Radio Show Download: Violent Crisis on Rapa Nui Island

As I mentioned on the blog last week here is the download link to the Indigenous Politics: From Native New England and Beyond episode on the events taking place in Rapanui.

http://indigenouspolitics.mypodcast.com/2010/12/The_Violent_Crisis_on_Rapa_Nui_Island-335489.html

Host J. Kehaulani Kauanui focuses on a dire situation that's been unfolding on the island of Rapa Nui. Where the indigenous Ma`ohi people are reclaiming traditional ancestral lands that the Chilean government seized for private development. We will hear from Susana Hito who is following the situation carefully through her husband Santi Hitorangi (Ma`ohi) who is currently on the island and who is directly involved with his extended family. He was shot during the weekend while filming a clash with the Chilean police opened fire on unarmed Rapanui civilians. Santi Hitorani is a filmmaker, artist and Rapa Nui representative of people to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. He and Susana make up Te Pito Productions. Original air-sate: 12-07-10.

Moai photo by: http://www.flickr.com/people/pretamal/

Sharing New Media Tricks with Non-Profits

As I mentioned last week I was hired as a new media consultant for the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council www.a3pcon.org. I worked really hard on putting together what I had hoped would be a useful primer on basic communication strategies and how those can be extended into social or "new media" strategies.

I am hopeful that A3PCON has a budding successful new media strategy. Part of my recommendation moving forward is that they identify a short list of goals to pursue that they can attach actions to and easily quantify their progress.



These are two suggestions I have for quantifiable A3PCON goals:

1. To increase membership
2. To involve Asian and Pacific Islander individuals doing community work in non-Asian or Pacific organizations.

Based on the discussion I also thought these were two goals in terms of communication objectives, but they are a little harder to quantify.

3. To mobilize the Asian and Pacific Islander community
4. To define the first impression of A3PCON's work

As promised last week, below is the slideshow that I used with my presentation. Feel free to pass it around and let me know what you think of it. If you were an attendee at the retreat definitely leave some comments for me below. Thanks!

New media for non profits is easy (I promise)

View more presentations from Christen Marquez.

Thoughts from Cambodian Student Activists after The Golden Voice Screening

A few weeks ago I attended the Khmer Student Coalition Conference at the University of Berkeley in California to begin getting the word out about Two Shadows, which is a feature film that I am producing with Director Greg Cahill. Nearly 200 student activists from the Khmer community came together under the theme of “Reflections from a Shattered Past”. I helped the organizers to program two films to kick-off the opening night of the three day conference. On the first evening of the event we screened The Golden Voice which is a short narrative film about Ros Sereysothea, a Cambodian rock singer who was killed during the Khmer Rouge. The main feature film that was screened is a wonderful documentary made in 2003 that I saw for the first time this year called The Flute Player. It follows a musician named Arn Chorn-Pond who survived the Pol Pot regime and continues to fight to preserve traditional Khmer music and culture as a way to cope with the genocide. I wrote a more detailed blog post about this film after I saw it which you can read here:

It was a wonderful experience to see so many young people thinking about how to empower their community. I was able to capture some of their words on video and I have posted them on YouTube.

Research Findings on the Justice System’s Impact on Native Hawaiians

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) has just released a study of how the justice system impacts Native Hawaiians. The findings of the report show need for improvement in how the system works with Native Hawaiians.

Here are a few of the most compelling pieces of information from the fact sheet:

Native Hawaiians make up the highest percentage of people incarcerated in out-of-state facilities.

In 2005, of the 6,092 people who were under the custody of the Public Safety Department, which includes people in jails, 29 percent (1,780) were in facilities operated by other states or private companies on behalf of states. Of the people in out-of-state facilities, 41 percent are Native Hawaiians.

Native Hawaiians receive longer prison sentences than most other racial or ethnic groups.

Controlling for severity of charge, age at arrest and gender of the person charged, Native Hawaiians are sentenced to 119 days more in prison than Tongans, 73 more days than Native Americans, 68 days more than Hispanics, and 11 days more than Whites.

Hawai`i has the largest proportion of its population of women in prison, with Native Hawaiian women comprising a disproportionate number of women in the prison.

While Native Hawaiian men and women are both disproportionately represented in Hawai`i’s criminal justice system, the disparity is greater for women. Forty-four percent of the women incarcerated under the jurisdiction of the state of Hawai‘i are Native Hawaiian. Comparatively, 19.8 percent of the general population of women in Hawai`i identify as Native Hawaiian or part Native Hawaiian.

To read the entire report, download fact sheets, and learn more about the study you can vising OHA's web page on the Criminal Justice System here: www.oha.org/disparatetreatment/

Webcasting for Rapanui Fundraising Event

I have been going crazy this week trying to figure out how to use Ustream with my MacBook Pro for next week's Being Rapanui fund raising event. I would definitely recommend against attempting this. The details are a little tech-y and not very interesting unless you are trying to figure out webcasting for yourself. If you are interested you can send me a message and I will tell you all about it. Ultimately I scrapped using a Mac and went to a PC.

The good thing is that since everything seems to be in working order the panel discussion from the event will be broadcast live over the Internet at this channel: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/being-rapanui

The "Save Rapa Nui" event will be an evening of film, music, art, food, and discussion of the indigenous people of Rapanui also know as Easter Island and their current struggle for sovereignty.

