 Today we are going to visit with the sexist people and you know you must be counted. It is absolutely the most imperative thing you do this year other than vote, but you can do both. So we are going to talk to Richard Maderas, right, and he is the project manager for the Native Hawaiian Advancement. I'm getting right. Richard. There you are. Okay, let me get the title right. Richard, I'm going to give you the title. I am the program manager for the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement overseeing the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Complete Count Committee for those senses. Okay. Now, Native Hawaiian, let's identify that because I just got an email saying that there's a hearing on tomorrow and it's about protecting Native Hawaiians at the legislature. So what's the difference in Native Hawaiian and Hawaiians? So for Native Hawaiians, and the one that you're referring to, I believe, is the Senate Committee hearing tomorrow on the resolution for Hawaiian national status. Native Hawaiians, the two different designations are those that are 50% and over, which qualify to be beneficiaries of the Department of Hawaiian Homelands to receive those benefits. Other Native Hawaiians are anybody who has Hawaiian ancestry or has ancestral ties to the indigenous people of Hawaiians. So in what we're doing, we're trying to count all Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders because we see the similarities and the needs, especially when it comes towards education and healthcare. And the importance is this is a very quickly growing community, but it's also a community that doesn't traditionally respond to the U.S. census. And the data that is collected by the census is very important when it comes to getting programs and funding out to the communities and to the need specific to Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. So by not responding, would that be the group that says they're not American? Is that the reason they don't respond? There are some that will not respond because of that. And to that argument, I would say, please respond anyway. The census does not count American citizens. It accounts the population within the United States and all of its territories. One of the ways that we can definitely help the situation for Native Hawaiians everywhere is to be counted so that the United States can see that that is a population that does exist. But when it comes to general, we want to make sure everybody's counted because there's a lot of funds that go to our communities that we may or may not be getting because of a lack of participation. Historically, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are being hard to count because we live in communities that aren't necessarily as engaged or in some way sometimes we live in communities like where I live in Manapuni, where I have a physical address but mail doesn't deliver there. So those addresses are often forgotten, but we want to make sure that just because you weren't on that list that you are still counted because there are other ways. What do you mean the mail doesn't deliver there? I thought they went everywhere. Yeah. My whole life is the problem. It's a problem I've always faced with where I grew up because I have a physical address, but we always had to have appeal box because the mail and I can see from my driveway where the mail ends its delivery. But in rural communities, it doesn't necessarily deliver to every physical address. So the census does update leave, which means they send somebody out and they drop out something at your front door so that you can reply to it. But you wouldn't necessarily get the same letters and postcards that they send to all the addresses in the United States. So now, okay, let's talk about the telephone and the internet. Now I do know there are places out there beyond you, not non-acculately, but further out where they don't have internet connection. So what about them? Not necessarily Hawaiians, but period. Yes. So in the rural communities that are farther out of way from the cities, which we see more on the neighbor islands than we do in Oahu, but it does exist in Oahu. The census will do something called update leave, which means they leave paperwork at your door for you to do. That will include the survey. So you can do the physical survey, put it in the mailbox and send it in that way. They can also call one of the census numbers to do the survey that way. But some of those communities, like where I live to, I may have my cell phone, but reception doesn't always work. So for those communities, mail is a great way to do it. The other thing is the census eventually, due to the COVID concerns, they weren't as early as they planned to, but they will be sending enumerators to homes to assist people with doing the physical forms. So, but now things are getting better, I think, with the COVID, for at least for Hawaii. Yes. So does that mean that they can send more people out? To that, we were in discussions with them yesterday, and they are ramping up that effort. So they are going to be starting that very soon, probably within the next couple of weeks. But safety is very important to them. And while we've seen a little bit of an uptake in cases, I think it's still relatively safe. And you don't have to necessarily be face to face. You can easily be six feet apart and talking about, to collect that information. Information is very simple. It's things that most people wouldn't know off the top of their head. So they wouldn't have to go search for information to give to them. Now, let's talk about Pacific