MINUTES OF THE COMMISSION ON THE 13TH FESTIVAL OF
PACIFIC ARTS & CULTURE (FestPAC) MEETINGMONDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2023 AT 03:00 P.M.
QUARTERLY IN-PERSON/HYBRID VIA ZOOM
Hawaiʻi Convention Center Room 307 A/B

Commission Members Present were:
Kalani Ka‘anā‘anā, Chair
Shanty Asher
Snowbird Bento
Māpuana de Silva
Jamie Lum
Sen. Jarrett Keohokāhole
Rep. Richard Onishi-

Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority (HTA) Designee
City & County of Honolulu
Community
Community Member At-Large
Department of Business, Economic Development,
and Tourism (DBEDT)
Hawaiʻi State Senate
Hawai‘i State House of Representatives

Aaron Salā
Tammy Smith-

Festival Director
KTR4U

Elise Amemiya
Maka Casson-Fisher-

Office of the Attorney General
Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority

Apologies:
Colin Kippen
Makana McClellan-

Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA)
Governor’s Designee-

Guests:Staff:CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order by Chair Kalani Kaʻanāʻanā at 03:09 p.m., who welcomed
everyone present in the room and via ZOOM.
WEHENA
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā called upon Commissioner Asher to provide the wehena (opening).
Commissioner Asher provided a brief introduction about herself and expressed her appreciation
to Hawaiʻi. Commissioner Asher then shared a video that calls to rise and speak up about climatechange, especialy as it effects the Pacifc. https://350.org/rise-from-one-island-to-another/

Minutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
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ATTENDANCE
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā conducted the roll-call attendance. Chair Kaʻanāʻanā, Commissioner Asher,
Commissioner Bento, Commissioner Keohokālole, Commissioner Lum, and Commissioner
Onishi were present in-person and Commissioner de Silva via Zoom.
Commissioner Kippen and Commissioner McClellan were excused.
Deputy Attorney General Elise Amemiya was present via zoom and Festival Director (FD)
Aaron Salā, his guest Mrs. Tammy Smith and HTA support staff: Maka Casson-Fisher were
present in-person.
PUBLIC TESTIMONY ON AGENDA ITEMSNo testimony was received in advance of the day’s meeting. The chair invited members of the
public to testify on the agenda items. Hearing none, he continued with agenda items.
REPORT ON PERMITTED INTERACTIONS, PURSUANT TO ACT 103, SESSIONLAWS OF HAWAIʻI 2021
Chair shared that the Programming/Venue Committee met on Tuesday, October 17. Hearing no
additional meetings, the Chair continued with the next agenda item.
APPROVAL OF THE OCTOBER 23, 2023 MEETING MINUTES
The minutes were previously distributed and reviewed by Commissioners. Chair Kaʻanāʻanārequested a motion to adopt the October 23, 2023 minutes. Commissioner Lum motioned, and it
was Seconded by Commissioner Onishi. With no additional discussion, Chair Kaʻanāʻanāconducted a roll-call vote. Chair Kaʻanāʻanā, and Commissioners Asher, Bento, de Silva,
Keohokālole, Lum, and Onishi voted in favor of approving the unamended minutes of theOctober 23rd, 2023 meeting. Commissioners Kippen and McClellan were excused.
Motion carried.
PRESENTATION, DISCUSSION AND/OR ACTION REGARDING THE FESTIVAL
DIRECTOR’S REPORT
Festival Director Salā provided an update regarding the following items:
1) Program and Content
2) Logistics & Operations
3) Marketing & Promotion4) Community Engagement

