No Nā Pua: A Hawaiian Culture-Based Approach to Rebuilding First Responder Wellbeing

Healing has always lived in our communities—in the hands of our kūpuna, in our connection to the ʻāina, and in everyday practices rooted in Native Hawaiian culture. Vibrant Hawaiʻi has had the honor of collaborating with University of Hawaiʻi faculty and a community partner, with support from retired Hawaiʻi Fire Department members, on a research project called No Nā Pua that seeks to strengthen and uplift these practices. No Nā Pua aims to address the lack of academic research regarding the efficacy of culture-based practice in treating mental health. Although we have known for generations that relationship to ʻāina, culture, and community are vital to healing, this research seeks to add this native intelligence to the western body of knowledge so that these practices may be recognized, supported, and accessed with greater ease.

No Nā Pua is a pilot study that engaged active and retired members of the Hawaiʻi Fire Department (HFD) in loko iʻa (fishpond) restoration as a cultural healing practice as a response to a request for culture-based practice within the department that was denied due to lack of scientific evidence. This pilot study offers insight into how first responders benefited from loko iʻa restoration, and lays the groundwork for further research. 

“Cultural practitioners deserve to be recognized more broadly for the ʻike they carry and the service they offer to ʻāina, community, and culture. This research is a vehicle to building awareness and support for these invaluable practices that support the health and wellbeing of entire human-environmental ecosystems, and those who perpetuate them.” says Janice Ikeda, Chief Executive Officer of Vibrant Hawai’i.

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