Empowerly

Student profile

How do you personally define an inclusive environment? What do you believe contributes to a diverse and accepting community? (500 words)

Komo mai kau mapuna hoe "Dip your paddle in." Hawaiian paddling proverb meaning "Join in the effort".

Driving around Honolulu it is hard to miss the sight of paddlers in their outrigger canoes powering through the water, their paddles rising and dipping in unison, backs straight, eyes forward, channeling the islanders' rich traditions as seafarers and watermen.

Being out on the ocean as part of a six-man crew has taught me more about community and the world around me than anything else. The canoe crew is a microcosm of a family and a community. Each one has a role to play. In the first seat is the stroker. Seat one and two with a paddle each on opposite sides set the pace and lead the way. They also call the side changes for the paddlers. Seat three and four are the power seats. The strongest paddlers sit here. I am a seat four. Seat four is also the bailer, responsible for keeping the boat dry. Seat five is the keeper of the ama or the outrigger. It is seat five’s job to keep an eye on the ama and safeguard it. Seat six is the steerer, the captain. Together we are a team and together we plough the waves.

In the boat at any time are native Hawaiians, Hawaiians of mixed Portuguese or Japanese or Samoan or even Irish ancestry, Japanese- Americans, haoles or whites, and the rare Indian all the way from India. But on the boat none of that is relevant. It is how you do your job to navigate the ocean and pull the boat ahead that matters.

For someone who spent most of his life as an outsider, the community of the canoe and the larger canoe club with its aunties and potlucks and shared responsibilities to care for the boats, the paddlers and the ocean and the aina or land was the realization of an ideal. I was at home. I belonged. I had a role to play and my place in things. I had people to care for and care for me.

The community of the canoe epitomizes my idea of an inclusive environment. It is diverse, inclusive, accepting; each one has a distinct role but we are all bound together in our pursuit of a common goal.

I feel grateful, and humbled, and part of a great tradition when I paddle in Hawaii in a koa wood canoe. We move through the waters, like Hawaii's watermen have for generations, navigating tides and waves and winds and together we endure.