 and from my home office in Makiki. Today we shall meet a strong and courageous mother, wife, and woman warrior for Kiakua. Her name is Ivalani Lebron Mcbriar. So welcome Ivalani. Welcome Wendy and welcome everybody glad to be here. Yeah we're excited. I'm excited to share your story and your journey with everyone because you've got a great message. Thank you. Alrighty so let's get started but before we do I want you to just share with us a little bit about your beautiful blended Ohana. Okay well that picture you see with me and my family. My husband and I we've been married 22 years. Timmy we live out and we reside in Calphe Hill homestead. We have raised together eight children four boys and four girls. Biologically five are my children three of them are not but those are my girls so the oldest is Portia, second oldest is Nadine, and my husband we are both single parents. He had his one daughter and I had my two boys and we ended up uniting both of the girls when they were like in middle school so that's a beautiful blended family. They gave us 16 grandchildren and you know they're everything to us everything I do everything I advocate is for them and not just my kids now my mo'opunas you know they advocacy work the neighborhood security watch it's all about them in that picture of my family that we have gone through so much together you know the challenges that we face that native Hawaiians community face incarceration recovery addiction domestic you know just challenges itself but our faith you know our hope and the courage to just face those challenging time and lots of aloha you know allowed us to be a family that stands together you know and we have the same you know family is forever family is love and no one gets left behind. Wow amazing and I I mean that's the testimony right there to get all of you in one picture. Yes it must be one son. Yeah but one son was an active duty but you know that was amazing to do it. Yes and I actually counted all the heads and the bodies and the family and like oh how did you do this girl so that's that's the story I want you to share how you build a family how you build a community so I'm just amazed and every time I talk to you I get more amazed of why your your accomplishments and all that Keokua has you doing and I know that you're a woman of faith I know you're a woman of many many challenges but please share with us one of your passions and what you did for the cheerleading squads. In 1999 I started that was the beginning of Diva Chair and Radford cheerleading coach Bo Frank came up to me and said you know we need cheer uniforms and Hawaii was one of those states that there were no manufacturing for cheerleading so everything was due catalog and if you don't order early in May the cheerleaders would not have their uniform in time for August and sometimes they wouldn't even make it for competition so my daughter went to Radford and I ended up making the those two cheer uniforms you see out there I designed it along with coach Bo and you know it was a new venture coming out of medical as a critical care coordinator getting into my passion which is fashion and design and Radford just put me out there because they were the top national champions and from there I didn't need advertisement they coach Bo Frank was really allowed me to you know continue my business doing all star and all the schools both Outer Island and in Oahu. Wow you know with your healthcare background and now you have fashion and merchandising and you know I know you work with many young students and I know you see many different body types so I want to just ask you if you saw someone that wasn't as fit as you would want them to be or that they should be how would you discuss with them about taking their health back you know I just tell them taking their health is a choice right it's a choice that we want to be better and that's something that we take within ourselves and then we take the steps to do it and not just taking the actions to eat better and die but it's really just feeling good about yourself and you know dressing appropriately like for me in fashion certain styles will make you look good and not good so I was able to just you know recommending custom outfits that would not just compliment one cheerleader but the squad itself so that was one of my niches. Wow what a blessing to have you local as well so that you can make our young students both I'm sure there's boys and girls boys and girls yes yes boys and girls I'm sure that having you local is so key because you can personalize and customize instead of having them one of 50 other states with all the many schools that yes yes deal with so thank you for knowing your passion and directing it for the students because they so needed it and giving them the confidence to perform better and taking their health back as well yes so you are blessed with with a home on a Hawaiian homestead and I'm learning so much from you about this community but I understand that you encountered some issues with your personal home as well so I want you to start with that please share you know I first of all I love my Hawaiian homes I love being in the community but we did encounter some construction work we brought our house in January of 2007 and immediately we encountered cracks in the foundation you know elevation wasn't right for the landscaping so it caused injury electrical and plumbing plumbing you know water leakage and that and I would think that the department of Hawaiian homes would help us and as you can see in the article it's been 15 years since I'm living there and none of the problems that I brought forth with 25 different DHL officials has come to you know remedy the situation and so I was happy that Rob Perez as well as Rick Daysock were able to go ahead and make a report on my shoddy construction work which now brought light to the department to go ahead and you know relocate me or you know address the situations with my home wow wow I mean yeah you wait for a while to get one of these and then you get one and it's a little shanty and then you try to bring it to the attention of to get it remedied and they push you away so again it takes a woman warrior