MINUTES OF THE COMMISSION ON THE 13TH FESTIVAL OF
PACIFIC ARTS & CULTURE (FestPAC) MEETINGMONDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2023 AT 03:00 P.M.
HYBRID VIA ZOOM
Commission Members Present were:
Kalani Ka‘anā‘anā, Chair
Snowbird Bento
Māpuana de Silva
Stacy FerreiraSen. Jarrett Keohokāhole
Jamie Lum-

Makana McClellan
Rep. Richard Onishi-

Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority (HTA) Designee
Community
Community Member At-Large
Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA)
Hawaiʻi State Senate
Department of Business, Economic Development,
and Tourism (DBEDT)
Governor’s Designee
Hawai‘i State House of Representatives

Aaron Salā
Linda Lileikis-

Festival Director
AHL

Elise Amemiya
Maka Casson-Fisher-

Office of the Attorney General
Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority-

City & County of Honolulu

Guests:Staff:

Apologies:
Shanty Asher

CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order by Chair Kalani Kaʻanāʻanā at 03:04 p.m., who welcomed
everyone present via ZOOM.
WEHENA
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā called upon Commissioner McClellan to provide the wehena (opening).
Commissioner McClellan provided Pule Hoʻomaikaʻi No Ka Waʻa (a request for guidance andprotection for the voyage).
ATTENDANCEMinutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, November 20, 2023 at 3:00 p.m.
Page 2 of 6

Chair Kaʻanāʻanā conducted the roll-call attendance. Chair Kaʻanāʻanā, Commissioner Asher,
Commissioner Bento, Commissioner de Silva, Commissioner Ferreira, Commissioner
Keohokālole, Commissioner Lum, Commissioner McClellan and Commissioner Onishi were
present via Zoom.
Commissioner Asher was excused.
Deputy Attorney General Elise Amemiya, Festival Director (FD) Aaron Salā, his guest Ms.
Linda Lileikis and HTA support staff: Maka Casson-Fisher were present via zoom.
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, November 14th. Hearing
no additional meetings, the Chair continued with the next agenda item.
APPROVAL OF THE NOVEMBER 6, 2023 MEETING MINUTES
The minutes were previously distributed and reviewed by Commissioners. Chair Kaʻanāʻanārequested a motion to adopt the November 6, 2023 minutes. Commissioner de Silva motioned,
and it was Seconded by Commissioner Onishi. With no additional discussion, Chair Kaʻanāʻanāconducted a roll-call vote. Chair Kaʻanāʻanā, and Bento, de Silva, Ferreira, Keohokālole, Lum,
McClellan and Onishi voted in favor of approving the unamended minutes of the November 6th
2023 meeting. Commissioner Asher was 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) shared that there is maintained frequency in terms of providing updates to
the SPC for the region. Circular #4 should go out to the region sometime this week.
19 of 28 countries have confirmed participation in the Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture 2024
In terms of Matson Shipping, the company has decided that the best way for them to articulate
what kind of in-kind services they can provide is to instruct countries to go directly to the
Matson website and articulate all the things that they need to bring over that will help Matson towork with the us, to design for us what the Matson give will be, and that will also include theMinutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, November 20, 2023 at 3:00 p.m.
Page 3 of 6

cash gift that we've requested for as well. The deadline to countries is the end of January 2024
for them to articulate any kinds of shipping needs they need. Matson will then respond to us in
due time.
The Biosecurity Working Group has commenced its meeting. The next meeting is on December
5th 2023, by the next Commission meeting we should have a location for fumigation, and weshould have a contractor in place.
FD acknowledged Ms. Jimmie Collins from the Hawaiʻi Office of Homeland Security who iscommencing a standing meeting of security and protocol. The agencies involved in this standing
meeting are the Honolulu Police Department and the department of law enforcement at the State
Department of Homeland Security. The Department of Homeland Security will be handlingvenue and threat assessments.
In terms of marketing and promotion, FD shared that there is a press release ready to send. We
had intended to send then there was the tragedy on Maui, and then intended to send again but
another fire followed. So now we're just waiting for approval from the Chair to let us know when
it's appropriate to send. Makanani Salā recently returned from her West Coast Media Blitz with
HVCB and HTA that has garnered for us some some valuable media time and attention.
Commissioner McClellan inquired about the press release and who that would be coming from.
Discussion among Commissioners regarding getting clarity on the entity that will be officiallycommunicating and that it should be consistent entity. Chair Kaʻanāʻanā asked the Commission
if they are okay being a little bit more hands off in approving a release and that kind of stuff.
Chair and Commissioner McClellan will can take that up offline. But invited commissioners toshare any thoughts regarding how involved the Commission to be in the process of distributing
releases.
Commissioner de Silva asked for clarity from Chair Kaʻanāʻanā that if all the information that
goes out in these media blitz and FestPAC information out to the countries is already coming
through the Commission, then we've already given our okay. Therefore, give Aaron the ball, let
him decide who's gonna be the point person.
Commissioner Onishi supported that sentiment, saying that “we have delegated to Aaron
operational logistics for the Commission, and through our smaller groups we're vetting
information about the festival.”
Chair thanked the members for the discussion.
FD brought guest speaker, Ms. Linda Lileikis (LL) of AHL, to talk about Village Design
Preparation & Logistics for FestPAC 2024
LL shared about the conceptual designs of the Festival Village to be housed at the Hawaiʻi
Convention Center. Even though Hawaiʻi will be hosting 28 island countries, we want to really

Minutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, November 20, 2023 at 3:00 p.m.
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represent and show what Hawaiʻi is about. LL and team spent some time over at Bishop Museumwith Marquez Marzan, to really understand what makes a Hawaiian hale (house/structure)
Hawaiian. To really understand proportions, functions, and use. And how does that really tie inand celebrate the festival village.
Commissioner Ferreira aksed LL if there’s been thought and considerations to where elders
might sit and rest. LL responded that at the exhibition level there will be reserved area just for
kūpuna.
LL and team will continue to produce renderings and a video of walking through the exhibition
hall. So you can actually be able to experience that feeling.This is going to be a great experiencefor people to walk through the hale (structures) and experience that come out. And then sort ofthrough all of the hale and through all of the the different communities in the village.
Festival Director shared that part of the goal for us to include a waʻa (canoe) and the hālau waʻa(canoe house) itself is because the programming is happening on the other side of the island. We
wanted to make sure that we included programmatic pieces of that engagement with theexhibition hall with the festival village, so that this could help point to the other side, but also
because we're talking about regenerating Oceania and bringing Oceania together.
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā: Linda, I can't thank you enough on behalf of the Commission. It's always
exciting when we get to see vision sort of brought to life. So thank you to you and the team.
Commissioner de Silva: what will be on the ground floor of the hale? We want to make sure thatwhatever we put down under those lauhala (pandanus) mats are going to mitigate that cold thatcomes out of the cement.
Festival Director: all the resources that they might need, that we provide them. If the countries
want to remove the tables and lay mats to do their demonstrations and such they're welcome todo that. Our our goal is to provide them the space and and insofar as possible, in these spaces thethe proper, storage so that they can store whatever needs storing along with access to water.
Commissioner Bento suggested the kind of puzzle mats that can be found in the kindergarten
classrooms to be used as cushion/padding under the lauhala mats.
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā: Linda, thank you guys so much for what you guys are doing. I'm reallyexcited about the immersive-ness of it, and really paying attention to the production value. I
recognize there's some real legitimate constraints around funding. But you guys getting creativeand how to do that is really appreciated by the commission. I really appreciate some of thethoughtfulness that you folks have put into. I think the experience for the guests coming in orcome the delegations, will be unlike anything else they may have ever experienced. So we're
really excited about that!
The full presentation and discussion can be viewed on the recording. No actions taken by theCommission on this agenda item and Chair moved to the next agenda item.

Minutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, November 20, 2023 at 3:00 p.m.
Page 5 of 6

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
Update
The committee met on November 14th, prior to today’s Commission meeting and called upon
Commissioner Bento to provide any updates.
Commissioner Bento: A Master Planner will be engaged, through assistance from Indo-picom tohelp with the overall Master Calendar for the Festival of Pacific Arts, programming currently
includes space for all 28 delegations to participate, and the current deadline for submissions ofintent to participate forms is going to be December 1st, 2023.
Next steps regarding Master Planner, the December 1st date is a placeholder for delegations that
we have yet to submit intent to participate forms. If we do not hear back from delegations in theappropriate amount of time, then their space will be removed from the master calendar.
Regarding the master calendar, CPAC Leaders will meet on the 2nd, 3rd an 4th of June. Waʻaarival and traditional welcome on the 5th of June. Opening ceremonies following on the 6th ofJune. Ecumenical services on the 9th of June. Closing ceremonies on the 16th of June.
Michael Nahoʻopiʻi, Executive Director of Kahoʻolawe Island Reserve Commission (KIRC) has
been contacted and informed about the potential traveling waʻa that may want to stop at
Kahoʻolawe on their way back out as they leave Hawaiʻi to sail back down to their respective
destinations. Countries interested in doing so will need to reach out directly to KIRC as that will
not be not facilitated through the Festival proper or Commissioner Bento.
The Lālākea Foundation has been approached to participate in the cultural protocols for the
opening and closing ceremonies for the Festival. A timeline of training events is being
completed, and applications for grant funding are being prepared in order to ensure that they canappropriately be able to help with the opening and closing ceremonies for the festival, and will
be sharing the proposed timeline for training events spanning from January through June of2024.
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā asked that Commissioner Bento connect Commissioner de Silva, who has
accepted the responsibilities of forming thoughts around protocol, with the Lālākea Foundation
just to make sure that they're synced up on that front on the protocols.
Chair moved on to agenda item number 10, public testimony.

Minutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, November 20, 2023 at 3:00 p.m.
Page 6 of 6

Public Testimony on Agenda Items
Hearing no testimony, the Chair moved on to announcements, agenda item number 11.
Announcements
Maka is preparing the calendar and Scheduling Commission Meetings for 2024.
Next meeting will be held virtually on Monday December 4th at 3p; Commissioner Ferreira has
the wehena (opening protocol).
Appreciation was shared and a reminder to create some time for you and your families, whether
Thanksgiving is a big holiday for you or not. Please create some space for yourselves in thisholiday festive season.
Hearing no further announcements, the Chair asked for unanimous consent to adjourn themeeting at 4:13PM
Respectfully Submitted,

Kalani Kaʻanāʻanā
Chair

Date

FestPAC Administra�ve Commitee Mee�ng
Friday, November 24, 2023
11:00am via Zoom
Mee�ng Notes
Atendees: Stacy Ferreira, Jarret Keohokālole, Jamie Lum, Makana McClellan; Fes�val Director
Aaron Salā
SPC FestPAC Host Readiness Assessment – Sept/Oct 2023
FD Salā reviewed the assessment with the members. He will prepare a response and bring itback to this commitee for discussion.
CPAC Mee�ng
FD Salā will present a progress report on the Fes�val planning for the next CPAC mee�ng on
December 13th.
Fundraising Update
FD Salā will be making a presenta�on and request for funding support to the OHA Board ofTrustees at their mee�ng on Deceber 7th.

FestPAC Commission Meetings 2024
Meetings 3:00pm – 4:00pm (Unless Otherwise Noted)

Meeting Date

Zoom Link

Wehena Kuleana

1st Quarter
01/08/2024

Senate Designee

01/22/2024

HTA Designee

02/05/2024

Festival Director

02/19/2024

C&C Designee

03/04/2024

At-Large (Bento)

03/18/2024

At-Large (de Silva)

2nd Quarter
04/08/2024

House Designee

04/22/2024

Governor’s Designee

05/06/2024

DBEDT Designee

05/20/2024

OHA Designee

06/03/2024

Festival Director

3rd Quarter
07/01/2024

C&C Designee

07/15/2024

At-Large (Bento)

08/05/2024

At-Large (de Silva)

09/02/2024

Senate Designee

4th Quarter10/07/2024

House Designee

11/04/2024

HTA Designee

12/2/2024

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.

Updated December 6, 2023

Festival Director Report
Aaron J. Salā18 December 2023

Order of Report• Program and Content• Marketing and Promotion• Volunteer Logistics• Logistics and Operations

South Pacific Arts Festival – Suva, Fiji (1972)
Photograph(s) by Nick DeWolf

Program and Content• Drafting:• Performance Stage Schedules• Waʻa, Carvers, Heritage Program• Capitol Modern, Bishop Museum Program• “Our Sea of Islands” Exhibit• Jurying to begin Dec. 2023

• Council of Pacific Arts & Culture• CPAC38 – Country Asks

Marketing and Promotion• U.S. Embassy NZ Media Tour (11/30)• Newshub/Discovery, Stuff, Radio NZ Pacific, Newsroom, Pacific Media
Network, NZ Herald, Samoa TV• Press Release (12/04)• Star-Advertiser Interview (12/13)• Hosted philanthropic engagements (Jan-May 2024)

Logistics and Operations•

Intent to Participate – 1,945 delegates (23 of 28 countries)•

Governor’s Cabinet Meeting (12/04)•

Working Group Meetings•

Biosecurity WG Meeting (12/05)•

Security and Protocol Meeting (to commence, Hawaiʻi State Office of Homeland Security)•

Office of Hawaiian Affairs (12/07)•

FestPAC WG and CPAC meeting (12/11-13)••

Technical Visit (Jan-Feb 2024)

Program Committee Meetings•Waʻa WG Meeting (12/21)•

Heritage Programs

Volunteer Logistics• DataHouse – volunteer registration portal• Volunteer Interests:• Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs• University of Hawaiʻi students• Community Members• Non-Profit Organizations• Volunteer schedule• Training – February 2024
• Commencement – 31 May 2024

Logistics - Accommodations
Accommodation# of Beds

Check-in Date

Check-out Date

Univ of Hawaii

1,534 June 2, 2024

June 17, 2024

15 nights

East West Center

125 June 1, 2024

June 18, 2024

17 nights

Hotels (4-5)

350 June 1, 2024

June 18, 2024

17 nights

TOTAL (to date)2009

Logistics - Transportation§ School Buses – Shuttle between Univ of Hawaiʻi and Convention Center§ Motorcoaches – Airport Transfers and Festival Village Move-in
Major Group Movements (planned)§ Hawaii Convention Center Festival Village: June 4, June 6-15,2024
o June 4 & 6: Move In (motorcoaches)o June 7-15: Shuttles between Univ of Hawai`i and Convention Center§ Tentative: start 1 hour prior to opening / end 1 hour after close of day§ Kualoa Beach Park: June 5, 2024 (Waʻa Ceremony)§ Kamehameha Day Parade: June 8, 2024
§ Bishop Museum: June 9, 2024 (Hōʻike)#festpac13

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FestPac Hawaiʻi@festpachawaii@FestpacHawaii