Festival Director (FD) also brought guest speaker, Mrs. Tammy Smith of KTR4U, to talk aboutcatering, logistics for FestPAC.
In terms of programming content, FD Salā shared that the SPC Circular #3 was released on
Monday October 30th to national cultural focal points and heads of delegation. Reminder to theCommission, there is a fortnightly, every other week update to countries that comes out of the
SPC, inclusive of any and all updates we have on programming, on Visa acquisition, onMinutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
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Page 3 of 9biosecurity, etc. That SPC Circular #3 was released and distributed to the CPAC countries on
10/30/23. It was inclusive of a call for visual arts, both for the Convention Center, which will bea “self-curated exhibit”, as well as a call for an exhibit called “Our Sea of Islands,” housed atCapital Modern – the Hawaiʻi State Art Museum.
In addition, we also asked for countries to prepare pieces to show in the 50th Anniversary
Exhibit. Also, to be housed at capital modern, the Hawaiʻi State Art Museum. FD acknowledged
Kamakani Konia on Zoom, as Capitol Modern is a is an important partner for us.
A call went out to the region for the Youth Ambassador Emerging Leaders Engagement that weare preparing to convene as part of our partnership with the US Embassy, New Zealand andfunding that has come from the State Department. The initial engagement for the youth
ambassador program must happen in calendar 2023, and so we're looking to the end of
November, beginning of December for that project that is inclusive of all contractors that will be
participating.
The Head of Delegation Dossier, 2nd edition will be released, it is to be turned back to the SPC
by Friday to be disseminated to countries, and so we are in in draft of that. FD will be sending it
off to the Programming and Venue Committee for review early this week, and then we'll get thatback over to the SPC.
So, in terms of logistics and operations, we are still at 17 of 28 countries responding to the Intent
to participate form at a total of 1,407 delegates currently.
Several countries have reached out directly to note that they will be turning in the Intent toparticipate form. We just forwarded the form again to New Caledonia. As of this morning, Tonga
has sent a note directly that they will be participating. We have not heard anything at all, saveany correspondence that has gone directly to the SPC, from Vanuatu or Tokelau, so if any
Commissioners have connections or correspondence with Vanuatu or Tokelau, please do sharethem and we're happy to follow up with the two countries.
In terms of biosecurity, the team meets at least every three weeks. They are currently looking fora temporary fumigation facility. This is a partnership between HDOA, State Department ofTransportation Harbors and potentially INDOPACOM of providing space. The first line ofinquiry is whether the state has the proper parcel of land to house fumigation as well as housestorage post fumigation. And if that happens, then there is no need to move forward withINDOPACOM. However, if it doesn't happen then INDOPACOM is very willing to work withus. The participant plant and animal inquiry forms have been disseminated through the head ofdelegation dossier, through the circulars and hoping to start to intake these forms as soon as it's
possible. The goal of this plant and animal inquiry form is to ascertain what countries will bebringing across and then several different layers - what are they bringing across as gifts, what are
they bringing across as part of their ahu (regalia) for dancing etc. So that we can better preparethem for how to pack these things.

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In the beginning we were sending everybody to Long Beach for fumigation, and now we've
mitigated that by standing up a sort of pop-up fumigation process here and it turns out many of
the items that countries maybe bringing across, would not have to be fumigated anyway if they're
properly treated in their home countries. For us to ascertain that, for us to provide propercorrespondence to them, we need to intake what it is they're bringing across so that we cancommunicate back with them.
The Consul General of Australia, Andrea Gleeson hosted a consular visit at her home on
November 2nd, 2023. She invited all the Pacific Consulates to participate in this salon of sorts.
Present were Consuls of Tonga, the Marshalls, Aotearoa, First lady and former Ambassador
Frankie Reed. She is the current special envoy to the Pacific Island Forum, so she's in the Cook
Islands now, in the leaders’ meeting. It was good to have her there to provide us with someinsight at the federal level. This now has become a monthly standing meeting. The next one will
be hosted by the Consulate of Aotearoa. The goal here, on behalf of these Consuls, is to support
as much as they can the countries that they are coming across.
The US Federal government is responsible for liaising and protocol for Heads of State and Heads
of Government. The Consuls are willing to take responsibility for ministers of culture, and thelike, who will be coming across. It would be a very strong and important partnership for us tohave. I also want to acknowledge Commissioner Lum, who was there with us representing
DBEDT as well as the Commission.
In terms of Visa acquisition (B1 and B2), the State Department has provided the SPC a grant of$750,000 to facilitate the acquisition of Visas across the board for countries in need of visas
coming across to Hawaiʻi.
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā and Gravitas Pasifika Hawaiʻi team has met with Chief Brooke Wehrenberg
Operations Division Chief Field Consular Affairs, Visa Office Outreach and Inquiries Division,
NEA and EAP, to talk about facilitation of that Visa acquisition process. She recommends thatcountries in need of visas apply for them sooner than later, and so that will turn into a facilitationof correspondence directly with the SPC and SPC to the countries.
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā shared that Congress has approved for certain individuals who meet certain
requirements, a waiver essentially on the interview requirement. So, if they do the backgroundcheck and they meet certain requirements, they don't need to show up at a consulate or anembassy for an actual physical interview, and that could be huge. I would encourage us toencourage the member countries that are going to come to try to take up the visa question now
because that waiver expires from Congress, the US Congress, at the end of December.
Chair thinks it's a really unique opportunity, especially for smaller delegations that kind of know
who's coming that they should try that process now because they may get away with not having
to go for a physical interview.
FD Salā continued to share about the marketing and promotion process with Striker Weiner.
They have prepared a press release and so now we begin the strategy of disseminating
information locally and toward the continental United States. A group of media (13) journalists

