was delegated through genealogy, family practice, geographic location, and ancestry kinship instead of blood quantum or the “one drop rule”. Highlighting all identity claims that communicate one's genealogical ties/accountability to the land based on genealogy “Asking to express rather than hide uneven histories of enslavement, genocide, exploitation, and colonization” (Sharma 200). Locals of Hawaiʻi defer to Kanaka Māoli kingship practices of hyperdescent versus the white framing of hypodescent A.K.A “the one drop rule”. Detracting from the U.Sʻs Black/White binary of race and blood quantums, Hawaii has adopted Kanaka Māoli kinship practices of relating and belonging.
Hawaiʻi is ethnically diverse, a multicultural place where BIPOC can find liberation from white dominant spaces. In her book Hawaiʻi is my Haven, Dr. Sharma studies the ethnography of Hawaiʻi specifically analyzing how Black locals, and Black transplants who moved to the Islands from North America, or Africa and Caribbean Islands coming to a nonwhite demographic; experience the local cultureʻs adversity to whiteness and how simultaneously there is anti-black racism. There is a form of “lighthearted” banter between ethnic groups which facilitates relationality; resilience with humor. However, the absence of whiteness does not make the multi-ethnic community in Hawaii exempt from anti-black racism. The “humorous” epithetʻs between ethnicities risks carrying anti-black racism, if there is no education on Black History and experiences. Structural and social anti-black racism persists because Hawaii exists from settler colonial survival. Affecting other groups such as the Micronesian community. “Between 1946 and 1958, the United States detonated 67 nuclear bombs' ' On Marshall Island Atolls (2019, Rust) displacing thousands of Micronesians from radiation and forcing rehoming in Hawaii. In Lawrenceʻs paper Local Kine Implicit Bias: Unconscious Racism Revisited he studies how the lack of reparations from Kingdom stolen lands and The State of Hawaiiʻs lack of resources has fueled anti-micronesian racist violence so much so that “Hawaii resident Sha Ongelungel created “a thread of shame” to document it (Lawrence, 2015). Unpacking our internalized/indoctrinated/colonized beliefs and taking responsibility to educate (not conflate or center) oneself on different experiences and racial impacts is solidarity. The threat of racist criminalization of BIPOC people in Hawaii persists; like in 2011 when an off-duty White US agent fatally shot Kollin Elderts, a Filipino Hawaiian boy inside the Mcdonnels of Waikīkī. Solidarity in learning eachotherʻs history is the Ēa (liberation work, sovereignty) for our own autonomy.
Militarization
Despite the petition of more than half the Kanaka Maoli on the 1897 Hawaiʻi census, Hawaii was annexed with the help of the U.S Military. Americanizing Hawaii with corporal enforcement of patriotic/english only curriculum in State Schools. The ʻŌlelo Hawaii (Hawaiian language) ban would not be lifted until my fatherʻs generation when only 2,000 native speakers remained (Hiraishi, 2022).
Cases of racism in Hawaiʻi grew into common discord with cases that would shape socio-cultural relationships between locals and haole (foreigners). Like the 1930 Massie case, when Navy wife Mrs. Massie is beaten and raped by “three Hawaiian/asian men” despite the men in question having solid alibis. The second trial resulted in one of the accused Joseph Kahahawai to be kidnapped and fatally tortured; found in the back of Mr. Massieʻs (car) naked, tied up, bludgeoned and shot. Despite having eyewitnesses of the kidnapping, all five people were convicted of manslaughter instead of murder, and spent a whopping one hour with territorial Governor Lawrence McCully Juddʻs office at the ʻIolani Palace (Rosa, 2014). This has contributed and informed much of the racial lens today between local, hale, and military transplants. There are eleven military bases on my island alone with men outnumbering the island's female population. After the illegal annexation and militarization of Hawaii, many Black locals interviewed in Dr.Sharmaʻs study felt the need to outperform being local so as to not be conflated with being in the military (Sharma, 86).
Financial stability and social status are a few of the reasons many BIPOC like my grandpa and uncles joined the military. In 2013, The Honolulu Police Department HPD had the most minorities 87% in the line of duty than any other state (Sharma, 209). Having more BIPOC in positions of power calls for the capability for “shared relations” to deescalate encounters. There is a “colonized-colonizer paradox” when BIPOC are bound by financial choice to be an active participant in the imperialism of the pacific (Sharma, 313).
The 50 year bombing of Kahoʻolawe and Makaha, in order for “training grounds” to mimic raging war in Asia has subjected Kanaka Māoli to cultural land desecrations, dispossession of their homeland, displacement and homelessness. Being the U.S military's Pacific beacon of power comes with the ominous threat of Hawaiʻi being used as a political target like in Pearl Harbor and like the 2018 harrowing missile threat during Trumpʻs presidency.
