PBS Hawaiʻi Presents
A Leader’s Journey: Josie Howard
Special | 23m 42sVideo has Closed Captions
A woman from Micronesia leads a community-based group helping immigrants navigate life in Hawaiʻi.
Josie Howard came to Hawaiʻi from Micronesia to study but while in college her focus changed. She founded We Are Oceania, a community-based group as a resource center for immigrants. She sees Micronesians as an untapped asset. “When you believe in people and youʻre empowered, the best comes out.”
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
PBS Hawaiʻi Presents is a local public television program presented by PBS Hawai'i
PBS Hawaiʻi Presents
A Leader’s Journey: Josie Howard
Special | 23m 42sVideo has Closed Captions
Josie Howard came to Hawaiʻi from Micronesia to study but while in college her focus changed. She founded We Are Oceania, a community-based group as a resource center for immigrants. She sees Micronesians as an untapped asset. “When you believe in people and youʻre empowered, the best comes out.”
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Here the ocean is a constant presence, just like it was on Onoun, the small island in Micronesia, that Josie Howard still calls home.
Tell me about your home island, what was it like growing up there?
This place actually reminds me of my home island.
I grew up by the ocean, put to sleep by the sound of the wave and woke up in the morning by the pounding sound of the wave on the reef.
And life was very simple.
There is no electricity, there is no running water.
We live off the land and in the middle of the ocean.
They will go to the taro pads for the women.
The men will go out into the ocean to get fish.
That was our daily life.
When I was growing up, I thought my island was the biggest island and had the most people on Earth.
But there was like 250 people when I was raised, yes.
And I spent 14 years of my life on the island before I went off to high school.
She set out for high school on a bigger island in Micronesia, eventually making her way to the Big Island of Hawai‘i to study medicine at UH Hilo.
It was in the 90's, right?
Yes.
When you came.
So, what was like in 90's to be from Micronesia in Hawaiʻi?
That's a really great question.
When I first came to Hawaiʻi, I realized people didn't know Micronesia.
When I said, oh, I'm from Micronesian, people were like, Oh where's that, you know?
I felt very homesick, you know, when I first came.
I had to really explain myself, like, yeah, Micronesia is like this.
And I think a lot people don't know that there's still places that exist where people live off the land, and it's, you know, it's a whole traditional indigenous system.
Life on your island sounds pretty idyllic, you know, leaving for education.
Did you think that the journey would take you back?
Yes, definitely.
Because I could never see myself not coming back to the island.
I, at that point in my life, my obligation and my value that was instilling in me is to come home and serve.
Come home and contribute.
Come home, and, you know, do your purpose.
Yeah, and when I went off to school, it wasn't my, just my goal, it was my family's goal.
My major in college was decided by my family.
It was never my decision.
And I thought I was going to school and come home.
To be a doctor.
And at what point did the path change?
I got into, deep into science.
I actually got involved in a biomedical research project to study cancer, the cause of cancer.
But it was in those times that I realized, if I go back to my island with no electricity and no running water, and there's no hospital, what would I do, right?
And also, I realized that, yes, my people were very sickly, our health was very poor, but I felt that there was something bigger than that that was causing all of this.
And that's when I got introduced to the word colonization.
That's what really kind of changed my mind and you know like changed my path, career path at that point.
But I was scared of my family and I was scared of my island people, the community and how they were going to be disappointed in me.
So, disappointed in me, so it was a really risky move that I made.
Yeah, how did you find the courage to make that and what was their reaction?
A lot of people were like, oh, we thought you were going to be a doctor.
What happened?
Ah, the courage is just, honestly, it's in me accepting my truth and accepting the fact that people will never understand unless they walk the path or the journey that I went through.
But I knew that at the end, if I stay true to my, you know I call it calling, that I will benefit my people either way.
Her path became clear when her sister became seriously ill.
With no access to adequate care back home, Hawai‘i was their best choice.
When we found out that she had both kidney failure, that also changed both her life and my life.
