We are University of Hawaii West Oahu Educators and we support Civil Beat changing the media’s narrative of the Westside.
Ku’u Kauanoe and Jessica Terrell recently penned, “West Oahu Residents Say The Media Is Getting Their Community All Wrong. We Want To Change That. As educators at the University of Hawaii West Oahu located within Congressional District 1 which includes Ewa Beach, Kapolei, Makakilo, Kalaeloa, Honokai Hale, Koolina, Nanakuli, Maili, Waianae, Makaha, Keaau and Makua we have students every semester from the Westside who are fed and raised with a negative narrative that the media has been obsessed to tell.
The narrative is that these students and their families are from the “bad side” of Oahu. Looking at the media’s narrative one would assume that the Westside is made up primarily of drug addicts, the homeless, poor, criminals, and uneducated minorities of color.
As educators in higher education on the Westside we teach graduates from Waianae High School, Nanakuli High and Intermediate School, Kapolei High School, James Campbell High School, and Waipahu High School. We see the internalization that these narratives have created in students’ self-esteem based on different lived experiences that others outside their communities see and treat them as the “bad side” stereotype.
The “bad side” stereotypes are alive and well because it is perpetuated in everything you hear about on the news and read in newspapers. Ask around, “What do you know about Waianae, Maili, Ewa Beach, or Nanakuli” to anyone that doesn’t live in these communities and what are their responses to you?
Another dominant perception of the Westside is its perceived, environmental deficit. That it is dry and nothing grows. Inaccurate!
Long before modern-day Waianae these valleys were the kalo basket of the moku, lo’i kalo and auwai that provided a rich wetland ecosystem of native plants and animals like pinao (Hawaiian dragonfly), ʻaukuʻu (black-crowned night heron), ʻoʻopu (goby fish),`anae (flathead grey mullet fish), and uouoa (sharp nose mullet); squid were abundant in Keawaula Bay, along with Hawaiian fishing practices that modern fisherman are now resorting to in efforts to support sustainable and responsible fishing.
The Westside environmental “deficit” perspective has resulted in artificial stereotypes of remoteness, isolation, barren and arid space that is a targeted district for dumping trash and sewage treatment plants. The Environmental Justice group and Elders of Waianae have been protesting commercial efforts to dump and build more landfills in Nanakuli and Waianae.
The Westside is beautiful and rich in people, history, natural resources and culture that is an amalgamation of stunning beautiful views and beaches and agricultural lands that are constantly competing with landfills and other non-mana enhancing projects.
There are very successful nonprofit organizations dedicated to sustainable agriculture and reinvestment into the communities, such as Ka’ala Farm and social entrepreneurship organizations like the MA`O Farm, that are partnering with University of Hawaii Leeward Community College and University of Hawaii West Oahu through the Youth Leadership Training Program. YTL is a two-year program for college students who work part-time on the farm while attending college full-time to earn an associate or a bachelor’s degree.
The program’s mission is to connect the students from Waianae to their agricultural heritage through farming technologies and farming science through hands-on experience. We believe that space, place, geography and connection to identity matters to our students at the University of Hawaii West Oahu. Without examining the oral traditions of Hawaiian mo’olelo or stories about place — and connecting these stories to the students, the classes, and then to our larger communities and societies — any narratives or stories about the Westside are incomplete.
As Pacific Islander educators we join the chorus of women journalists who advocate in this era of social, gender, racial, and environmental efforts to seek justice and peace. We also advocate that our local media must reevaluate the ways in which it cultivates and promotes a redress to these injustices. The media promotes these injustices within their targeted historical reporting that predominately perpetuates the Westside narrative as the “bad side.”
Trustworthy public service media are always needed, but more so now as our state is grappling with COVID-19. Like many other communities in Oahu the Westside has faced these COVID-19 challenges with service, compassion, and strength of community to help each other.