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have reached out to meet with us end of this month, November 27th through 1st of December
2023. This includes media from Samoa and Aotearoa.
The next technical visit from the SPC, will be Miles Young for a few days enroute to the
Marshalls and then Dr. Francis as culture team lead and Ms. Mitchell as culture advisor will behere at the end of November for their next technical visit.
Per the Chair’s direction, today's meeting really will focus on FestPAC Catering. As part of thecontract with UH Housing, breakfast and dinner are provided at Hale Aloha Dining Hall eachday. Lunch at the Convention Center and then several takeaways depending on where
delegations are heading. This is also inclusive of assuring that the waʻa people out at Kualoa andthe carvers at Bishop Museum are fed as well. There's a 14 day meal plan, the 2nd through 16thof June 2024. As countries start to come in at the end of May, we'll move them right into housing
and the meal plans will start straight away. Same on the opposite side, as countries start to leave
the week of the 16th, we expect to be able to feed them until they depart. In addition to that, at
Bishop Museum on the 9th of June 2024, this is the Sunday Ecumenical Service after the
Ecumenical Service we expect that delegates would go back to housing, change into more
comfortable clothing and we would make our way to Bishop Museum for an afternoon lūʻau ofsorts.
One of the initial responses that FD Salā received from countries was that, in terms ofprogramming, country delegates never get to be with each other. Participating countries wanted
an opportunity to be together, to share with each other, so that Sunday has been designed into theprogramming after the Ecumenical service, we’ll make our way to Bishop Museum so festival
delegates will have access to the museum we will share in food and share in dance and music ascountries want to share.
FD Salā introduced Tammy Smith. She is a third generation, I imagine 10th generation, motherof the lāhui. She's well known for feeding us everywhere all over the place. She will speak
directly about the work that she's done in terms of her catering, in terms of community work, interms of the work that she's done with farmers and in the environment. She journeyed to Guamin 2016 to really learn about the festival for the purpose of feeding everyone in 2020 and now
2024, that she would be well positioned to fully understand what this means and well prepared
she will be “hubbed” here at the Convention Center for the duration of the festival, so feeding
everyone from this particular kitchen. So, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioners, thank you very
much, Auntie Tammy. I turn this over to you.
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā: Aunty, before you begin, I just want to say thank you for sticking on thiscanoe for what has been almost eight years and we're almost there and so on behalf of theCommission, I just want to say thank you, not only for everything that you do, but for being apart of this and agreeing to do this because we know that it's not a small undertaking.
Tammy Smith: Born to Herbert and Julia Hoe of Hakipuʻu, a very small community that can be
missed in a second driving past. Born into the kuleana. I am a mom of 11 children, I am a
grandma of 20 grandchildren. I am a daughter, a sister, an aunty, the favorite cousin, the favorite

Minutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, November 6, 2023 at 3:00 p.m.
Page 6 of 9niece, and Auntie to this lāhui that I care about deeply. Currently my job is to care for kūpuna. I
am director of kitchens at King Lunalilo Trust. We are at 400 meals for two days a week right
now and our goal by August 2024 is to be at 3,000 meals, five days a week. COVID has taught
us to be brave and resilient people, to be caretakers, to be makaʻala to what is going on with inour world, and not just in our spaces, but to be ready to jump on the waʻa and say, yeah, let's go,
let's do this.
The magic happens when you believe that your kuleana is correct. Magic happens when you arepono with who you are and when you can acknowledge your kūpuna and all that is before you,things happen for a reason. The goal is to really prepare ʻAi Pono, to have food of our ʻāina, foodof our place, food that means the world to us. My kuleana is to feed people. So mahalo.
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā asked if the Commissioners had any questions for the Festival Director or
Aunty Tammy. He continued to express his appreciation and a couple of themes that stood out.
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā: How do we reconnect ourselves to the foods that nourish us? How do we
make sure that we're consuming foods that are healthy for us? How do we ensure that we areserving the best of us to those who will come? With high expectations and how do we meet that?
And then how do we as a Commission, empower that? When I think about it, we can throw somebuzzwords around the room, but I'll shoot straight, it’s ʻAi Pono.
It's really important for us with this responsibility to remember that these folks will travel far tobe here and we need to nourish them. We need to make sure that they are on and fed and fueled
for all the activities. We will put them through from satellite venues and performances and all the
symposia and all the things. How do we fuel them and ourselves? And so I think about that, I
think about the context of how do we support local agriculture. We often talk about how we havean overdependence on tourism and what can we do to diversify our economy. I would take thisprivilege to say that events like this, which we think of as tourism: hosting meetings, events,
conventions, and festivals - are a way that we do give back and so the purchases that are going to
be made to feed our delegates will be to farmers as a means by which to do that work. I'm reallyexcited about the opportunity for the conversations that will be had over meals, I think we allunderstand that those are the times
Tammy Smith: Mahalo, Kalani. I think the take away from all of this is that this is not justnurishing the bodies to feed and fill your stomach, it is to nourish our bodies, to take care of ournaʻau and when we can give that to every single delegate here that we can take care of theirnaʻau, they can do their part and they can share what they share the best is their own culture.
That's the most important place for us to thrive as lāhui, as people, and to bring all of our cousins
to a space and be able to take care of that is an honor to mālama your naʻau. So thank you.
Commissioner de Silva: Thank you Aunty Tammy. Sorry I'm not in the room with you, but I
have my own kūpuna duties today. I just want to reiterate everything that’s been said and to saythat every festival that I've been to the host country has always fed us according to their country
standards and the best that they could do and we accepted their gifts of food at every country that
we that we visited. Sometimes the food that was received not just by Hawaii, but by all theMinutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, November 6, 2023 at 3:00 p.m.
Page 7 of 9delegations, wasn't what we're used to, wasn't what our bodies wanted, but that that was what
was provided. Hawaiʻi has the opportunity to provide the food of our island communities and not
our Western cultures that we live in today. And I think we can make a huge statement with thisand with supporting local farmers.
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā: Thank you, Commissioner de Silva, other Commissioners?
Commissioner Bento: I do have a query. Just for clarification’s sake, so breakfast and dinner at
Hale Aloha has been taken care of by the university and then you folks are taking care of all thelunch?
Festival Director: Yeah. Let me just clarify too. There will be dinner for those delegates heading
back to UH. So primarily those are heritage demonstrations. The weavers, you know, jewelry,kapa, fiber arts, et cetera. So those delegates that will be heading back to housing by dinner time.
What we're trying to clarify with UH right now is we're paying for that food. So, we want tomake sure that we have access to that food. So what Aunty Tammy is responsible for is food forthe performing delegates that won't make dinner at housing, so that those dinners will be madehere and either eating here or taken.
When I first came into this position, I had no idea of the gargantuan nature of all of the levels of
bureaucracy for us as a state within the United States and what that meant. Hosting aninternational engagement like this, but also the needs of the festival in terms of biosecurity, interms of Visa acquisition, in terms of facilitating that entire process. The learning curve has beenvery steep over the last year and some. I'm just really thankful for all of the partners that we've
made really owing to the work of Senator Keohokālole and Rep Onishi and Chair now pulling
together these partners at many of the state and federal levels, and also even though
Commissioner Asher just came to us, I want to acknowledge Mayor's Office of Culture and theArts in the room today.
What we are trying to do and what we will do successfully is a gargantuan task. All of that isstarting to move, the bio security piece is moving, the Visa acquisition piece is moving.
Counselor Affairs from the Pacific, they’re engaged and really conspiring to the success of
Hawaiʻi as we host this festival and so all of that has been really stressful. But for me the kuleana
starts in conversations with Aunty Tammy in conversations with our incredible community.
Commissioner Bento: Inquiry regarding Volunteer portal and how that's going to roll?
Festival Director: Data House is starting to pivot the current website into a full digital platform.
This is a conversation that needs to be had with DBEDT to talk about how we pull all thesepartners together. Data House has begun that work, the goal is to begin the Volunteer portal latethis year, before the end of calendar and then to start training volunteers in February. Thank you
for the question.
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā: All right, members, any further questions?