and the team around her you to get the job done and to fix things and make it better for not just you but I'm sure there's other homes yes definitely yes yes yes wow and Keokoo I really picked the right person um with the the voice I'm gonna say the big mouth I'm going to say the voice right to bring uh to get attention so you are very blessed because Rob Perez um you got his attention and he wanted to help so good of you and good that he heard your story and that he jumped in to help you yes oh yes wow what a blessing so many blessings come of just um being obedient I would say like I know your story so I know the obedience within you and so fighting and and going for the cause it makes so much of a difference that you were first and you're not afraid to to share what you need to do and get what needs to be done oh yes yes you know you have to advocate and you know with the help of Rob Perez we were able to share our story on a national level and that story started off with just me and then it ended up looking into all the homesteads programs specifically in Kapolei and um the ending of July that um article promised land one two national awards of investigative journalism with pro-publica and star advertiser so you know the lord has really watched over me and guided me to the right people at the right place and you know a home is a home is you know your your foundation and so it was really important for me to do everything in my means to ensure that you know we not lose our Hawaiian means right so you know uh we are very grateful for um star advertiser as well as pro-publica that were able to be my voice and my family and the community's voice of the beneficiaries of the Hawaiian homes then wow that's amazing I mean I know many families you know yourself as well I'm sure have waited a while to get this you acquire it and then you have some issues and then you get Robox but you know Kea Kua gives you only what he knows you can handle he's raised you up he's groomed you so that you can be the voice and the voice you are and I'm just so proud that um you're using your voice and your experience and your abilities to not just help your family your ohana but the rest of the community in your community as well as I'm sure other homes to communities throughout the state so congratulations to you Ivalani for being that voice and um you've traveled far to voice your concerns and that's from Honolulu to the capital or Honolulu Halle but where did you go thus far sharing your your passion and your your knowledge of all this that you've learned um one of my favorite place that I usually travel for times a year um is uh DC so as you can see that picture was a bunch of us homesteaders um I was invited by um Shaw Chair Robin Danner and also my co-pair president Michelle Kahane two dynamic women in the native Hawaiian community that invited a bunch of leaders um for the first annual homestead summit leaders that we interacted and engaged with um different of the federal agencies department of justice was one of them department of interior um the FCC um the view of land management um department of education so I was really blessed to be able to see like how other native tribes leaders are able to engage with government to government um relationships with leaders so um very blessed you know I've been to New York I've been to California I've been to Montana um and it really gives me the opportunity to learn from them because there's 585 native tribes in the United States we being the youngest of them so I look at us as the babies that we're able to learn from them and you know to help our people our love we wow how exciting Ivalani I'm so amazed of what and I know it's just the beginning um I know that there are more travel plans coming up I know you're hitting the road again soon where are you off to um I'm gonna be actually off to DC again I leave on October 16th to the 22nd we will be doing some with enterprises some of the other funders for us but we'll we always make a trip to go to the department of justice DOI and definitely our congressman Brian Schatz is another one that I'll be seeing when we travel up there next month wow wow so I know that you've dedicated so many hours to your homestead community um and actually this program should be called the health of a community because that's exactly what you're building and encouraging and just promoting the healthy community is a community that is going to be strong and foundations are what we're all needing to build stronger for our ohana to sustain whatever's out there and whatever is yet to come if the community is strong the ohana will be strong and yeah that's what you're building and so um that with all your homestead community activity what have you been accomplishing thus far um we have actually um accomplished um we brought a sixplex in kawaii as a fee simple um you know it's hard as you can see today um the department is not building enough homes so what my job is that what we do in our leadership we're trying to create um jobs as well as affordable housing and the six pack was one of those um in anavola there is a nine acre we have a kumu camp that what that helps us to raise money so that we can do the leadership we have um we do policy you know housing policy is is what I do on the residential and home steady and so these are the works that you know I dedicate to because I know that's where kia kua has called me you know um and we're not just any other community we're a community of native hawaiians with government to government um relationships um that will allow us to hopefully be self-sufficient and thrive on our lands you know and I want to ensure that for our people and as you can see it's not happening but you know we are we are we are looking for solutions and I'm not bringing up the problems but addressing the problems with solutions and the people the beneficiaries we are the solutions right you know and I see in that that that last photo there's a whole panel of you that so it's not I mean I know you we're we're having you on the show so we're giving you a lot of the shout out but I know that there's a team around you that work tirelessly with you and I know that