Because it means as long as my sister lives, I cannot leave her by herself.
And for her, she had to make a decision because if she goes back home, she's gonna die.
There is no renal services back home.
There's no dialysis.
So that would be like, you know, going home to die.
Or if she wants to live, she has an option to stay here but that will mean she had to bring her family over.
So that was a whole life change for her.
And for me, I have to, you know like, I have be here with her.
Josie never became a doctor but her work still heals.
Today, she leads We Are Oceania, a resource center she created to support Micronesian immigrants in Hawai‘i.
For the roughly 20,000 who now call these islands home, this is often the first place they turn.
There is a philosophy that I learned from my uncle and it’s a Chinese proverb, the one that goes, you, oh you give a man a fish, you feed him for one day.
You teach a man how to fish, you feed him for the rest of his life.
And that’s the same philosophy that we use, you know like, when someone can come through the one stop and learn how to fish or learn how to get by and come out at the end, and now that they’re able to afford their rent, now they’re able to send their kids to school, that is what every immigrant want when they come to Hawaiʻi.
They come out with big goals like I’m gonna bring my kids so they can have access to better education, but then those barriers and those you know other things that they don’t understand they go through that and kids don’t end up going through school or they get dropped out and you see their dreams just shatter right in front of them.
And at last they would say, I wish I didn’t make that move to come here because now I lost my kid.
What do you wish people understood about the Micronesian community?
I want people to know that we are a great asset you know, like wherever we go.
You know, a lot of people come with wealth of cultural knowledge skills set.
Sometimes it doesn't match or it doesn’t jive with what's marketable here, but as long as we are utilized, our strength is being utilized, we will be great contributing members of this community.
I think when people are not believed or they're not believing in them, the worst comes out.
But when you believe in people and you're empowered, the best comes and that's not just for the Micronesians, it's for anyone, you know, like any human being.
It does seem that for a lot of the Micronesian community, immigrating to Hawaii is not easy.
It's not.
I think one of the biggest struggles that I work with is our youth.
And it's about discrimination.
Most of the youth that will, that come through our center, the story you hear constantly is, my teacher didn't believe in me or I won't be able to graduate.
Or I'm not allowed to come back to school anymore because I don't have enough credit so they are born and raised into an era or a time when Micronesia is defined so negatively.
For me, I came, I have this really beautiful picture of Micronesia and I'm really proud of my identity.
I think a lot of our youths are not, because they’re, you know it's a different definition.
And so that's one thing that I would love people to understand, that this new definition of Micronesia is not correct.
And that the youths need to know that.
The Micronesian youths need to know that.
And I think it's our responsibility, the parents, to teach those in our homes.
Like teach our kids about our real cultures.
You know, when we started out our conversation, you're describing this very idyllic life, of growing up on an island, growing up in community, resource shared, right?
Really, really strong community values.
And what you're describing are these children of immigrants who then come and they don't grow up in that way, right.
So what they know is their experience here.
And it sounds like you're trying to ground them in culture, in the youth center and other places.
Yes, definitely.
And when you see that transformation, when you see that identity shift, what is that like for you?
Oh my God, It's so powerful.
I mean, to me, I feel like I'm ready, you know, because I feel, like, with our work with the youths, I would say two years ago, I start seeing that transition.
I can see in the kids that come through our center, they come out prouder.
Still ahead, weaving pride and identity from coconut palms, Josie helps the next generation reclaim their roots.
Your culture is who you are.
And so, for indigenous people it’s important that they must know their culture because they need to know who they are in that culture.
That’s when A Leader’s Journey continues.
At the We Are Oceania youth center in Kalihi, Josie Howard isn’t at a podium, she’s on the floor.
That's her sister nearby on the couch.
Together, they weave alongside the next generation, teaching them where they come from.
This is part of our upbringing, like our daily, daily life or routine would end with us making flowers during the evening, and you can wear them either during that evening, go to church, or the men will wear it when they have.
The men, they come together and… And tell me about the coconut weaving over there.
