This year’s Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture unfolded in Honolulu with the theme “Ho‘oulu Lāhui: Regenerating Oceania.” The site of the celebration was fitting: Hawai‘i is not only connected to these diverse Pacific Island cultures and people, it can also help bridge the gap between them and the Western world.

Nearly 2,200 artists, dancers and other delegates representing 27 Pacific Island nations came to FestPAC, drawing overflow crowds at many of the events during the 10-day gathering.

Hawaii Business Magazine interviewed local and Pacific Island leaders about FestPAC’s impact and how Hawai‘i’s location and culture can be leveraged to foster regional unity and cultural preservation.

FestPAC began in 1972 so people from various Pacific Island nations could gather, showcase their cultures and find ways to maintain traditional practices in a developing world. Suzanne Vares-Lum, president of the East-West Center in Honolulu, underscores the festival’s success in uniting nations while highlighting the diversity of Pacific peoples.

“We celebrate, we respect our elders and those who come before us. We can see the similarities, yet we can see the unique differences for each place, so that they don’t all disappear in one mesh of ‘Pacific.’ Every single country has its own unique flavor, yet we are connected with Indigenous knowledge,” she says.

Vares-Lum, a Native Hawaiian, praises Hawai‘i’s distinct soul, which blends a rich immigration history with an awareness of Kānaka Maoli culture. “Hawai‘i has a unique role, not just because of its geographic location. It’s the unique history and makeup of Hawai‘i, this multicultural nature, that connects.”

Keoni Williams, information and public service officer at the East-West Center’s Pacific Islands Development Program, called FestPAC a gathering of “cousins and distant relatives.”

“If you trace us back to our ancestors, we’re all connected in one way or another, and so I think that it’s really important for each host community to welcome other Pacific Island cultures, and it serves that role of cultural perpetuation.”

Alexander Gillespie, professor of law at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, says opportunities for regional cooperation like FestPAC enhance the chances of peace and cooperation.

“We come together, not just because of external concerns, but also the similarities and the cultures and economies that pull us together. Anything that involves talking with others – whether they’re your neighbors, or your wider community, or the countries right across the ocean – is a good thing. But your first step is always start talking to your neighbors.”

Hawai’i as a Hub

Hawai‘i is a melting pot of Hawaiian, Polynesian, Asian and Western influence, creating a multicultural history that makes it well situated to foster Pacific unity and cooperation. The East-West Center – a federally funded hub of regional dialogue, research and education located on the UH Mānoa campus – is a vital part of Hawai‘i’s leadership in the Pacific.

The Pacific Islands Development Program has revived the Pacific Island Report, an online roundup of Pacific news, along with “Vision and Voices,” a quarterly periodical launched in May that features contributing writers’ commentary on Pacific Islands matters. The EastWest Center also supports the Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders, with regular meetings at the center and a permanent vice-chairmanship for Hawai‘i’s governor.

Former Gov. John Waihe‘e says the center helps Hawai‘i “talk to the Pacific.” He emphasizes Hawai‘i’s role in Pacific history, viewing it as an integral gathering place among Oceanic cultures.

“Hawai‘i is at the center of a magnificent ‘continent’ of its own. Hawai‘i has always been the bridge,” Waihe‘e says.

Gillespie says that along with Hawai‘i’s relationship with the broader Pacific, its status as the 50th state gives it “economic status and connections that others don’t have.”

Facing Pacific Issues

The Pacific Islands grapple with issues that have unique impacts in the region including climate change, threats to sovereignty, security and population drain. Vares-Lum says her 5½ years spent at the U.S. military’s Indo-Pacific Command headquarters on O‘ahu added much to her perspective on Pacific security challenges. At the East-West Center, the retired U.S. Army major general leans on her entire background to promote conversation and provide solutions for Pacific Island problems.

“Security challenges are not just your traditional geopolitical security challenges,” Vares-Lum says. “Security is food security, economic security – that is national security.”

Gillespie, who has served as a lawyer and expert for New Zealand’s international delegations, says the challenges that Pacific Islanders face are becoming increasingly difficult to manage for small island countries with limited resources.

“The world has a greater responsibility toward countries, often Pacific Island countries, which aren’t developing. They’re actually the least developed. They face challenges, whether it’s crime, security or climate change, and you’ve got to make sure the assistance and support is given to them – otherwise it’s going to be a very difficult decade ahead.”

Gillespie says the region should consider its collective identity – which he directly links to a shared history in wayfinding – to achieve common goals.

“It’s the Indigenous navigation of the Pacific, which I think is one of the most outstanding achievements of humanity, that should be brought to the fore. But that requires countries to start thinking beyond just, ‘What can we get,’ as opposed to ‘What can we do for the region?’ ”

He offers UNESCO World Heritage recognition as a potential next step to showcase the unified culture of the region and its long voyaging history.

Hawaiian navigator Nainoa Thompson says the first voyage Polynesians took to Hawai‘i marks one of the last discoveries of land on Earth, which makes Hawaiian culture one of the youngest in the world. This youth, Thompson says, means Hawai‘i has much to learn from older nations and cultures.

“If you accept that the ocean separates us, but the canoe connects us … everybody in the South Pacific, you are elders to us, you are teachers to us,” he says.

A Planet That’s an Island

Waihe‘e says the knowledge of Pacific Islanders is more important than ever before because climate change and development have forced nations outside of the Pacific region to consider life with limited resources – as Pacific Islanders have always done.

“We used to have this clash between continental-thinking and island-thinking where we [islanders] depend on finite resources and the rest of the world didn’t see things that way,” Waihe‘e says. “But now we have a planet that’s an island, and the lessons that we learn on islands are becoming important to the rest of the planet. I believe the planet needs us.”

Williams, of the Pacific Islands Development Program, says it’s important to perpetuate the traditional knowledge of the Pacific as “therein lies a lot of the answers to how we’re going to be able to mitigate, adapt and move forward.”

In his FestPAC speech, Thompson spoke of the Hawaiian Renaissance and the history of shared struggle and collective liberation efforts among Pacific Islanders. He mentioned past demonstrations for Hōkūle‘a, Aotearoa and Kaho‘olawe, which had profound impacts in unifying Pacific peoples, and described FestPAC as another opportunity to make a difference.

“We can make change. That’s what the Festival of Pacific Arts is about – it’s about change.”