there always needs to be a a head heart or head passion and so that's why I'm speaking with you because I know that you're a big driving force to get this job done along with the people by your side your your advocates that work along with you so congratulations to them as well but again congratulations to you for being the head one of the heads to take this project on and building your your community that's so so critical and the other thing that I admire about you is um you're mentoring the next generation and this is so critical I know that you've given your honor of voice as well it's not just you or your committee and the people around you but you're also raising up your ohana so share with us about the voice that you've given to your ohana you know um when we were addressing the problems with our home without any benefit to consultation um with the department they put us into contested here in foster center foreclosure we weren't allowed to you know address some of the construction defect and I thought it was really important you know the lord put it on me that my children are the next generation and so I said we need to um get to the legislative we went to the Hawaiian Affairs Committee in the real um this is for the confirmation of um William Isla to be chair and we got to speak there and that's where Hawaii News House picked us up but that was the day that my children knew that what was their kuleana as the successors of our Hawaiian homes and you know they realized at at a young age um the instability of losing their home so we were as a family saying you know um we're gonna learn the laws we're gonna learn our rights we're gonna learn the act we're gonna learn policy and housing we're gonna learn policy and contested case hearings in chapter 91 and that was actually what I did with my children and uh you know that's that's what we have to move the legacy is for a thousand generations we have to teach them now right and you know that you were mentoring with them uh they were right there seeing you speak um did they have a chance to voice their opinion as well or were they just too there to observe um they were there to observe but after that the reporter were actually talking to my children so they could get you know not just me but see how it affects them you know um you know we're so blessed as Hawaiians you know we're so grateful so even with all the discrepancy with the home you know um we are always taught to never curse your home you know it's a blessing so sometimes we just continue to live with the conditions that really our trust tells us that no this is not the kind of conditions that we should be living in and you know we have to stand as a family um and let them know that this is not healthy you know this is and not saying and so this is you know a a wellness thing overall for us as a family and I'm glad that when I took them they got to experience that and I know that would impact them for the rest of their lives oh for sure I mean you know um like I was born and raised on the west side and um and back then I mean we were talking about 40 50 years ago so we never had the opportunity to hold a microphone I think the first time I held a microphone was like 19 or 20 years old back in the day because we didn't have the experiences that these students have these days so I mean that microphone is very intimidating if you I mean especially one kid from the west side I mean like whoa what is that movie stars get microphone right but yeah so exposing them to just the whole system and speaking when when your voices are heard so critical so critical that's why every time I see one cake you know I want to just give them a microphone because yeah they're gonna be scared in the beginning but you know what they warm up and they get confident and that's what you want to build in these kiki is confident the next leaders for tomorrow yes I'm so excited I mean not just the whole community the family everyone's raising up because you had an issue that needed to be resolved and if you had a perfect perfect home you would not have a perfect home because nothing would have come of it except you know but you have to fight and fighting is good for the right cause and that's exactly what you're doing yeah so I mean God gave you a little mess and you're changing it into your message and the message for your whole family so this I mean this talk truly should be entitled the health of a community because community is so important and I know that for you you get your community involved and you've been doing mighty things in that community your home state community can you share a little bit with us what's going on yes I'm a very advocate of health and safety in our community so the neighborhood security watch is something that I'm very passionate about you know I call us the first responders of the community you know we're walking around we know the family we know the specifics of our community you know the crimes the drugs the gaming you know who's you know who needs resources who needs financial health and you know as a neighborhood security watch we built that relationship with our communities and the war on crime on drugs you know the shortage with HPD we see you know we read the statistics and it tells us a story and so what we did as a homestead community we started in Coppola and took us down one street one block one community to just take us you know take a stomp out of drugs and crime and not only were we doing it that picture you see is us and ever so what we do now we come not only as a homestead but we support even outside neighborhood security watches like Ewa, Makakilo, Ocean Point, Wynnei, Miley we have really taken that turn and it's our heart that the Calcua put on us is that we love our community and if you love your community you have to love your family because that's where you put your family that's where you go to sleep at night that's where you're supposed to be safe and I feel that a lot of us that came from the demographics of statistics that to us it seems like a curse we're reversing that curse and we are being the answer we're taking the recoveries the drug addicts domestic and they are walking now showing