MINUTES OF THE COMMISSION ON THE 13TH FESTIVAL OF
PACIFIC ARTS & CULTURE (FestPAC) MEETINGMONDAY, JUNE 19 2023 AT 3:00 P.M.
VIA VIRTUAL APPLICATION ZOOM: VIDEO / AUDIO CONFERENCE
Commission Members Present:
Kalani Kaʻanāʻanā
Shanty Asher
Sylvia Hussey
Jarrett Keohokālole
Jamie Lum
Makana McClellan-Hawaʻi Tourism Authority Designee (HTA)
City and County of Honolulu Designee
Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA)
Senate President’s Designee
Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism(DBEDT)- Governor’s Designee

Staff:
Elise Amemiya
Micah ‘ĀkauMaka Casson Fisher
Aaron SalāIrina De La Torre-Apologies:
Māpuana de Silva
Richard Onishi
Snowbird Bento- Community Member At-Large- House Speaker’s Designee- Community Member At-LargeDeputy Attorney GeneralHTAHTA
Festival DirectorHTA

CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order by Chair Kaʻanāʻanā at 3:03 pm, who welcomed everyonepresent via ZOOM.
The Chair called upon HTA Staff Member Maka Casson-Fisher presented the wehena (opening).
Casson-Fisher presented about King Kamehameha Day and shared a clip from Tagata Pasifika
who also attended the festivities about their experience with the festival.
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā briefly took the agenda out of order to welcome the newest Commissioner
Shanty Asher to the FestPAC commission as the City of Honolulu’s designee.
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā conducted roll-call attendance. Chair Kaʻanāʻanā was present at the in-person

Minutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, June 19, 2023 at 3:00 p.m.
Page 2 of 5location. Commissioner Asher, Hussey, Keohokālole, Lum, and McClellan were all alone andpresent via Zoom. Commissioner Bento, de Silva, and Onishi were excused.
Chair recognized that there were no public attendees at the in-person venue or at the Hawaiʻi
Tourism Authority office.
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. Hearing none, he continued with agenda items.
REPORT ON PERMITTED INTERACTIONS, PURSUANT TO ACT 103, SESSIONLAWS OF HAWAIʻI 2021
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā asked if there were any reports of permitted interactions, hearing none hecontinued with the agenda items.
APPROVAL OF JUNE 5, 2023, MEETING MINUTES
The minutes were previously distributed and reviewed by Commissioners. Chair Kaʻanāʻanārequested a motion to amend the June 5, 2023, meeting minutes. Commissioner Hussey
motioned and it was seconded by Commissioner Lum. Commissioner Hussey mentioned in thewehena on page three on line 13 it indicated an error that needed to be fixed and an adjustment
on the word lāhui based on the Hawaiian dictionary. Commissioner Lum on page four under thevenue committee updates, noted that they met on May 31st, not in April.
Attorney General Amemiya also asked to make a note that she was not at the previous meetingand if we could have a note that Alison Kato was there.
Commissioner Hussey mentioned that on the first page, the meeting was indicated as June 6 but
on subsequent pages, it stated June 22nd.
Chair noted that Commissioner de Silva arrived at 3:13 p.m.
Seeing no further discussion, the Chair conducted a roll-call vote. Chair Kaʻanāʻanā andCommissioners, Asher, de Silva, Hussey, Keohokālole, Lum, and McClellan, voted to approvethe minutes of the June 5th meeting. With the members present the minutes of June 5th, 2023,
were adopted with edits noted above.
PRESENTATION, DISCUSSION AND/OR ACTION REGARDING THE FESTIVAL
DIRECTOR REPORT OF FESTIVAL DIRECTOR
Festival Director Salā presented the convening of the Council of Pacific Arts and Culture alongwith the 6th Culture Ministers Meeting in Nouméa, New Caledonia, and that he would beattending with Commissioner Keohokālole and Commissioner de Silva.
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā shared that he will also be attending albeit virtually. Mr. Salā offeredattendance for those who would like to attend these meetings as an observer. Mr. Salā explained
the hierarchy of the FestPAC Working Group’s SPC Assessment before presenting how the SPC
assessment meeting went as SPC had presented an assessment of where Hawaiʻi is in festival

Minutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, June 19, 2023 at 3:00 p.m.
Page 3 of 5planning in early June. The Festival Director went through the assessment rubric explaining
where Hawaiʻi is in comparison to where the festival should be in relation to the festival manual
guidelines and timeframes. Mr. Salā is confident that we will be able to answer the questions thatarose during the CPAC meeting in Hawaiʻi in March, providing a plan for the delivery of the13th FestPAC, and a mitigation plan for the assessment.The main provisions needing answers by
CPAC Noumea were the Program Matrix (Digital Platform), an Intent to Participate Form andRegistration set, and a list of delegation items and artifacts.
On the issues of Visas, the issue still remained that the issued visa would be B1/B2 along with aninterview at a U.S. embassy within the Pacific region.
On the issues of Biosecurity, Mr. Salā stated that the issues were mitigated by needing to go toLong Beach and he asked Darcy Oishi of the State whom he could speak on the issues ofBiosecurity.
Darcy Oishi with the Hawaiʻi Department of Agriculture was brought onto Zoom. Mr. Onishishared that he had been talking with his federal counterparts about Methyl Bromide treatment.
An option discussed about the Biosecurity issue, they discussed using non-Methyl Bromide
treatments as an alternative. The solution will really depend on the materials coming to Hawaiʻiand the risks the state departments are willing to take. Important factors moving forward would
be compliant agreements with USDA for treatment, ensuring a facility, and getting appropriate
equipment.
This is what the state has identified as their need for the biosecurity issues that FestPAC wouldface. Festival Director Salā opened up the floor for any questions for Mr. Onishi.
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā thanked Mr. Onishi for his efforts and asked if the challenges that they faced
were state or federal regulations. Mr. Onishi shared that this was all federal regulatory issues.
Festival Director Salā continued with his report and moved to agenda item #11 to showcase theGravitas Pasifika Team.
INTRODUCTION OF GRAVITAS PASIFIKA FESTPAC TEAM
Festival Director Salā shared the team and the various disciplines they would take on:• Executive Management• Legal• Communications / Public Relations• Fund Development• Web Development• Operations and Logistics• Program
Donalyn Dela Cruz will be joining the Executive Management team. Legal is on hold for now.
Stryker Weiner and Yakota will be the Public Relations firm assisting FestPAC. Pattie Look has

Minutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, June 19, 2023 at 3:00 p.m.
Page 4 of 5

joined the team in Fund Development. Wondros is the Web Development team. Pacific Island
Institute will be the Operations and Logistics team. There is no Program director yet, but eachspecific program has a head and has iterated their desires to do this work for FestPAC.
Festival Director Salā has a request for the commission to have a secondment for the Culture
Advisor of the SPC, Letila Mitchell be in Hawaiʻi as often as necessary to help execute a wellorganized and planned FestPAC and is happy to draft the official ask to send over to the SPC.
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā opened the floor for questions. Commissioner Lum asked who would beresponsible for paying Letila Michell’s expenses, to which Festival Director Salā responded theSPC. Chair Kaʻanāʻanā responded next sharing that he feels as though they are trying to getthings to be too perfect and figure out what the timeline is to get basics out the door. He wants toensure that the delegations have information to start their planning, but what he does not want isworst-case scenario plans to be given that information later and give them this information assoon as possible. The Festival Director shared that he would provide our information as
accurately as possible when they are in Noumea. For the timeline, there still are logistic issues
that need to be worked through. After dialogue between Chair and Festival Director, a documentwith relevant information that they do not think will be changing soon will be shared with thevarious countries headed to the 13th FestPAC.
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā would like for us to do everything possible to respond item for item of thoseseven things with what CPAC has asked of us for this mitigation plan as he is worried without adetailed plan the members of the CPAC planning committee would take action that would causeHawaiʻi not able to host.
Commissioner de Silva has requested the document going to the various countries to be ready bythis Friday, June 15, and have the details in writing along with on the website. She reiterated theChair’s point of making sure that every single point within the assessment was addressed within
our document and as a presentation.
Festival Director Salā discussed challenges he faced but now that he is properly procured, thefire is lit to get everything that is needed for this festival.
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā asked if there were any additional questions. Hearing none, he continued withthe agenda items.
PUBLIC TESTIMONY ON AGENDA ITEMS
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā welcomed Miki-Tae Tapara asking the commission to really consider Mr.
Salā’s request for a secondment with Ms. Letila Mitchell to support Hawaiʻi in FestPACplanning.
Chair shared that he did place a request in to bring Ms. Letila Mitchell to Hawaiʻi but theresponse was if Ms. Mitchell could continue to support remotely. Commissioner Keohokālole
asked for clarity on the motion of support and followed up by putting a motion to send a formal

Minutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, June 19, 2023 at 3:00 p.m.
Page 5 of 5

request to CPAC to request Ms. Mitchell’s presence in Hawaiʻi, which Commissioner de Silva
seconded. Without any further question, the Chair had a role call where Chair Kaʻanāʻanā, deSilva, Hussey, Keohokālole, Lum, McClellan, and Asher voted aye.
PRESENTATION, DISCUSSION AND/OR ACTION REGARDING ADMINISTRATIVECOMMITTEE UPDATE.
The Chair deferred as there was no business for this agenda item.
PRESENTATION, DISCUSSION AND/OR ACTION REGARDING VENUES AND
PROGRAMMING COMMITTEE UPDATEThe Chair deferred as there was no business for this agenda item.
PRESENTATION, DISCUSSION AND/OR ACTION REGARDING SAFETY AND
SECURITY UPDATEThe Chair deferred as there was no business for this agenda item.
PRESENTATION, DISCUSSION AND/OR ACTION REGARDING BIOSECURITY
COMMITTEE UPDATEThe Chair deferred as we took it out of order.
PUBLIC TESTIMONY ON AGENDA ITEMSThe chair invited members of the public to testify on the agenda items. Hearing none, hecontinued with agenda items.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā has no announcements.
NEXT MEETING
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā confirmed that the next meeting will be held on July 24th, 2023, at 3:00 p.m.
via zoom.
ADJOURNMENT
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā adjourned the meeting at 4:00 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,

Kalani Kaʻanāʻanā
ChairJuly 15, 2023
Date