One Year of NEH’s Pacific Islands Cultural Initiative

This month marks the one-year anniversary of NEH’s Pacific Islands Cultural Initiative, an agency initiative focused on fortifying cultural heritage and resilience in Amerika Samoa, Guåhan (Guam), Hawaiʻi, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas (CNMI). Launched in September 2023, the $1.3 million initiative offers new funding opportunities to strengthen the cultural and educational sectors across Hawaiʻi and the three U.S. jurisdictions in the Pacific. 

A key component of the initiative is the creation of a new Pacific Islands Humanities Network, a permanent regional network to facilitate collaboration and knowledge-sharing among NEH’s four Pacific region affiliates—Amerika Samoa Humanities Council, Humanities Guåhan, Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities, and the Northern Marianas Humanities Council—and their local partners. 

In June, these four Pacific humanities councils gathered in O’ahu to formally launch the new NEH-supported network. A ceremonial signing of a memorandum of agreement took place at the Capitol Modern art museum in Honolulu as part of the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture (FestPAC), the world’s largest celebration of Indigenous Pacific Islanders. 

“This is a very special moment,” NEH Chair Shelly C. Lowe (Navajo), who gave brief remarks at the historic signing ceremony, told the audience. “NEH is proud to witness this signing, and we congratulate our humanities council partners—and all the members of the network—on this occasion.” 

Creation of the Pacific Islands Humanities Network was supported by $880,000 in supplemental NEH funding to the four regional humanities councils, disbursed over three years. This funding also provides for the development of local humanities programs and resources that amplify Pacific Islander history and heritage, build capacity in the region, and support cultural protection and climate resilience. Through local grantmaking by the councils, this supplemental NEH funding will support projects such as Native and Indigenous language documentation and cultural revitalization efforts, oral history collection, public humanities programming, and humanities research and curriculum development for K-12 and higher education institutions and teachers in the U.S. Pacific Islands. 

Because Pacific Islands face disproportionate impacts of climate change, despite being responsible for less than 1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, the Pacific Island Cultural Initiative also provides $500,000 in emergency relief funding to support cultural and educational institutions affected by the 2023 wildfires in Maui and Typhoon Mawar in Guåhan.

This includes a $300,000 NEH supplement to the Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities to administer a Maui Wildfires Humanities Recovery Grants program to aid humanities organizations in rebuilding structures and programs damaged by the Lahaina wildfires and advance cultural recovery in Maui County. Applications for this special funding opportunity will be available through the Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities website. 

Additional emergency grants from NEH have supported: 

• Onsite conservation and preservation assistance from the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation (FAIC)’s corps of National Heritage Responders volunteers to recover humanities collections affected by the fires in Maui. 
• Stabilization and conservation treatment of the surviving church records from the Holy Innocents Episcopal Church in Lahaina dating from 1873 to 2014 after the church’s physical structures were destroyed by wildfire. 
• Cleaning, restoration, and conservation of the Amida Buddha statue at the Lahaina Jodo Mission in Maui. 
• Reconstruction of the Fort Apugan, Agana Heights garden in Guåhan, a collection of native medicinal plants used in CHamoru medicines and healing practices that was destroyed by Typhoon Mawar. 

Photo caption

Pacific Humanities Council Executive Directors at Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture and Design in Honolulu, HI. Pictured L to R: Executive Director CJ Ochoco, Humanities Guåhan,, Executive Director, Leo Pangelinan, Northern Marianas Humanities Council, Executive Director Aiko Yamashiro, Northern Marianas Humanities Council and Executive Director Tauaisafune Taifane, Amerika Samoa Humanities Council, Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities.

Wakeful State

Photo caption

Pacific Humanities Council Executive Directors at Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture and Design in Honolulu, HI. Pictured L to R: Executive Director CJ Ochoco, Humanities Guåhan,, Executive Director, Leo Pangelinan, Northern Marianas Humanities Council, Executive Director Aiko Yamashiro, Northern Marianas Humanities Council and Executive Director Tauaisafune Taifane, Amerika Samoa Humanities Council, Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities.

Wakeful State

The stated goals of the Pacific Islands Humanities Network, as outlined by the four member councils, are to: foster knowledge sharing and collaboration within the network; elevate Pacific Islander voices and experiences; strengthen community engagement and outreach activities to connect with Pacific Islander communities and diaspora; and to cultivate a collective sense of Oceania across diverse communities.

Leo Pangelinan, Executive Director of the Northern Marianas Humanities Council and newly appointed Chair of the Pacific Islands Humanities Network, said: “Our second convening in Hawai'i for FestPAC 2024 provided our members with a rare opportunity to engage with various new and enduring expressions of Pacific Islander culture, wisdom, and ingenuity in high doses. It was a powerful moment for those of us in the humanities to examine and reflect on the cultural diversity and connections that exist within the largest blue continent on earth." 

"As we reckon with the impacts of colonization on our communities and the future challenges we face, we are grateful for this shared vision to reconnect and uplift the power, wisdom, and joy of our island cultures,” said Aiko Yamashiro, Executive Director of Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities. “In our closing circle, we laughed, sang, cried, and shared chants and songs in our island languages. This is the beginning of an important journey together.”

“I am grateful for this opportunity to collaborate and connect with the other Pacific Island councils as we continue to uplift our communities through the humanities,” said CJ Ochoco, Executive Director of Humanities Guåhan.

The Pacific Islands Humanities Network signing event capped off NEH’s participation in the 2024 FestPAC, a roving quadrennial festival, celebrating the traditional culture, heritage, and arts of Indigenous communities of the Pacific. The ten-day festival drew some 100,000 attendees and more than 2,500 delegates from 25 nations and countries from across the Pacific Ocean. During FestPAC, Chair Lowe moderated a panel event with Pacific humanities leaders to discuss the opportunities and challenges for the educational and cultural sectors in the Pacific region; led a roundtable with public and private funders to discuss and align resources to support educational and cultural organizations in the U.S. Pacific Islands; and attended various FestPAC events across O’ahu.

Photo caption

13th FestPAC Opening Ceremony with host country Hawai`i at University of Hawai`i at Manoa

Photo by Yennie Tse

Photo caption

13th FestPAC Opening Ceremony with host country Hawai`i at University of Hawai`i at Manoa

Photo by Yennie Tse

Hear an interview with Chair Lowe on Hawaiʻi Public Radio’s The Conversation about the Pacific Islands Cultural Initiative and NEH’s participation in FestPAC. 

National Endowment for the Humanities:Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at www.neh.gov.