The event will be next Thursday October 28th, 2010 at the Barnsdall Art Theater in Los Angeles. The program will being at 6pm. Tickets and more information can be found at www.saverapanui.org

We will be showing the film Being Rapanui - but this will not be screening over the webcast, so if you are local to the Los Angeles area you have to buy a ticket and come out. But if you are outside the Los Angeles area please do tune in to the panel discussion.

Tanya Joshua of the White House Initiative on Asian American and Pacific Islanders

Last month I was part of a town hall style meeting of Pacific Islanders in Southern California who met with Tanya Harris Joshua. Tanya provides support for Pacific Islander outreach and Environment / Veteran's Affairs issues. She is a staff member of the new White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. She joined the Initiative from the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Insular Affairs (OIA).

The meeting began with an awesome meal where dishes from each of the island groups represented was served. Ono!

Afterward community members were given a chance to speak about their most pressing community concerns. The video about is just a small slice of what happened that evening.

I have forwarded this video on to Tanya who is passing it on to others. I hope that it can be helpful in raising the profile of Pacific Islander people and the challenges faced by the community.

Here is snippet of a reaction from congressional staffer Jed Bullock "I hope progress and results in the area of health data for AAPI populations and the territories will be yielded from the leadership and focus of IGIA (Interagency Group on Insular Areas). I know there once existed – if it does not still exist – an IGIA subgroup or task force on health data collection. The Delegates and Governors have repeatedly called for it over the years at the IGIA plenary sessions as you know, and the Chamorro gentleman as well as the Marshallese community leader captured on the video meeting with you touched on the need for a comprehensive cancer study/registry and diabetes survey among data. I hope these needs can be priorities within the Administration and through IGIA and the WHIAAPI."

Girls to the Front - History of the Riot Grrl Movement

I was just sent a link to a project called "Girls to the Front" by a woman that I used to work with as a Camera Assistant in New York City Mary Billyou. The project is a online collection of videos, like the one above, of women speaking about their experiences with the Riot Grrl movement. The videos are an online accompaniment to a book written by Sara Marcus, who is also the woman in the video above. Her book is a history of the movement.

Check out what Vainity Fair has to say about the book -

"Sara Marcus’s Girls to the Front is not only a historical rockument of the revolutionary 90s counterculture Riot Grrrl movement, which birthed the DIY feminist punk scene, but also a rousing inspiration for a new generation of empowered rebel girls to strap on guitars and stick it to The Man." — Vanity Fair

3 tips from New Media Bootcamp - week one

Thank you very much to Pacific Islanders in Communications who sponsored me to attend the two week New Media bootcamp being put together by Los Angeles non-profit LAANE and the Liberty Hill Foundation.

There was a whole host of incredible speakers including Philip Holmes, L.A. Director, Blue State Digital (the group that ran the new media for Barack Obama's presidential election campaign) and Rob Kramer of Campaign Live which is an easy to use low cost tool for fundraising and awareness widgets. It was a packed day but there were some useful concepts that I came away with. Here are the top five.

"A/B Testing"

How will you know if your messaging is maximized for your audience? You should use A/B testing. For example when you send out your email blast to your mailing list split it in half. It is a great way to find out what your audience responds to. For example on your donate button does "join the movement" or "support the cause" work better. If you send both of the phrases out you will have a better idea of what works for you.

Be Consistent

I have to admit that this is a big problem for me with my work. I am so busy running around shooting, writing grants, or just general hustling that I have a hard time getting things like blog posts together. But really posting at least two to three times a week is a requirement. I know this is hard to hear and even harder to follow through with.

Listen

Communication online is not a one way street. The beauty of social media is being about to talk directly to your audience and ask for their ideas and opinions. What better way to be able to cater directly to your audience than to find out straight from them the kind of content they most want to see?

Mauna Kea: Temple Under Siege Screening

This past Saturday I organized a screening of a documentary film called Mauna Kea: Temple Under Siege. It was held in the Asian Pacific American Legal Center's 1st Floor Community Room. This film was finished in 2006 ago but it is a great video to set the stage to discuss the current new telescope developments happening on Mauna Kea and Haleakala. At the screening I presented a slide show on the issues by KAHEA - The Hawaiian Environmental Alliance. I would suggest visiting both the KAHEA and Mauna Kea film websites I have linked here to learn more about the issues facing the precious summits of Hawai'i.

Around twenty people came, and we collected 17 signatures to protect the summits. This was the first screening of this type that I have organized, and I look forward to organizing more.

You can also stream the entire film at Asia Pacific Films

Here is a excerpt of the Mauna Kea Film for you to check out:

Happy MLK Day

“Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. It is a sword that heals. [It] cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Asian Pacific Islander Health Report

California Assemblymember Mike Eng is committed to advancing health issues for Asian and Pacific Islanders.



He helped commission a report which disaggregates mental health problems for many diverse Asian and Pacific Islander communities. You can download the report here.

Last night he also hosted a townhall presenting the issues facing these communities. I recorded the event and will be posting some videos soon. Legislative Aide Annie Lam was extremely vital to the success of the event and said "This is only the beginning of the work we hope to do in these communities."