“The Navy reported a 1,300-gallon leak of concentrated fire suppressant foam at Red Hill in November 2022”(Navy Times 2023). The oil fuel tanks on Kapūkakī (Red Hill military site) are only 100 feet above ʻOahuʻs water natural supply to the islands aquifer. The petroleum oil fuel has been leaking into this vital water source that people bath and drink in since WWII II. The military was forced by U.S feds in 1994 to tell the public that the fuel tanks even existed. The metal tanks stayed rusted and deteriorating leaked each year into the aquifer, first slowly poisoning the military residents. This prompted The Navyʻs request in 2022 for additional rations from the Hawaii State board of water supply. Resulting in a 20% decrease for people living in Hawaii but not tourists visiting. In response to rationing, people of Maui were fined 500 dollars for using water outside their ration (Sharma, 150). Can you imagine bathing and drinking in water contaminated with rusted fuel tank oil for months? It was reported from Lāhaina firefighters responding to this yearʻs apocalyptic wildfires in West Maui that they “ran out of water” while fighting the flames forcing them to flee while hundreds perished. “You can’t fight fire when you don’t have water,” (Bogel-Burroughs, 2023)
Extractive Tourism
Over Tourism is a phenomenon of overcrowding that leads to environmentally degraded place, land, artificially inflated property values, and food-costs. Leading to Extractive tourism a term coined by Vijay Koliinjiivadi in response to the 2020 pandemic inequality where privileged to middle class vaccinated tourists sought relief through cheap mass tourism. In July 2022, a study reported that 35,000 tourists come to Hawaii each and every single day(McDonagh, 2022). What started as pillaging of bones to museums and “worldly” private collections in Plantation times is now Hotel resorts dynamating burial and sacred lands. In a planning for sustainable tourism 2003 report the DLNR Department of Land and Natural Resources stated that activities such as “Kayaking, Jet skis, Scuba or group snorkeling; Kiteboarding; Windsurfing tours Golf Courses.. “ all pose a serious harm to Hawaiʻiʻs environment (John M. Knox 2003).
When Tourism was shut down in the 2020 pandemic, “the fish came back in a matter of months” (McDonagh 2022). Kanaka Maoli are The Kiaʻi (protectors) of Hawai'i, with traditions and history passed down through ʻoli (chant) and Hula (dance), translating a symbiotic relationship to ʻāina (land) and people with entwined cosmogonic genealogies. Hawaiʻi is in the hands of The Board of Tourism authority who does not consider Her as family but a cash cow to use up. Since Colonization there has been a growing manifestation of anti-haole and anti-military sentiment amongst locals and Kanaka Māoli that is directly related to the historic relationships to land theft, natural resource extraction, and abuse of natural resources with Over Tourism. Rising tensions between locals and transplants/tourists is especially magnified when visitors are uninformed/ignorant of Hawaiʻiʻs History and how to malama (take care) of the ʻāina (land). The failure of the Board of Tourism to create a sustainable living environment with boundaries to visitors has created deep wounds with the local communities. What businesses remained after massive shutdowns in the wake of 2020ʻs pandemic, now experience greater waiting times typically 90 minutes or more for walk in and reservations are required and booked out months in advance.
Environmental Justice
Kanaka Māoliʻs oral traditions of song and dance is a historical oral record of life such as the Kumulipo chant which records the beginning of time. Of the 2102 lines within, each birth a new plant, creature or human to time and space. This ancient chant describes multitudes of Kanaka Māoil geneological link to ʻāina an the cosmos. Protecting Mauna Kea from further desecration (30 meter telescope) on our sacred land is like the same instinct people have of protecting loved ones from being used without consent.
Stop the diversion of natural water which puts lands at risk to wildfires. Saving precious ecosystems that are endangered from over tourism. Stop monocropping unsustainable foods such as coffee, sugar and pineapple. Decolonize agriculture and go back to Indigenous customs which work with the lands natural regeneration.
Two endemic honeycreeper birds only found in Hawaii face extinction in the next two decades among many other endemic and indigenous plants and animals. Hawaii has 435 endangered plants and animal species (Eller, 2023). Global warming has given non-native invasive species like the mosquito access to higher elevations devastating native species with vectors of diseases.(Eller, 2023) Honeycreepers birds are vital to Hawaiiʻs retaining of water by pollinating the native plants that feed the aquifer. These creatures only found in Hawaii were once 50 species strong, now only 17 remain, 12 of those are critically endangered #birdsnotmosquitoes (communication & publishing, 2022). It's on all of us to fight for Hawaiʻi, opening up conversation, reducing the harm and working to stand in solidarity with Kanaka Māoli and makaʻāinana (people/eyes of the land) needs. Indigenous communities protect 80% of the world's biodiversity, despite accounting for 3% of worldʻs population. (Green Graph Figure in Blog).
