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Jacob Aki on Native histories: "When we look into our history, we have a history of excellence...and we have to reclaim that."

Jacob Aki

My conversation with Jacob Aki sparked a lot of thoughts about how I think about leadership and solving tough problems.

Jacob\\u2019s bio below outlines well his leadership and contribution to his community at such a young age. In particular, I was taken by two parts of our conversation:

First, Jacob discussed the organization Aha Kane, which has the mission \\u201cTo nurture a healthier Native Hawaiian male population by eliminating psychosocial, health, and educational disparities through activities founded on traditional cultural practices that build sustainability in the community.\\u201d Essentially the organization has formalized mentoring of young Hawaiian men in traditional teachings, but also creates a network to rely upon throughout one\\u2019s life. There is a woman\\u2019s organization, too. This seems to be an innovative approach to create formal and informal networks in the community.

Second, Jacob discusses the current debate happening in the Hawaiian community surrounding how the nation should move forward. I\\u2019m not jumping into the middle of that debate, but I thought about how we often think of previous leaders and how they were able to unify a people under their leadership. There have to be those types of people today, but do we think of their skills and abilities in the same was as we appreciate those whose contributions we can see retroactively?

The other leadership component I thought about is how young and old generations transition the knowledge and decision making in an organization/business/community/government. I think the natural tendency for young Native people is to stand back and let others lead because that is what we think we\\u2019ve been taught (and often times is what we are taught). But Jacob told a story about how once he and others got involved in different processes, older leaders expressed appreciation that they were there, and consternation about what took them so long to step up. Learning happens by doing, and I think there is a cultural estuary that we miss out on if we don\\u2019t bring different generations together to teach and correct and to learn and succeed.

This is not to say that a young person should expect to lead their people without any prior experience. But it is to say that people of any age can get involved in a variety of ways and begin to learn how to lead, learn and carry themselves.

Any thoughts? Leave a comment below.

Jacob\\u2019s bio

Jacob Bryan Ka\\u02bb\\u014dmakaokal\\u0101 Aki is a 21 year old Native Hawaiian who was born and\\xa0raised in Kap\\u0101lama and Wai\\u02bbanae on the island of O\\u02bbahu. He is a graduate of the\\xa0Kamehameha Schools and currently a senior at the University of Hawai\\u02bbi at M\\u0101noa. He is\\xa0majoring in Hawaiian Studies and Language. Jacob was also a 2015 participant in the\\xa0Native American Political Leadership Program at the George Washington University in\\xa0Washington D.C. While in Washington D.C. he was a Federal Policy Intern at the Office\\xa0of Hawaiian Affairs, Washington D.C. Bureau. After returning to Hawai\\u02bbi, Jacob became a\\xa0youth board member for the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement (CNHA) and\\xa0Peace Child International Hawai\\u02bbi. Jacob was the youngest delegate at the \\u02bbAha 2016:\\xa0Native Hawaiian Governance Convention. He recently returned from New York City,\\xa0where he attended the 2016 United National Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues,\\xa0where he became the Pacific Focal Point for the World Indigenous Youth Caucus. Jacob\\xa0is currently a Public Policy Intern at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. He hopes to attend\\xa0law school where he can use his degree to serve the Hawaiian people. His goal is to\\xa0become a prominent leader in the Native Hawaiian Community.

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