University of Hawai'i School of Social Work professors Tammy Martin, second from right, and Kai Duponte, far right, teach empathy for troubled Native Hawaiian families. Here they consult with students, from left, Malia Blumhardt and Stacy Wynn. – Photo: Liza Simon

Cultural connections

Social workers make a case for feeling
the facts of Hawaiian history

By Liza Simon / Ka Wai Ola

In 1997, the disappearance of Peter "Peter Boy" Kema sparked community outrage. The son of a Native Hawaiian couple had been removed from and then returned to the custody of allegedly abusive parents by state Child Protective Services, despite protests from of the youngster's foster parents and several relatives. Lawmakers responded to the cry of "Where's Peter Boy?" by convening a citizen's task force to fix an apparently overburdened and underfunded child welfare system.

Kema – 6 years old at the time of his disappearance, has never been found, but his memory is alive and well for Kai Duponte, a project director at the University Hawai'i School of Social Work, where she is taking aim at one particular problem that the task force brought to light: Native Hawaiians are over-represented in the state's child welfare system but under-represented in the system's professional staff, opening the way for cultural misunderstandings that can mean dire consequences for a child caught in the middle. "As social workers, we all need to understand why the disproportionate numbers exist or else we will just appear to be sitting back in judgment of a native population," said Duponte.

Duponte has launched a curriculum to equip her students at the master's degree level with an understanding of how history contributes to the problems of Native Hawaiian families who come into the child welfare system. "What is it like to lose your language, your burial practices, your land, your way of raising kids and be told that your way of living is not good enough?" she asks rhetorically.

Duponte's answer is that colonization has saddled generations of Hawaiians with legacy of the grief of cultural loss, so she has designed exercises to help students examine their own feelings of grief and loss and participate in dramatic re-creations of emotionally wrenching turning points in Hawaiian history, such as Queen Lili'uokalani's final moments as Hawai'i's last monarch.

A kupuna council of Hawaiian elders with expertise in social services is overseeing the curriculum and has named it 'Ike Hawai'i, which roughly translates as "deeper knowledge." It is an apt name, according UH School of Social Work professor Tammy Martin. "(Members of) the kupuna council have shared with us that the Hawaiian way is to have social workers go within themselves and understand their own thoughts and feelings in order to more guide troubled families on a healing journey that will lead ultimately functioning independently and at peace."

Martin and Duponte, both of Native Hawaiian ancestry, acknowledge that a difficult task faces CPS workers, who most often enter a home to assess a child's safety, following a report made to authorities by neighbors or teachers. "The (social worker) must come from a place of humility in order to be an invited guest and not an intruder," said Martin. She adds that even though social workers are trained to develop "therapeutic relationships with clients," they need to know that Native Hawaiian clients typically "value reciprocity" in relationships. "Troubled Hawaiian families need to be given choice and voice, even if the social worker is in a position of power," Martin said.

'Ike Hawai'i may just be a first step in an overall effort to "further indigenize" social worker curriculum. Duponte said she would like to teach students to conduct cultural interventions such as ho'oponopono or the foster care placement of Hawaiian keiki with grandparents – a move that many today believe might have prevented the disappearance of "Peter Boy."

Grandparents have always played a huge role in the traditional 'ohana in everything from transmitting culture to administering forgiveness, Duponte noted. "Anyone who will be working with Hawaiian (clients) needs to understand this. This can be one of the keys to reducing the disproportionate number of Native Hawaiians in the child welfare system."