MINUTES OF THE COMMISSION ON THE 13TH FESTIVAL OF
PACIFIC ARTS & CULTURE (FestPAC) MEETINGMONDAY, JANUARY 8, 2024 AT 03:00 P.M.
HYBRID VIA ZOOM
Commission Members Present were:
Kalani Ka‘anā‘anā, Chair
Shanty Asher
Snowbird Bento
Māpuana de Silva
Stacy Ferreira
Jamie Lum-Makana McClellan
Rep. Richard Onishi-Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority (HTA) Designee
City & County of Honolulu
Community
Community Member At-Large
Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA)
Department of Business, Economic Development,and Tourism (DBEDT)
Governor’s Designee
Hawai‘i State House of Representatives

Aaron Salā
Pua Sterling
Kim Vo-Festival Director
Program Director
Data House

Elise A Cole-

Office of the Attorney General

Apologies:
Sen. Jarrett Keohokāhole-Hawaiʻi State SenateGuests:

Staff:CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order by Chair Kalani Kaʻanāʻanā (Chair) at 03:08 p.m., whowelcomed everyone present via ZOOM.
ATTENDANCE
Chair conducted the roll-call attendance. Chair Kaʻanāʻanā, Commissioner Asher, Commissioner
Bento, Commissioner Ferreira, Commissioner Lum, Commissioners McClellan andCommissioner Onishi were present via Zoom. Commissioner de Silva and Commissioner
Keohokālole were both excused. Commissioner de Silva arrived late to the meeting.

Minutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, January 8, 2024 at 3:00 p.m.
Page 2 of 5

Deputy Attorney General Elise Amemiya, Festival Director (FD) Aaron Salā and guests alongwith HTA support staff Maka Casson-Fisher were also present via zoom.
WEHENA
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā called upon Maka Casson-Fisher to provide the wehena (opening). Mr.
Casson-Fisher invited all to join in Nā ʻAumākua.
PUBLIC TESTIMONY ON AGENDA ITEMSNo testimony was received in advance of the day’s meeting. The chair invited members of thepublic to testify on the agenda items.
Kristin Young of Australia shared that she’s looking forward to attending FestPAC in June.
Hearing nothing further, he continued with the next agenda items.
REPORT ON PERMITTED INTERACTIONS, PURSUANT TO ACT 103, SESSIONLAWS OF HAWAIʻI 2021 The Administrative Committee did meet and the Venue andProgramming Committee did not meet. Hearing no additional meetings, the Chair continued withthe next agenda item.
APPROVAL OF THE DECEMBER 18, 2023 MEETING MINUTES
The minutes were previously distributed and reviewed by Commissioners. Chair Kaʻanāʻanārequested a motion to adopt the December 18, 2023 minutes. Commissioner Lum motioned, andit was Seconded by Commissioner Ferreira. With no additional discussion, Chair conducted aroll-call vote. Chair Kaʻanāʻanā, Asher, Bento, Ferreira, Lum, McClellan, and Onishi voted infavor of approving the unamended minutes of the December 18th 2023 meeting. Commissionersde Silva and Keohokālole were excused. Motion carried.
PRESENTATION, DISCUSSION AND/OR ACTION REGARDING THE FESTIVAL
DIRECTOR’S REPORT
Festival Director Salā provided an update regarding the “Home Stretch” on the hosting of theFestival and following items:
1) Budget & Financial Status
2) Program and Content
3) FestPAC Operations4) Digital Platform (festpachawaii.org)
Festival Director (FD) provided some highlevel updates to the Commission:-On budget and finance, the 2023 legislative appropriation in contract
The 2023 Governor’s discretionary fund also in contract
Matson, is working with the Festival Director on a $250,000 in kind shipping service, insupport of Pacific countries shipping their cultural needs to Hawaiʻi in addition to a$10,000 cash gift from Matson for the Festival.
The Smith family from Kauaʻi has given another quarter of $1,000,000. That makes their
total give a half a million
Hawaiʻi Community Foundation has approved a $100,000.00 giveMinutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, January 8, 2024 at 3:00 p.m.
Page 3 of 5-Pending, there is an ask to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs for $1.5 million. FDacknowledges Commissioner Ferreira and thanks her for her support on getting FestPAC
on the OHA Board agenda and allowing FestPAC to present to the trustees of the office.
Festival Director
Additionally, there is an ask of the HTA Signature Events fund of $750,000. FD
acknowledges that this is probably the largest ask an organization has made of HTA
signature events.
Festival Director introduced Pua Sterling as the Director of Programs with Gravitas
Pasifika as of January 8th, 2024.
The intent to participate has stayed at 1945 delegates, 24 of 28 countries, with intents toparticipate in to our inbox. This number will fluctuate a bit as countries are now going
through the process of visa acquisition and organizing their respective delegations
The art exhibit call at Capital Modern Hawaiʻi State Art Museum titled Our Sea ofIslands, closed on December 31st, 2023 and therefore is now in the jury process.
312 entries from 68 artists; this is representative of the region.
The goal with this exhibit is that it does a soft opening in May of 2024 and then stays
through the end of the of the calendar year.
Dr. Makanani Salā, Director of Operations, shared about the Festival Ops Biweekly
Standing Meeting, Biosecurity Working Group (WG) Standing Meetings, Security &Protocol WG and Comms/PR Standing meetings
Australia hosted the first Consular Affairs Roundtable, inclusive of Australia and New
Zealand, Tonga, RMI and Micronesia FSM.
The goal is to establish a direct communication between host and country such that headsof delegation will be able to ask questions directly and for information that they would
like to obtainChair Kaʻanāʻanā recommended that Festival Director not have to bring every request of orgs tothe admin committee for approval with our blessing here today. Furthermore that Festival
Director Salā and Chair be able to sign the letter requesting the volunteers, the tents, etcetera.
Chair asked the Commission if they were OK with that or if there’s preference that it goes
through admin.
Seeing a lot of thumbs ups and head nods – Chair instructed FD to proceed. When the letter isready, Chair will review it and then append his signature to make that formal ask.
Festival Director continued to inform the Commisioners that the SPC is planning a tech visit thatstarts on the 20th of January and goes through February 3rd.
FD announced that the festpachawaii.org website is up. It will be updated regularly as
programming comes online. FD then introduced the Commission to Kim Vo from DataHouse,
who is working to build out the digital platform piece of the website.
The full presentation and discussion can be viewed on the recording.

Minutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, January 8, 2024 at 3:00 p.m.
Page 4 of 5

Commissioner Ferreira asked Ms. Vo if there’ll be opportunities to get real time feedback via
surveys and if there’ll be an app that will be paired with this website?
There will be opportunities to facilitate questions and surveys. There will not be an app.
Kristen (from Australia) also inquired about volunteer opportunities for attendees from outside ofHawaiʻi.
So long as all the risk management things on Hawaiʻi’s side are in place and with proper waivers
are signed, FestPAC Hawaiʻi would absolutely welcome the volunteers.
Chair requested that further questions be sent directly to the Festival Director and expressed his
thanks to Kim for the presentation and work being done to provide the website and resources.
No actions taken by the Commission on this agenda item and Acting Chair moved to the next
agenda item.
Presentation, Discussion and/or Action Regarding Administrative Committee Update
The committee did not meet prior to today’s Commission meeting. Hearing no questions by theCommission on this agenda item, Chair moved on to the next agenda item
Presentation, Discussion and/or Action Regarding Venues and Programming Committee
Update
The committee did not meet prior to today’s Commission meeting. Hearing no questions by theCommission on this agenda item, Chair moved on to the next agenda item
Public Testimony on Agenda Items
Hearing no testimony, the Chair moved on to announcements
Announcements
A schedule was sent to Commissioners by Maka. Chair Kaʻanāʻanā reminds Commissioners andattendees about the upcoming Legislative Session and asks for everyone’s flexibility andunderstanding.
Due to conflicting schedules, Chair asked to see if Commissioners were available on January 30thand that Maka would send out polling to establish quorum.
Commissioner de Silva requested that the Commission meet at 2p on the 30th and apologized forher lateness to today’s meeting.
Hearing no further announcements, the Chair adjourned the meeting at 3:55PMMinutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, January 8, 2024 at 3:00 p.m.
Page 5 of 5

Respectfully Submitted,Kalani Kaʻanāʻanā
ChairDateFestival of Pacific Arts and Culture 2024
Venues + Programming Committee Meeting
Wednesday, January 17, 2024
Via ZOOM 11:00pm - 12:00pm
Members Present: Commissioners Asher, de Silva and Bento, FD Salā, Pua Sterling (PD)
Apologies: Rep. Onishi
Time Started: 11:05am
Submitted by: Commissioner BentoTime Completed: 11:57pm

Agenda ItemDiscussion Notes

Next Steps by Commission/MembersUpdatesPua Sterling has joined the Gravitas teamresponsible for the overall programming of thefestival. Introduced to the FestPAC
commissioners in the 1/8/24 commission meeting.

