NLM Director’s Comments Transcript
Native Voices in Hawaii: 09/02/2014

The Queen's medical center ceremony-Hawaii's health care leader

Photo: Courtesy of Rob Logan.

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Regards to all our listeners!

I'm Rob Logan, Ph.D. senior staff U.S. National Library of Medicine for Donald Lindberg, M.D, the Director of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Here is what's new this week in MedlinePlus.

Dr. Lindberg praised his hosts and noted how the Native Voices: Native Peoples' Concepts of Health and Illness exhibition suggests the links between cultural legacy and contemporary health in a recent keynote address at the 155th Queen's Medical Center Heritage Day in Honolulu.

Dr. Lindberg said the Native Voices exhibition addresses improvements in the health care and well being of Native Hawaiians, Alaska Natives, and Native tribes and pueblos. The exhibition features a mix of traditional healers, medical and public health professionals, as well as leaders in the cultural renaissance of Native Peoples.

Dr. Lindberg added the Native Voices exhibition partially was inspired by earlier interviews of Native Hawaiian medical professionals, who addressed issues such as finding an appropriate balance between western medicine and traditional healing. NLM's Native Voices exhibition features segments from more than 150 interviews of Native Hawaiians, Alaska Natives, and Native Americans, who provide uplifting insights into health, wellness, quality of life, and the importance of cultural heritage in healing.

Earlier in the day in an interview with KHON-TV in Honolulu, Dr. Lindberg explained exhibition visitors also could see some of the designers, navigators, and physicians, who piloted the Hawaiian hand-made hokule'a (a catamaran-style canoe) to other Pacific islands without modern equipment or conveniences. Dr. Lindberg noted health often begins with pride and spiritual renewal, which several interviewees found was epitomized by the Hawaiian interest in the hokule’a’s rebirth. Currently, the hokule'a is in the first leg of a round-the-world voyage, and several of the Native Hawaiian-Native Voices interviewees could not attend the Native Voices launch because they literally were at sea.

Dr. Lindberg thanked the crowd of more than 250 community attendees, who represented more than 20 Hawaiian civic clubs, community organizations, heritage associations, and medical institutions, for their Aloha welcome and interest in the National Library of Medicine.
"We are honored to host this exhibition in conjunction with our 155th anniversary year, said Diane Paloma Ph.D., Director of Queen’s Medical College (QMC's) Hawaiian Health program. 'Na Leo Oiwi (Native Voices) reflects on the voices of our Founders: King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma who sought to provide healthcare to all of the people of Hawaii,' Paloma said.

Heritage Day celebrates the history of QMC, a comprehensive hospital in central Honolulu, which was founded in 1859 by Hawaii's then-King and Queen. During the ceremony on QMC's grounds, Professor Benjamin Young M.D., a Hawaiian medical historian, noted Queen Emma and King Kamehameha IV, personally raised funds to build the hospital. Young explained the King and Queen sometimes went door-to-door to raise money and also set up a network of trusts and foundations to secure a site for a clinic, hire medical care professionals, and obtain medical equipment. Although QMC now has other hospitals and clinics in the Hawaiian Islands, the hospital where the exhibition is located (and Heritage Day is celebrated) is on the royal family's designated site. QMC has 495 beds at its original Honolulu location, which today is across the street from Hawaii’s governor’s mansion and state capitol. QMC remains the largest non-profit medical center in Hawaii.

In addition to Dr. Lindberg, the 2014 Heritage Day ceremony featured other speakers, including U.S. Rep. Tusli Gabbard (D-Hawaii) and Kirk Caldwell, Mayor, City & County of Honolulu.

Hawaii is the third location where the Native Voices exhibition has traveled outside of its NLM base in Bethesda, MD.

For those unable to see the exhibit at QMC’s Queen Historical Room through this fall, some of the best interviews (and photos of some of the Native Voices exhibition's art and artifacts) are available for free on the Internet by searching on ‘NLM Native Voices.’ A free iPad app, available in the iPad App Store @ 'NLM Native Voices,' also provides an interactive tour of the exhibition.

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It was nice to be with you. I look forward to meeting you here next week.