Islanders, because there's so many different islands. And then they're all lumped in together. Tell us, for anyone that doesn't know, how many different Pacific Islanders do we have? How many different islands are they from? I don't mean the number of collectives, but how many different islands are they from? A lot. I couldn't tell you an exact number from the work that I've been doing. We've reached out to a lot of groups of people that I didn't even know existed, which is, you know, it's eye-opening and educational for me, particularly when we're seeing some of the Polynesians and Micronesians that I didn't realize were, you know, were their own entities. But that's why it's important to get these people counted so that we know who they are, where they are, and that way we can try to give the proper services. Because ultimately, I know you mentioned earlier voting, and voting is very important. But census is one of those things that I think is even more important. Because we need to know where our communities are, what the needs of these communities are. Voting and district lines for senators and representatives is based off of census data. Without census, voting really can't be done properly. And yes, and next year we have a redistricting. Yes, we do. So they're going to take all of this data that we collect now, and they're going to determine the new districts. And if districts don't participate properly and they don't get their right numbers out, they may gain or lose, you know, political power and authority. Now, you live in, is that a homestead where you live? I live right above a homestead. Traditionally, my family were farmers. So I still live in a rural area of Mamakuni. So, but that area is growing so much, my goodness, all the new housing and everything. And they still, and they don't deliver to the farms. Is that what you're saying? They deliver to a certain area. And then once you get so far up in the mountain, they kind of stop at that point. Yeah. Come on. And it happens. We see it a lot on the neighbor islands where the more rural areas they just delivery is poor or non-existent. And that's what you'll see. A lot of people have have peel boxes. Yeah. So when the census sends out their people before the actual farms go out and they verify all the addresses, they don't necessarily need mailing addresses, but when they do the first mail-outs, it only goes to physical addresses that receive mail. So anybody with a peel box doesn't get that initial, that initial mail. What happens? OK, so you send that one and then because they don't have a physical address, but you send it to what should be the physical address, right? Yes. And it comes back to you. Then do you send it to the post office? I mean, to the post office box. They do not. And that's one of the things. As in the census to try to to incorporate peel boxes as well. Thus far, we haven't gotten that from them. But that's why they then will send somebody physically to those areas with a little packet. It's in a little because I receive it's your census information, the data forms with a code for it. And they put it in a little plastic white and black and white U.S. census bag and they leave it on your doorstep because I have a neighbor and we live in Honolulu in this and he has a post office box. And I didn't know whether she doesn't use her street address. And I just wonder about that, because this is the heart of the city. Yeah. For that, they would send it to the street address and hopefully, you know, it was received by her. But if not, if you don't respond after so many times, they physically send somebody to you. So even if you do have a physical address that does receive mail after so many attempts, they send somebody physically there to either leave paperwork or to knock on the door to help. So they send it to every postal address, regardless of the name on the yes. OK. All right. Yes. So every street address gets a package in the entire country. Yes. Now, that's a big job. It's a huge job. And I think that's why they only do it once every 10 years. It takes 10 years to get, especially with new developers. Especially here in Hawaii. I mean, in the one I know where I live, it is crazy how many new ones you get. Yes. Yes, it is. And which it's crazy because the traffic just gets bigger and bigger. Traffic gets bigger and bigger. School sizes, classroom sizes get bigger, but the classroom themselves do the same size. And that's why we need accurate counts so that when we're doing community planning, we can project that we need this many classrooms for this many kids that will be eventually going to school. If our communities are growing, we want to make sure that that the infrastructure is growing with the population. At Campbell High School, honestly, that is remarkable how that's grown. Oh, I remember, you know, I hate to say how old I am, but 50 years ago, there was nobody in that school. Well, I remember as a boy, you know, whenever we had to go shopping and we had to go to Waipahu or Pearl Ridge, because those were the nearest places to go. When you're driving through what's now Calculate, it was just and it seemed like it took forever to get wherever you were going. It does. My daughter lives in a few homes of Makakilo, and now you have all of Calculate. We moved to Makakilo. There was no fire station, and it only went up so far. And the lease rent was nine dollars. I wish I was still like that. That's a long time. But there was also no Walmart. There were no store, no company in my school. No, the closest thing was the plug point, the Navy. That's why I'm amazed, you know, I'm 