So that, they’re um, they’re making baskets.
So, in my part of Micronesia, I would say Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei, the men go and make baskets cause they go and gather food like breadfruit, taro.
So that's our storage, like to, or carry, like our shopping bag.
We make, um, We make baskets to be able to carry the stuff that we cut back to the house.
We can make plates out of that, we can makes forks and spoon out of that.
We can make mat, so those are examples, and hats, so when you go to get to fish, you don't have to buy hats and all that.
Everything is from nature.
You can just make it.
Yeah, so I grew up learning how to live without money.
Yeah, because everything is provided by nature.
What do you, what do you hope that the kids who are doing this with you today, what do you help kids get out of learning this part of the culture?
For me, like I, knowing how to do this, I also feel like it gives me the confidence to be able to do the other culture, like the things that I learned in this culture, or even academia.
Because it's the same concept.
It's like learning knowledge.
And for the kids, they're born and raised here, they don't know our culture.
I think if they know a piece of who they are by hands on and really experiencing it, it empowers them.
Our whole goal is to empower our youth and this center is called the WAO Youth Empowerment Center and we believe that teaching them their culture is a form of empowerment and it's a form of grounding them, it's the form of allowing them to be able to navigate success, yeah.
What I am hearing from you is grounding in culture leads to confidence.
Yes, because your culture is who you are.
And so for indigenous people, it's important that they must know their culture because they need to know who they are in that culture.
And that culture also represents a society, right, that they live in.
Everyone has a role in that society.
And if you don't know that, it will be hard for you to also navigate outside.
So for young people who are Micronesian who don't have that connection, what are they missing?
Direction.
Because if you don't know where you start, you will never know where to go.
That perspective, that indigenous perspective, is that we need to where we come from in order for us to know where we go.
Josie knows what it’s like to feel off course.
When she first came to UH Hilo, even the coconut trees felt unfamiliar.
That was my first cultural shock.
I arrived at UH Hilo, and I walked down the campus, and I saw the first coconut tree.
And I look up, and it's a grown coconut tree, it was like higher than this building, and it didn't have fruit on it.
And I was confused.
So, I was like, What happened to this coconut tree?!
What, it never matured or something and my friend cracked up.
He was laughing at me.
He's like, here in Hawaiʻi, they have to cut everything down for liability.
And I was like, what is that?
They're like if, if they you know if they mature and they fall on you you can sue the city or the state, whoever land you know that falls down and I'm like what?
I got so confused and that was my first time to realize how twisted and how like you know like back home with we, we go by nature, but here we control nature.
And I kind of, like, I was worried.
Yeah.
Because I knew that there's no way you can control nature, we have a saying that says, we cannot change the direction of the wind, but we can adjust sails.
You talked about when you came to UH Hilo and how isolated you felt.
Could you ever have imagined creating this kind of a space?
I mean, it's really remarkable.
I know, yeah.
So, I can only think to that experience, there's like somewhere I read that it says there's no such thing as failure.
Failure is actually a mechanism to teach you what to do, create something out of it, like so that you learn new things.
And I think like those experiences of being alone and homesickness had allowed me to create.
We are Oceania!
Both speaking: Right.
That pain, a way to support.
Led to all of this.
Yeah, like create our family away from home and or create a community away from home.
And we get to be able to teach our kids, bring them together.
For example, like they don't have a space at home to do this.
They don't have the resources on their own to do this.
So programs like ours can allow families to, you know, come together and learn and have the resource to learn, and have a space to learn.
Coming up, harnessing the power of humility.
You have to be humble, to maintain your power.
Or to have power.
Because if you're not, if you are not humble, then people won't respect you.
Josie Howard leads a statewide organization, advises policymakers, and is an inspiration to many.
Yet she hesitates to call herself a leader.
So Josie, how would you describe your leadership style and how has it evolved over time?
That is the hardest question, I, because I don't see myself as a leader.
Yes, I do not see myself a leader, and I think my leadership style derives from my instinct to help others.