NoneVenues Updates

Meeting with UH Athletics to finalize site specs
for Opening & Closing Ceremonies incl:● Build out of stage● VIP logistics

None

KS “ask” to include the possibility of utilizing
Windward Mall as the Ko‘olau location forcommunity engagements during the Festicval.
UH West O‘ahu - as a possible community
engagement location.
Master Schedule Templates being worked on.
Overlay of delegation programming to avoid theWe’ve met with UHWO and are working ondetails.

delegations from being booked in multiple
locations on the same day and time in order thatthey may be able to support their own delegation
engagements.
Program Leads Meeting

Hybrid meeting held on Thursday, Jan. 18th from
6pm - 8pm with the FestPAC 24 program leads.

Informational only.

Other / Questions forfollow-up

Commissioner Bento will begin to attend weekly
Festival Ops Meeting with the Gravitas
Coordinating Team connected to programming.

Next V+P meeting is scheduled for Wednesday,
January 31, 2024 from 11:00am - 12:00pm on
ZOOM.

Festival Director Report
Aaron J. Salā, PhD
30 January 2024

Order of Report• Budget & Financial Status• Program and Content• Logistics and Operations• Marketing and Promotion• Community Engagement
South Pacific Arts Festival – Suva, Fiji (1972)
Photograph(s) by Nick DeWolf

Budget and Financial Status• DBEDT contracts signed• Fund Development updates

Program and Content• Pua Sterling – Director of Programs• Program Lead Orientation (01/16/2024)• Artistic Programs• Performance Schedules in finalization• Strategic Programs

FestPAC Participants

Intent to Participate: 26 / 28 countries
Current Total Delegation Count: 2,202

Submitted:

To Be Confirmed:

1.

American Samoa – 100

14. New Zealand – 85

1.

Pitcairn Island

2.

Australia – 57

15. Niue – 50

2.

Vanuatu3.

Cook Islands – 100

16. Norfolk Island – 27

4.

Easter Island (Rapa Nui) – 100

17. Northern Mariana Islands – 100

5.

Federated States of Micronesia – 100

18. Palau – 100

6.

Fiji – 100

19. Papua New Guinea – 150

7.

French Polynesia – 100

20. Samoa – 100

8.

Guam – 100

21. Solomon Islands – 50

9.

Hawaiʻi

22. Taiwan – 100

10. Kiribati – 78

23. Tokelau – 60

11. Marshall Islands – 100

24. Tonga

12. Nauru – 65

25. Tuvalu – 30

13. New Caledonia – 250

26. Wallis and Futuna – 100Deadline
31 January 2024

Logistics and Operations• Intent to Participate – 2,202 delegates (26 of 28 countries)• Operations
o SPC Technical Visit #3 (1/20 – 02/03)
o Governor’s Cabinet Meeting (01/29)
o Operations Meeting (biweekly)o Biosecurityo IndoPaComo Invitations to US VIPs

• Accommodations and Transportation
Photography by Nicholas Tomasello
11th FestPAC – Solomon Islands 2012Marketing and Promotion• FestPAC Interviews (2/18)• Communications Strategy update

Community Engagement• Program Leads engagement:• Local practitioners• Delegation liaisons• Volunteer Portal• Training (February 2024)• Commencement (May 2024)

#festpac13

Mahalofestpachawaii.org

FestPac Hawaiʻi@festpachawaii@FestpacHawaii

FestPAC Commission Meetings 2024

Meetings 3:00pm – 4:00pm (Unless Otherwise Noted)

Meeting Date

Zoom Link

Wehena Kuleana

1st Quarter
01/08/2024

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88442786926

Senate Designee

01/30/2024 at 2p

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83150987075

HTA Designee

02/12/2024

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86297522228

Festival Director

02/26/2024

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82937408302

C&C Designee

03/11/2024

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81597278055

At-Large (Bento)

03/25/2024

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89779421828

At-Large (de Silva)

2nd Quarter
04/15/2024

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85082676277

House Designee

04/29/2024

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85715423400

Governor’s Designee

05/13/2024

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83078090156

DBEDT Designee

05/27/2024

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86176152457

OHA Designee

06/03/2024

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81918609898

Festival Director

3rd Quarter
07/01/2024

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86199368541

C&C Designee

07/15/2024

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85702405000

At-Large (Bento)

08/05/2024

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85852084018

At-Large (de Silva)

09/09/2024

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81886638616

Senate Designee

4th Quarter10/07/2024

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84338718760

House Designee

11/04/2024

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85484776312

HTA Designee

12/2/2024

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81204450954

OHA Designee

Indicates a Quarterly Meeting 3:00pm - 5:30pm – In person attendance is highly recommended.
Meeting will be held in Ka‘ahumanu Boardroom A, Parking Level of the Hawai‘i Convention Center.

As of January 22, 2024