Molokaʻi Youth Summit gives future leaders voice, space

Teacher leaders, students, and community members gathered Saturday for the third annual Molokaʻi Youth Summit, an event aimed at giving voice and space to future leaders.

The free event attracted more than 70 attendees. Held at Molokaʻi High’s cafeteria, it was organized and sponsored by the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association, in partnership with Libraries Transforming Communities.

Molokaʻi High special education teacher Ric Ornellas, Sarah Pua Galiher, a second grade teacher at Kilohana Elementary, and Molokaʻi High’s librarian Diane Mokuau organized the event.

“We want adults to hear what the youth are really thinking about and caring because they are the future leaders,” Ornellas said.

“This year, it was, ‘What do they really care about?’ Let’s be really specific. Reproductive rights, poverty, homelessness. We’re not going to be giving any answers. Let’s talk about it, and adults listen to the conversation,” Ornellas added.

HSTA Executive Director Ann Mahi spoke Saturday on behalf of the union, urging participants to come together and learn from one another.

“As a la hui (community) let us listen, learn, and support each other so we can amplify the voices of our youth, and together create a vision for a brighter tomorrow for all,” Mahi said.

Student youth panel addresses unemployment, homelessness

A youth panel, composed of eight students from different schools on Molokaʻi, including a sixth grader and high schoolers, presented topics to discuss before an audience. They talked about cultural understanding, Hawaiʻi’s homeless people, poverty, unemployment, LGBTQ rights, and more.

The opportunity provided a safe space for students, families, and community members to have open and honest dialogue about serious issues facing youth today.

Brian Gomes, a student panelist from Molokaʻi High said, “I came to use my student voice […] Talking toward people I trust and people I know, and they’re willing to support me — that’s really powerful.”

Molokaʻi High student David “Kolu” Ainoa said, “It’s about building a stronger community, and having the adults understand the kids more. If the adults don’t understand the kids, then everything’s going to be backwards, and the adults are going to think the kids are radical and they make bad decisions, and the kids are going to think the adults are stubborn and they they don’t know how to grow up to the new age, and nobody’s going to win. So I think that’s why it’s important to have these kinds of conversations where you know, the two age groups can understand each other.”

Mele Kanealiʻi, a 19-year old Molokaʻi High alumna, was Saturday’s keynote speaker. Kanealiʻi currently studies public policy as a sophomore at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York.

In a pre-recorded speech, Kanealiʻi addressed topics such as housing in Hawaiʻi, reproductive health care for women, desensitizing gun violence and genocide, climate change, and more.

When discussing the cost of living in Hawaiʻi, Kanealiʻi said that the state is prioritizing tourism over affordable housing for local residents.

“Short term rentals take housing off the market, driving up costs and limiting availability, availability for families who need a place to live.

“This trend has resulted in Native Hawaiians and local people being pushed out of their own communities, making it increasingly difficult to find stable, affordable housing, and with all these native Hawaiian families and local families being displaced […] it really just makes me think, and I hope that it makes all of us think, what is Hawaiʻi without its people? What is Hawaiʻi without its people?”

Kanealiʻi continued, “By sharing stories, hosting discussions and having events like this, where we can talk and amplify the voice of those who are suffering, and engage deeply with those issues, we can foster a sense of urgency that’s much needed, and compassion that encourages action and solidarity.”

The summit displayed student works from all schools on Molokaʻi such as visual art and writing.

Resource booths from organizations shared information on anti-bullying, vaping, and suicide prevention, and more. The Molokaʻi Library Services Cadre (MLSC) resource booth gave away free books, and attendees were able to make buttons and bookmarks as keepsakes.

Ornellas and Galiher are members of HSTA’s Human and Civil Rights Committee (HCR).

“This is a paradigm shift. Rural communities are patriarchal and matriarchal. It’s like, the adults speak, and the children do what they’re told. We flipped it to be, ‘Listen to the issues and what the youth are saying. Listen.’” Ornellas said.