Reclaiming Emotions: Re-Unlearning and Re-Learning Discourses of Healing in a Tribally Placed Doctoral Cohort

This article is a “talk story” among three Indigenous women who are connected in various ways but most recently through the heartwork of a tribal–university partnership for a tribally based doctoral cohort program. The first tribally based cohort includes representation of tribal nations from Washington State, Utah and New Mexico and all women. The contributors of this talk story include voices of a Muckleshoot partner who is an Indigenous education advocate and two Indigenous faculty members. We share our talk story in identifying the powerful connection of reclaiming emotions through the ability of centering Indigenous narratives, honoring culture and community, and the powerful role of place and space in honoring tribal sovereignty through its existence.

Future Planning Practitioners and the “Waipahu Talk Story”: Learning from and Reflecting on Participation

Fifty years ago, Sherry Arnstein presented “a ladder of citizen participation,” highlighting the relevance of citizen participation for the social imperatives of her time. Today, there is widespread emphasis on public participation in planning practice. Planning education stresses its importance in addressing the principles of social justice. This prompted us to explore how graduate students on the threshold of becoming planning practitioners designed public engagement tools, and facilitated participation to examine proposed transit-oriented development plans. Our paper analyzes the nature of their engagement and reflection, spotlighting the potential and pitfalls of doing public participation. We find that enabling critical pedagogical approaches to engender collaborative and reflective practice benefits students, educators, and the profession in distinct ways.

Sharing the Patient Experience: A “Talk Story” Intervention for Heart Failure Management in Native Hawaiians

Background: Native Hawaiians (NHs) suffer disproportionately from cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality. Objective: To test a narrative intervention of patient stories to support heart disease self-management in NHs. Method: Six NH storyteller videos were developed with community feedback following established methods. The NH participants with heart failure (N = 35) were recruited from a major medical center in Hawai‘i. Participants completed demographic questionnaires, watched videos via iPad, and described experiences. Follow-up was 4 weeks later. Results: Mean participant age was 57.0 years (standard deviation [SD]:13.0) and 31% (11) were female. On a scale of 1 (worst) to 4 (best), respondents rated the videos 3.7 (SD: 0.5) in relevance for helping them manage their heart disease and 3.6 (SD: 0.5) in their experience using these videos. When asked what they liked best, the most common response was that they are “like me” (from 14 respondents, ranging from a 43-year-old woman to an 84-year-old man). Of those completing follow-up (n = 15), 87% said videos helped them. Conclusion: Our narrative “talk story” intervention showed promise as a culturally relevant method to share patient experiences and reduce health disparities.

Reaching Out, Helping Hands Helping Minds: A Hawai'ian Model for Aiding Friends Coping With Dementia

Reaching a certain age places one in a particular landscape in which dementia may be part of the scenery. This costly public health problem is personally devastating not only for dementia sufferers but for their surrounding interpersonal circle, which is not limited to immediate family. Indeed, friends often become the family you choose; their issues become, at some level, shared issues. In this setting the impulse of a life scientist to offer knowledgeable assistance to a friend fits naturally into a cornerstone of culture in present-day Hawai'i for mobilizing relevant aid from all corners. This model, called “forming a hui”, comprises a network of not only formal professional relationships but potentially even more importantly, the informal ones: friendships, serendipitous contacts, someone who knows someone who knows someone, the essence of connectedness on behalf of friends coping with dementia. Storytelling as a means of communication holds a place of prominence in Hawai'ian culture; exchange of ideas, as well as reminiscence, is called “talk story.” In this article, lives now built around coping with dementia are woven into a story fabric as into a Hawai'ian quilt.