Waimānalo Pono Research Hui: A Community-Academic Partnership to Promote Native Hawaiian Wellness through Culturally Grounded and Community-Driven Research and Programming

Abstract

Although Hawai'i is often portrayed as an idyllic paradise and is recognized as one of the healthiest States in the United States, pervasive health disparities exist among Native Hawaiians. Similar to other indigenous populations across the globe, these disparities are linked to unjust social and economic policies rooted in colonization and historical trauma. Western-centric efforts to address these disparities have yielded limited results. Consequently, indigenous frameworks to decolonize western-centric research processes have emerged. The Waimānalo Pono Research Hui is an example of a community-academic partnership that uses indigenous methodologies and principles of community-based participatory research as the foundation to engage Native Hawaiian community members in research. Monthly gatherings are held where community members and academic researchers share a meal and discuss community priorities with the goal of shaping research and programming that are rooted in Native Hawaiian values. A mission for the group has been created as well as protocols for community engagement to ensure all projects that work with the Waimānalo Pono Research Hui are ethically sound and grounded in the community's preferences, cultural knowledge, and lived experiences. Our community members continually report that the Waimānalo Pono Research Hui has positively transformed their perception of and willingness to engage in research. Similarly, university students and academic researchers express how much their knowledge about working with communities has grown and inspired them. Creating spaces for communities and researchers to build authentic relationships and engage in ongoing conversations can promote culturally grounded and community-driven research and programming.

Keywords: Community capacity; Community engagement; Community ethics review processes; Community-academic partnerships; Community-based participatory research; Culture; Hawai‘i; Indigenous methodologies; Native Hawaiians; Rural health; Waimanalo.