38 years old. I've seen Calculate go from just being fields to being a city. So I can only imagine in the next 20 to 30 years how much Hawaii is going to change again. It has. It has changed so much. And the problem is that when you see it every day, you don't see the change until when we shut down and I could drive. I did drive one day and was absolutely loving the highway with no traffic and the air smelled so good. I said, oh, my God, this is all the way. I love it. Yeah, it's that's one of the blessings of COVID that traffic has been much better. It's I see families getting together better and spending more time together than they did before. There is a silver lining to this. Yes, and especially at your way, where the traffic was just and it was such it's such a beautiful without the traffic. It is the waves were gorgeous. We don't want the traffic. Yeah, we don't want the traffic for tourists, but we don't do. We really need all the we don't want them to see how amazing that sunset is. Oh, yes. And what he came without a whole lot of people. Oh, my goodness, it was so beautiful. And I talked to a couple of people, so they've never been to what he came before. Yeah, I personally, I haven't I haven't gone to what he had to for a meeting or anything until a couple of weeks ago. That was the first time I think of my life that I went to like he just to walk around. It was so I just drove down Carltown Avenue and it was surfing, but there are no rental cars, none of those fancy buses and nobody walking. Everybody was. Yeah, and it's all the local families. All local families in Hawaii. Yes, it was it was absolutely delightful. Now, to the census. Yes. OK, Papakaleo. And they were talking at one point really about how to do the census because they don't plan or not be an American. Is there any difference? I think there's a difference. And we've done we've been trying to educate a lot of people that. This this supersedes being Hawaiian and the supersedes being American. This is counting you as a human. And that's what's really important here because we want to make sure that our children and most generations are taking care of from a Hawaiian standpoint. Another thing that's a big benefit of the census is it helps us with ancestry and genealogy. Your census data, the information you give them is confidential. Some of the data is released 70 to 72 years after that census was taken. And that's how we trace back where our families were a long time ago. So for us, especially for our families, we really like to see where our families were and try to trace our family line. And the census is one of those ways to do that. We've tried to explain to Hawaiian groups that that's some of the benefits of it. The other benefits, the Native Hawaiian health centers, those are funded and put where they are based off of census data. Native Hawaiian school programs, immersion schools, our organization, the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, the Office for Hawaiian Affairs, Kamehameha Schools, they all use census data when they're determining where to do Hawaiian programming, where to build a school, how many children to allow to a program in a certain area. We're all using those projections to try to assist with that data. So I like to say that I have talking to people at Papakalea. I just wondered if if somehow and I'm sure they're not the only ones, I'm certain that that's not the only area that had that issue. So that time to disavow that knowledge notion that that just because they're Hawaiian, that they can, that they will not, yeah. Yes, just putting out the census and participating does not does not equate to being a U.S. citizen, it does not equate to you agreeing to that. It doesn't take away from you being Hawaiian at all. I think it actually adds to it because it allows for us to find out where Hawaiians are so that we know where we should be. For the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, we'd like to do a different program into the Hawaiian communities and we'd like to know where they are so that I, you know, we don't want to do like a language workshop where there's not going to be any Hawaiian people. So we want to see where those people are so that we are doing the right programming in the right areas. Well, what about the people that are part Hawaiian and part this and part that and what not? That's all you get to choose. Yes, in the ethnicity section, there are multiple things that you can choose. And we recommend that you choose everything that you are because one, we definitely want to see where native Hawaiians are. But we also would like to see what the mixtures are getting to be because then we can health statistics and make sure that we're addressing the proper issues that come up with certain ethnicities and certain groups. We're all aware that some diseases are generic. So we like to try to prepare for them. So OK, so you got all these different ethnic groups in one person. Now, can that person say, well, my mother's this, my father's that, but I'd really like to take the Hawaiian language. I'd really like to study the Hawaiian issues. Can you separate yourself and say, this is what I want to choose? I want to learn more about. Yeah. Yeah. So the census itself, you choose what you are. There's no they're not going to be checking with the database to make sure you actually are Hawaiian when you click that box, they're not going to check if you actually are a Native American. But there are boxes for those different for different ethnicities. Additionally, if you are something that is not listed in one of those boxes, like