As a visitor it is impossible not to line the pockets of exploitative tourist corporations…but we can fight the complicity and volunteer our time and/or capital power to organizations that protect Hawaiiʻs precious natural resources. Hawaiʻi is currently very unsustainable, surviving only seven days, in the hypothetical event of Matson containers halting their supply of resources.
“Maintaining relationships to the land is at the heart of Indigenous peoplesʻ struggle, and it is a struggle that benefits all who rely on water and land to live.”-Mishuana Goeman
Below are Bullet Points to:
Transformational Justice combatting extractive tourism A.K.A
Required Cultural CONSCIOUSNESS
Maui is closed donate here:
-https://www.honolulumagazine.com/maui-wildfires-support-from-oahu/
Research:
-Hawaii Homes 1920 commision Act “Blood Quantum”
-Kapu Aloha
Read:
-How to steal a Kingdom
-From a Native Daughter
-Detours:A Decolonial Guide to Hawai'i by Hokulani K. Aikau
Kanaka Māoli Business Lists
-https://www.savehealthrive.com/
-https://www.kaainamomona.org/
-https://kawaiola.news/hookahuawaiwai/kakoo-oihana-oiwi-supporting-native-hawaiian-owned-businesses/
Respect restricted access to sacred cultural sites if you see KAPU= Stay Out
Do not hike off trail because of erosion which suffocates and slowly kills the coral, (plants non-native to Hawaii cause erosion and suck up all the water instead of feeding the aquifer)
Protected endangered plants and animals by learning what they look like
Research which plants are invasive alien species so you can identify and stop the spread by killing the roots and making sure their seeds donʻt travel.
Be aware of Tourisms indoctrinations of “Hawaiian culture” as the doormat service native which is a harmful and dehumanizing trope
Understand the political demands of Kanaka Māoli, what the Independence for the Hawaiian Nation means to the lāhui (Hawaiian collective group)
Be conscious of where you put/bring your Aloha (love)? To a bar? To an already crowded beach/surf spot?
Aloha ʻaina; Funnel your time/money to the ʻaina (land) and Kiaʻi (protectors/guardians) of Hawaii. Use your time to volunteer your time to help the rampant pollution from industrial and individual pollution. Clear a stream, pick up trash if you see it.
Research if your Tour companies are owned by foreigners and hold these companies accountable in their policies protecting Hawaiiʻs natural resources and sacred sites for Hawaiʻiʻs future generation.
Participate in the revitalization of Kanaka Māoli cultural practices, such as loʻi farming, Heiʻa (fishponds), weaving, Hula (Dancing) and supporting Kanaka Māoli cultural practitioners.
Revive Kanaka Māoli practices: asking for permission before entering a space through ʻoli (chant) and receiving welcoming ʻoli, bringing a gift over when you visit a house.
Take off your shoes if you go in someoneʻs Hale (house)
PLEASE WEAR REEF SAFE SUNSCREEN
Donʻt do life threatening stunts, hospital space is VERY limited already
Just take the Bus. Parking and traffic is too much!
Go when school is IN session to not take as much space.
Travel Hawaiian Airlines, which provides the most culturally competent experience with an introduction video in ʻŌlelo Hawaii as well as English, magazines with local businesses, and local snacks.
There is no way to travel to Hawaii without causing ecological harm so PLEASE: Engage in Harm Reduction for Hawaiʻiʻs precious natural resources to have a fighting chance to regenerate.
Tour
ʻIolani palace
Honolulu Academy of Art
Eco-tourism @protectandoreservehawaii
Stay informed on current events relative to Kānaka Māoli @kawaiolanewshttps://kawaiola.news/hookahuawaiwai/north-shore-ecotours-promoting-aloha-aina-and-ike-hawaii/
Do Not Support sea Life park
INSTEAD Do this = https://h-mar.org/get-involved/
Support this Hawai'i Marine Animal Response (HMAR) is the largest Hawai'i-based nonprofit marine species conservation and response organization. They have a reporting and help line if you see a Hawaiian Sea Monk in danger or being harrassed.
Continue to explore how to recognize the indigenous land you take space on and how to be apart of the lands rematriation.
Critical Self-Reflection
Tourism supplies 6 billion dollars a year of revenue in Hawaii (Sharma, 228). The universally resourced book From a Native Daughter written by the late beloved Hawaiian Scholar and activist Haunani Kay Trask used the metaphor of Hawaii being a beautiful Sex Worker that is being pimped out by the Board of Tourism Authority, tourists being the Johns. In this analogy Hawaii and her “gracious talents” is experiencing extreme burnout, and is forced to accompany more people than she physically has the capacity to provide for (Trask,1999)....Trask is the first Hawaiian Professor to achieve tenure in Hawaii. (Sharma, 270).
