Workshop Series: Ho‘omau: Birth, Culture & Equity in Hawai‘i

Talk Story Sessions

Topic: Culturally Respectful Birth Work 

Hosted by: Pacific Birth Collective Staff 

This session will be almost entirely discussion-based. Come prepared to talk, share, and ask questions! We will all be open to learning about different cultural perspectives during this facilitated discussion. We'll be talking about how to best support birthing folks of different ages, orientations, identities, abilities, and backgrounds. 

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PAST SESSIONS

Session 1: Wednesday, April 14 3-5 pm

Topic: Birth & History in Hawaii: Political & Social Injustices

Speaker: Laulani Teale

Laulani Teale is a Hawaiian cultural practitioner experienced in lāʻau lapaʻau and hoʻoponopono. She has many roles: cultural peace, medicine and birth worker, activist, mother, musician, artist and writer.   She holds an MPH in Community Health Development and Education from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

Session 2: Wednesday, May 19 3:00-5:00 pm

Topic: Cultural Appropriation, Cultural Humility, and Responsible Allyship

Speaker: Tara Compehos

Tara Compehos is a CPM who studied midwifery under Medrakanoeonapua and studied with teachers from all over the world. She is the Vice Chair of the Hawaii State Home Birth Task Force and a founding member of the Kaʻū Women’s Health collective. She holds an BA from New York University.

Session 3: Wednesday, June 16 from 3:00-5:00 pm  HST

Topic: Understanding and Addressing Implicit Bias

Speaker: Amy Jin Johnson

Amy Jin Johnson is the Executive Director of Project Implicit, a 501(c)(3) organization committed to research, education, and outreach about implicit bias. Amy is currently writing her dissertation in Asian American History at Brown University. She also holds a BA in History from Kalamazoo College, an MA in History from American University, an MA in American Studies from Brown University.

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Throughout 2021, we invite Hawaiʻi professionals to come together for a series of talks about birth, equity, inclusion, & culture.   

The workshops will feature a variety of voices and perspectives addressing topics like history, modern society, cultural appropriation, cultural humility, implicit bias, and culturally respectful birth work. More workshops will be added as the year goes on.

Issues of race are deeply connected to reproductive justice and health. Here in Hawai‘i, colonization and systemic racism have resulted in disparate birth outcomes for many groups, including Native Hawaiians and other BIPOC people. With these workshops, we hope to begin to unravel some of these issues.

Ho‘omau means to persist and perpetuate, which is our hope for these sessions: That these ongoing conversations will turn into actions that improve our work and help our community. The name came to us from our grant coordinator, Ho'oheno Chase, after consultation with Native Hawaiian community members and receiving permission to use this concept in our training. This is one way we are modeling cultural respect through our own work.

We recognize that there is no one training we can provide or attend that will provide “cultural competency.” Rather, we will commit to exploring these issues in order to become more aware and culturally respectful while recognizing that this is an ongoing process.  

Each workshop will be a presentation followed by a Q&A and group discussion. Please join us for any and all workshops – the first two are scheduled for April and May.