if you're, say, Tongan, you can click Pacific Islander and then there's space underneath to write down specifically what you are. Oh, so because you've got so many different people from Melanesia, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Guam, Saipan. Yes. So they can if what they what they identify as is not on that list, they can write in what they identify as. So if there's you're from Guam and you're tomorrow. So is there a place for there actually is Chamorro listed in a box on the census? So native Hawaiian, I believe Chamorro is on the box. But I do know Tongan is not. So if you're Tongan and you identify as that, you would click Pacific Islander and write in Tongan. And so the Marshall Islands are separate from the Micronesian Islands. Yes. So you can identify exactly as what you are. You can even identify down to the island and the culture that you identify. Oh, now that's great, because there's so many islands out there. Yes. So if they identify as Trukees, they can they can identify as such. Yes, I did. A speech for Pacific Islanders. And it took forever because they would translate in four different languages. So that was my introduction to these Pacific Islanders. That that that part, the Micronesian Melon Micronesian part with all these different languages. Yeah, and their languages are all very different. So that now. The same thing applies in the Asian languages. And in Chinatown, for instance, there's seven at least seven different languages in our little Chinatown. Yes. I mean, Chinese has so many dialects, just like Filipino has a lot of different dialects. So oh, yeah, the Filipinos are in every neighborhood in Hawaii. So you can't pick out one neighborhood and say, well, that's where they are. Exactly. No, no. Now, let's go back to the native Hawaiian. So exactly what do you do as a native Hawaiian advancement? What is your mission? So the consulate native Hawaiian advancement is we try to uplift native Hawaiians in every way that we can. While I manage the census program, we also have many other programs that we do in response to covid with a lot of our native Hawaiian crafters not getting to sell their products at the Mary Monarch with a Prince Coheal Festival. We did an online and televised pop up my kicking for them to showcase their information and for people to purchase it. I did buy something. Yeah. Thank you. So if you actually lived in a hard to count census community, we would send you a census message with your order as well. Oh, now that's smart. So we do that. We do emergency funding programs right now. We have the Cahiel program specific to native Hawaiians to assist to have been in an emergency situation. We have the whole program right now. It's just for the for residents of the city and county of Honolulu to assist them with child care utilities during during the economic recovery during covid. We also have our membership. We have the Hawaiian Way Fund right now. We're trying to raise money to help you in the county palace because they're facing their own hardships during covid. Yes. So there's a lot of things that we do. It no two days are the same for us. Well, no, this is this has been a trying time for all of us. Yes, it definitely has. But the good parts about these trying times is that we have seen people get together in ways that they've never gotten together before. We've seen communities reestablished, people helping each other out, no longer being individualistic, being more communal. I have seen even in grocery shopping how everybody's so nice and they talk a lot nicer. Yes, and they actually talk to each other. And it's just I'm loving this. I hate to say that. I know there are a lot of people who feel housebound and closed up, but I'm really enjoying this way of life. I am, too. Like I said, I find people are just nicer in general. That sense of community has definitely come down. As much as I want things to go back to normal, I hate to see the good parts. Well, I don't think we'll ever be normal again. It's it all be new because let's face it, normal, we screwed up the planet. We did did all kinds of things that never should have been done. We abused animals. We, you know, of our resource. Yeah, horrible things to the planet. So you saw how in less than a month of us not doing things, our beaches and our shores started showing improvement. I live out here near a Hanama Bay and it's gorgeous. The fish are just beautiful. Yeah, fish have come back. Yes. Yes. So let's let's hope that when we do open up and we must that we figure out a new way of living, a new way of treating each other. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so. What was I getting ready to say? Do I have a message here? I do. I was thinking somebody was asking a question, but I didn't. We have an opportunity for people to ask questions when we did. So, OK, now tell us how we can reach you and give us an email for the organization. And anything else that we can meet you should we should we need to or anybody that's one thing? You can reach us. Easy Sway is our website. It's www.HawaiianCouncil.org. You can see all of our programs. You can send up for our email list over there. So as we do updates, we can definitely keep everybody informed. If you need to reach out to me, email is the easiest way. My email is Richard at HawaiianCouncil.org. My office line is 808-529-1622. Would you repeat that again? Your office number? It is Eric code 808-529-1622. Thank you so much, Richard. It has been a real pleasure visiting with you. And hopefully we'll get to do this again. Absolutely. Thank you so much for the opportunity.