Consider your ancestors' relationship to diasporic migration, colonialism, settler colonialism, and imperialist traditions. What is your positionality when you visit Hawaii? Hold intentional space for showing up in that humility. As you reflect on the ethnographic and social blueprint the history of Hawaiʻi maps out, consider your humanity and response to imperialism. Decolonize as a group and ask your communities' interaction with Hawaiʻi where do you stand in the systems of power? Then what behaviors can be addressed to stop harmful behavior, enabling social change by collective intervention. Take this opportunity to listen to Kanaka Māoli and makaʻāinana (people of the land) being pono (righteous) in forwarding Hawaiian cultural regeneration and healing transformational justice. Educate yourselves on how to put your kino (body) on the line and volunteer to help restore the land and/or donate to the Hawaiian community. Share this blog to help inform not only your relationship to yourself but others' relationality to Hawaiʻi. Be accountable for your trip's impact on the Kanaka Māoli community. Lastly, I ask you to onipaʻa, to stand firm, to be steadfast, in acknowledging your Kuleana (privilege & responsibilities). The same grace of respect you shoulder your Kuleana for Hawaiʻi will determine your relationship to her.
Sources
To Steal a Kingdom: Probing Hawaiian History Paperback – January 1, 2000
by Michael Dougherty (Author)
https://www.statista.com/chart/27805/indigenous-communities-protect-biodiversity/
A Decolonial Guide to Hawai'i by Hōkūlani K. Sinai and Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez.
Native Hawaiian Forest Birds Fight For Survival
By Lisa Eller -
June 1, 2023
https://kawaiola.news/cover/native-hawaiian-forest-birds-fight-for-survival/
https://kawaiola.news/pokenuhou/news-briefs-june-2023/
A climate change canary t in the cole mine By Communications and Publishing May 25, 2022 https://www.usgs.gov/news/featured-story/a-climate-change-canary-coal-mine-endangered-hawaiian-honeycreepers
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/2/18/it-is-time-to-end-extractive-tourism
As Inferno Grew, Lahaina’s Water System Collapsed
By Mike Baker, Kellen Browning and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
Reporting from Lahaina, Hawaii, and New York
Aug. 13, 2023
https://www.latimes.com/projects/marshall-islands-nuclear-testing-sea-level-rise/ (2019) By SUSANNE RUST
CLEAR Guide to Hawaiʻi Labor History by William J. Puette (Kapolei: University of Hawai‘i - West Oʻahu, Center for Labor Education & Research, 2018).
https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/18/us/hawaii-tourism-impact-united-shades-cec/index.html
Charles R. III Lawrence, Local Kine Implicit Bias: Unconscious Racism Revisited (Yet Again), 37 U. Haw. L. Rev. 457 (2015).
https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/the-1897-petition-against-the-annexation-of-hawaii
From a Native Daughter-Haunan Kay Trask
John P. Rosa. LOCAL STORY: THE MASSIE-KAHAHAWAI CASE AND THE CULTURE OF HISTORY.2014. University of Hawaii Press
“ Planning for Sustainable Tourism in Hawai`i Hawai`i State Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism” John M. Knox & Associates, Inc. 2003,https://files.hawaii.gov/dbedt/visitor/sustainable-tourism-project/drafts/General-Pop-Socio-Cultural-Report.pdf
“United States Census Bureau.” U.S Census Bureau QuickFacts, 2022, www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/HI/RHI525222#RHI525222.
Trask, Haunani-Kay. From a Native Daughter : Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawaiʻi. Honolulu :University of Hawaiʻi Press, 1999.
Kēhaulani Kauanui, J.PARADOXES OF HAWAIIAN SOVEREIGNTY:Land, Sex, and the Colonial Politics of State Nationalism. Duke University Press, 2018.
Schamel, Wynell and Charles E. Schamel. "The 1897 Petition Against the Annexation of Hawaii." Social Education 63, 7 (November/December 1999): 402-408.
https://aviation.hawaii.gov/airfields-airports/ceded-lands/.2023
Hawaii National Alliance to End Homelessness:
JANIS MAGIN MEIERDIERCKShttps://www.hawaiibusiness.com/one-in-seven-hawaii-homes-vacant-report-real-estate-properties/ ,2022
Josh Green. https://joshgreenforhawaii.com/an-emergency-plan-for-hawaiis-housing-crisis/. 2023
Mar 22
Written By Ashley Nagaoka
Copyright © 2023 Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice. All rights reserved.
State formally apologizes for banning Hawaiian language in schools for 90 yearsHawaii Public Radio | By Kuʻuwehi Hiraishi Published April 28, 2022 at 11:14 AM HST
Blog Post Title Four
It all begins with an idea.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.