I just find that so interesting because obviously you lead an organization, you ask anyone in the Micronesian community or in general Hawaiʻi about who are the leaders in this sector and your name comes up again and again.
If someone has asked me, Josie, we need you to come up and lead this, I won't.
Yes, but if they say, Josie we need your help, there's a situation and we need to get this done or I will be there.
You see this difference?
So you see yourself as a helper, not a leader.
Yes, I see myself as a helper and it's people who define me as a leader, not me (laughs) It's my role and it's my responsibility to my community that puts me in that category, but it's not so much that I see myself as a leader.
My urgency is the urgency of the community and so that I will be there.
For her, humility isn’t just a value, it’s how she moves through the world.
You have to be humble, to maintain your power, or to have power.
Because if you're not, if you are not humble, then people won't respect you.
So, to me, that is the biggest key, the word humility.
It's so important in order for me to navigate success in our cultural spaces.
How did you learn humility?
Oh, I think my whole life is about humility.
I learned that from my family.
I mean, like every day you're taught to be humble.
Those practices to me, they really hold values.
Those systems hold values, and I also think that when you move from place to place, uh, there is place in our culture that allows those things to be uplifted.
And so there's a term that says atoll learn, meaning like, if you're, you, when you're voyage off to the ocean and you look back and, uh, see where I come from, it's atoll.
So here in Hawaiʻi, you have mountains.
So when you come from an atoll and when you leave the island, you only see like the coconut trees are at the top and then on the beach, you'll see the laupaka plant.
So the term is literally, if you can no longer see the laupaka leaves, then the cultural norms are lifted, because you need to survive.
So, I do believe that we need to adapt as we come to Hawaiʻi.
I just get the sense that your life is a constant adaptation.
Oh my gosh.
I like, I always tell people I have multiple personalities.
Like on a daily basis, I travel between cultures and when I'm at home, like when I come to work with my staff at WAO, who are Micronesians, it's also a different space.
And then when I'm gone to a meeting, like in this space, it is a totally different space and when I go back home, I'm in a totally different space.
So like at the end of the day, I get so exhausted.
You know, it s like I'm changing culture every single day, and I realized my kids do the same thing.
Like, my daughters would leave the house, they'd leave their skirt on the wall as they go out to the road to go to school.
And as they come home, they come back get the skirt and put it on, and come into the house.
Do you feel like Hawaiʻi is your place now?
To be honest, I had a hard time.
Saying that because I know that I am not from Hawaiʻi and maybe that's again a cultural thing and it's a respect and a humility thing.
My mom, when it was time for her to pass, she said, make sure you take my body back to the island, so that I can reunite with the land.
That's a cultural value.
For me, I think I'm okay if I'm buried in Hawaiʻi.
In my work and in my contribution, yes, definitely Hawaiʻi is home to me now, and I feel like I need to do my best for Hawaiʻi.
But when it comes to that cultural space, like to claim that Hawaiʻi is my home or that I am from Hawaiʻi, I do have respect and I cannot say that.
What's best piece advice you've ever received?
I would say like one advice that stays with me was from my father.
And this was like my, it was my very first time to leave the island to go to high school.
I didn't realize that that was gonna be my exit from the island and going to that high school was gonna change my whole horizon and that I would never come back, you know, like as I always thought or wish I would back to the island.
And he told me, he said, you know, I don't have money to give you.
I don't have anything to give to you, but I will give you this and it's a story of two birds.
And the two birds, one is the morning bird, and one is evening bird.
So, navigators will wake up in the morning, and they'll look to the horizon to where the bird is coming from.
And they will know exactly where land is because they will go to where the bird was coming from, right?
So, he said, don't follow the morning birds because it will take you out into the wide ocean because they go out to look for fish.
It will take you up to where there's no land, but follow the evening bird, where it will take to land.
Josie may have followed the evening bird far from Micronesia, but in helping others find direction, she too, has found her place here.
For A Leader’s Journey, I’m Yunji de Nies.
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