MINUTES OF THE COMMISSION ON THE 13TH FESTIVAL OF
PACIFIC ARTS & CULTURE (FestPAC) MEETINGMONDAY, MAY 8, 2023 AT 3:00 PM
VIA VIRTUAL APPLICATION ZOOM: VIDEO / AUDIO CONFERENCECALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order by Chair Kalani Kaʻanāʻanā at 3:02 p.m., who welcomed
everyone present via ZOOM.
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā conducted roll-call. Commissioners Benham, Bento, Hussey, Lum, and Puʻushared that they were present and alone, Commissioner Onishi was present and with his babygranddaughter. Commissioners de Silva and Keohokālole were excused.
The Chair called upon Commissioner Puʻu to provide the wehena (opening).
Commissioner Puʻu offered a favorite mele that she learned from her kumu when she was in theteacher program. Her kumu (Larry Kimura and Kalena Silva) who wrote this mele were
important in the contribution of Hawaiian Language revitalization. Chair Kaʻanāʻanā thanked
Commissioner Puʻu for her wehena.
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
The Chair reported that the admin meeting did meet but their meeting would be covered underagenda item seven. Hearing no additional meetings, he continued with the next agenda item.
APPROVAL OF APRIL 25, 2023, MEETING MINUTES
The minutes were distributed and reviewed by Commissioners. Commissioner Onishi made amotion to approve the minutes unamended and it was seconded by Commissioner Benham.
There was no discussion. A roll call vote was requested with the following Commissioners
approving the motion to approve the minutes: Chair Kaʻanāʻanā, Commissioner Benham,Commissioner Bento, Commissioner Hussey, Commissioner Onishi, Commissioner Puʻu andCommissioner Lum. Commissioners de Silva and Keohokālole are excused. With the members

Minutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, May 8, 2023 at 2:00 pm
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present the minutes of April 25, 2023, were adopted unamended. * These minutes were amended
on May 22, 2023 at 3:26 P.M at the FestPAC commission meeting.*PRESENTATION, DISCUSSION AND/OR ACTION REGARDING THE FESTIVAL
DIRECTOR REPORT OF FESTIVAL DIRECTOR
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā asked that we take the agenda items out of order as we are awaiting arepresentative with the Pacific Community to join the meeting later for their updates and giving
Festival Director Salā the floor for his Festival Director report.
Festival Director Salā was invited with a small delegation to Washington, D.C. last week and hadnumerous meetings to help support the FestPAC meeting logistics and coordination. FestivalDirector Salā gave thanks Erika Moritsugu, Krystal Kaʻai, and Georgette Furukawa for theirgenerosity and the invitation to join the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native
Hawaiians, and Pacific Islander (WHIAANHPI) Forum which happened on May 3. He wasinvited to sit on a panel for creative excellence and gave a 7-minute presentation talk about
Hawaiʻi’s hosting of FestPAC as the other VIPs received 2 minutes to share. Festival DirectorSalā met with Jenny Morrell and also met with Dale Haan and members of Senator Schatzʻsteam. They focused on four topics: immigration, security, biosecurity and fumigation, andfundraising.
On the topic of immigration, the proper visa for FestPAC will be a B1/B2 Visa
(Business/Tourism visa). The challenge with this visa expects an interview at an embassy whichmeans individuals would have to expect biometrics and individual interviews at an embassy.
Individuals would have to make their way to Auckland, Sydney, Port Moresby, or Suva.
At this point, it is a 131-day wait in Auckland and Sydney for a visa but no wait at Port Morsebyand Suva. Festival Director Salā is going to circle back with SPC to see the best way to share thisinformation with the rest of the Pacific community who is interested in joining us in Hawaiʻi forFestPAC.
Immigration poses a large challenge for FestPAC, but Festival Director is working on ways toease the process for all.
In discussion with security, the secret service usually provides security for heads of state.
Ultimately, the secret service will partner with the state department and with the office of foreign
missions which is headquartered in San Francisco to discuss the logistics for security. FestivalDirector Salā will keep us updated.
Festival Director Salā has been working diligently with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife team onbiosecurity and fumigation issues. Currently, all materials need to go to Long Beach forfumigation before coming to Oʻahu. Festival Director Salā is working with Jenny Morrell to see
if they can do a temporary pop-up as the only real way to fumigate materials as some materials
have to come from other countries. He continues to work hand in hand with Christine, Benton,and Jenny on this issue.

Minutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, May 8, 2023 at 2:00 pm
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For fundraising, we have missed the earmark for the next fiscal year. Mahalo to Senator Schatzthat fundraising will come about as a lot of time and effort engaging the federal government todiscuss these issues.
Talking about the strategic programs pillar for the 13th FestPAC, which concludes his report.
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā chimed in sharing that Jimmie Collins, Hawaii Office of Homeland Security
uses the details of these plans as Ms. Collins assigns security level for this kind of event which
has various levers that get activated once the event is identified. Chair Kalani and his team will
send over contact information for the San Francisco security office.
With no additional questions for the festival director, Chair Kaʻanāʻanā asked for elaboration onagenda item #5, He asked as there are many different topics like Pacific Philosophy Conference
during FestPAC, what are our responsibilities to these ancillary meetings.
Miles and the team, Ms. Mitchell presented as a heads up. Festival Director Salā elaborated thatthe 13th Festival of Pacific and Culture will have additional meetings as they use the festival as away to meet, the CPAC is pulling in these anomalies meetings to join under an umbrella forFestPAC.
Ms. Mitchell will be presenting on the various other meetings and informing us on what we as
the host nation to ready ourselves for at FestPAC.
PRESENTATION, DISCUSSION AND/OR ACTION REGARDING ADMINISTRATIVECOMMITTEE UPDATE
Commissioner Benham shared the minutes of the administrative committee update with all thecommissioners to review what they discussed. In the administrative committee update, theydiscussed the Gravitas contract and will defer to Commissioner Lum or FD Sala to work on thecontract.
With time limitations, they tabled Honorary Chair discussions due to time constraints and will
circle back to discuss the next meeting, these updates wrapped up the administrative update.
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā asked to place a deadline to execute the contract, which Chair advised the datefor execution to be by May 15, 2023.
PRESENTATION, DISCUSSION AND/OR ACTION REGARDING VENUES AND
PROGRAMMING COMMITTEE UPDATE
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā deferred this agenda item as the committee did not meet.
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā called a recess at 3:32 p.m. to convene at 3:45 p.m.
PUBLIC TESTIMONY ON AGENDA ITEMSThe chair invited members of the public to testify on the agenda items. Hearing none, hecontinued with agenda items.

Minutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, May 8, 2023 at 2:00 pm
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā shared Ms. Mitchell was on her way to the airport, so he made the call to deferagenda item #5 to the next meeting. Chair Kaʻanāʻanā shared there are no additional
announcements.
NEXT MEETING
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā confirmed that the next meeting will be held on May 22, 2023, at 3 PM hybrid(in-person and on Zoom).
ADJOURNMENT
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā adjourned the meeting at 3:44 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,Kalani Kaʻanāʻanā
ChairMay 22, 2023
Date