their change their transformation life and what they can give back to the community and it's just as you can see look how long it is I mean that's in Ewa and you know I feel like you know there's a community resilience that we can look at the problems that we face and come together and solve the problem and the problem is that we can't do it alone you know the crimes the drugs it's it's takes more than just the spouse and the family member it takes a community takes a village and this is the concept that I've seen across the island is that we all want a healthy and safe community wow so blessed you're all so blessed and you're also so obedient to God that I know that you'll take every opportunity to share your ohana's journey because you've got a journey and that's how I met you and that's but I first heard you at the Croc Center actually we heard from your handsome son and he won my attention and then after I realized it I said I knew that I wanted to get to know you and possibly work with you because what did you what you did with your son your family your and then now I'm hearing all the things how you build community so it's not just your home and your immediate family you're building community as well as you're building Hawaii and this is what Hawaii is all about it's all about ohana right and yeah and so you're bringing that back but one community at a time and that's how we have to do it and like you said the government has so many things that they need to look after and what you're doing is you're all taking responsibility of your immediate family and jurisdiction your community yes okay we all did that and we were responsibly taking care of ourselves then other communities doing the same thing and then then government just worries about all the other infrastructure and the bigger issues of the day so well what when I did meet you I heard your story and I just want you to share a little bit about that special day at the Croc Center you know that was a special day because as you know you know my family we came from recovery we know how that is but my faith in God my hope that you know my husband and my community of those that you know are addicted to whatever drugs it is alcohol that there is healing you know there is healing and just because one of our family member chooses to do that that doesn't mean that we will sparrow down and into disappointment um Kenau really shows that you know it takes a village to raise a child but how much more is it to raise a child and a hurting man you know and and for me and my husband being there on uh the croc center on august 6 really showed the testimony of the resilience of our family that no matter what you know um resilience is is the process and the outcome of how successfully we adapt you know to the difficult and um life-changing challenges we have and still come up and I was faced with so much but I was determined that my son will never be a statistics we're not going to be uh you know we're not going to be like every other Hawaiians and every homestead and you know just to see him doing the COVID it really hit us because a lot of things was coming more against me and my family you know we have a home that's you know uh not adequate um no school for two years he's writing on um financially you know we all got hit um business-wise and you know thinking of working out whose future was but he was determined every day he got up he trained he studied um at the end of the result of his senior year three days before graduation um he was cum laude you know state wrestling champion um he was hurricane of the year and he won the construction and design and you know I was so proud because I knew that everything I sacrificed for for my son he's the youngest you know he's number seven that it was worth it and that I knew that God said can when we have faith can when you hold the actions we put in can and loving them no matter what the situation it is and resiliency is the outcome of faith hope and aloha you know and um I he keeps me strong you know he now keeps me strong you know all of my children they wow I mean the strength the obedience is all together there and so I'm so blessed that we got to really have some time to talk story and get to know um but I know that you are a woman out to get results so I'm going to just ask you how do you go about doing that in the community you know you find the people that have the same heart as you and even if they don't have the same heart you find the things that you know you speak to their heart because sometimes it's miscommunication misinformation misunderstanding and um as you go about and share your vision your goals which is you want good things for your family everybody wants that and by just sharing your heart I'm able to have people that want the same because we can't do it alone so I'm able to um you know um grab the community so um you know we are we are I know that you rounded up um I mean I just want to give a quick shout out because we're running out of time quick shout out to your representatives out in that district but of course to HPD who has partnered with you all and learning your heart and just being with you um and having some similar issues in some of their families um I know that great results will come because you're partnering right with the right uh departments out there to get the support and the help and bringing the solution to a problem that's been ever-existent but you're tackling it and you're making a big difference so Ivalani we've run out of time for today I just want to mahalo you mahalo you Hawaii's woman warrior and thank you Wendy thank you it's a blessing I know that we're going to hear much more from you and more great stories success stories so I'm going to welcome you back when you get back from your trip but we'll be seeing everyone in the next two weeks at taking your health back so mahalo Ivalani kia kua kua warrior aloha everyone thank you so much for watching think tech Hawaii if you like what we do please like us and click the subscribe button on youtube and the follow button on vimeo you can also follow us on facebook instagram twitter and linked in and donate to us at think.kawaii.com mahalo