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Presentation, Discussion and/or Action Regarding Administrativie Committee Update
Hearing no further comments or questions, Chair deferred Agenda item 8 as the Administrative
Committee did not meet.
Presentation, Discussion and/or Action Regarding Venues and Programming Committee
UpdateChair deferred Agenda item 9 as the Venues and Programming Committee did not meet.
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā motioned to have the Commission enter into executive session to confer with
our Deputy Attorney General pursuant to Hawaii revised statutes 92-5A4 so that we might
consult with her about a contract that this Commission or DBEDT has On this Commission's
behalf, and we need a 2/3 vote to do so.
I don't have any big announcements, but it does mean that members of the public, both in theroom and online, will need to leave the room. So I want to kind of finish and at least I know
we're right in the middle. I want to make sure I can do this. We don't have any announcements
unless Commissioners have announcements. This is sort of the last thing on the agenda, so if
people need to leave, they may.
Can I say that? And then we'll vote to come back out. We'll come back out. We'll close themeeting properly. But in case that way people aren't cruising if they don't have to.
Deputy Attorney General Amemiya: They can choose to stay if they want, because after you
after you exit executive session, we will do a summary of what was discussed in executive
session.
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā: So the motion on the floor is to enter executive session pursuant to HRS925A4, so that we might consult with our Deputy Attorney General in relation to a contract that wehold. Chair votes, Aye. Commissioner Asher, Commissioner Bento, Commissioner de Silva,
Commissioner, Commissioner Lum, and Commissioner Onishi also vote Aye. Commissioners
McClellan and Kippen are excused. Motion Carries.
EXECUTIVE SESSION
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā reported that after a healthy discussion with Deputy Attorney General
Amemiya in the Executive Session regarding the contract with Gravitas Pasifika and DBEDT
related to their scope of work to the festival implementation around ancillary events, there was
no action required at this time and no decisions were made.
Chair moved on to agenda item number 10, public testimony.
Hearing no testimony, the Chair moved on to announcements, agenda item number 11.
Given the new leadership change at OHA, it’ll be imperative to contact OHA to understand who

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the designee will be. Our congratulations to Stacy Ferreira on her appointment to the OHA CEO
position and mahalo to Commissioner Kippen, for his service during his time with us and tenurewith us on the Commission, on behalf of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
Next meeting will be held virtually on Monday November 20th at 3p
Hearing no further announcements, the Chair asked for unanimous consent to adjourn themeeting at 4:39PM

Respectfully Submitted,
Nov 21, 2023

Kalani Kaʻanāʻanā
Chair

Date