Pac Rim 2024
Post-Conference Events
Black Histories, Disabled Futures
Cross Movement Organizing Workshop
Thursday, February 29, 2024
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM (HST)
University of Hawai’i West O’ahu, Campbell Library (Kapolei)
University of Hawaiʻi – West Oʻahu
91-1001 Farrington Hwy
Kapolei, HI 96707
Black Histories, Disabled Futures is a free Cross Movement Organizing Workshop, facilitated by Justice Shorter. Justice, founder of SeededGround, is a Black Blind Lesbian woman from Washington DC. She is a national expert on Disability Inclusive Disaster Protections and Disability Justice. Her powerfully poetic speaking style and creative workshops center equity, access, inclusion, safety, dignity and belonging for all who participate.
Join us as we:
- Learn about America’s history of anti-blackness and its impact on present day disabled bodies and minds.
- Identify the relevance of collective access, collective care and collective liberation across movements serving multi-marginalized communities.
- Discuss actionable pathways of solidarity that strengthen the cultural work and illuminate the freedom dreams of disabled BIPOC folks.
Conversations on Storytelling: Speaking and Listening to our Indigenous and Ancestral Voices
Friday, March 1, 2024
3:00 PM (HST)
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Hamilton Library Room 306
2550 McCarthy Mall
Honolulu, Hawaiʻi 96822
How do our stories resonate with–and carry–the lessons and medicine of our ways of knowing and being, including the knowledge of our ancestors and our indigenous traditions. This 45-minute panel discussion features global storyteller Kiran Singh Sirah (this year’s closing plenary speaker at the Pacific Rim International Conference on Disability and Diversity) and Tarcisius Kabutaulaka, Associate Professor at the Department of Pacific Islands Studies/Center for Pacific Islands Studies in the College of Arts, Languages & Letters at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. This informal conversation explores the ways in which storytelling may nurture ourselves and communities and connect us with the life-giving lessons of the shared original traditions that sustain us. It is moderated by Raphael Raphael, Assistant Professor at the Center on Disability Studies, College of Education.
Kiran Singh Sirah, Pac Rim 2024 Keynote speaker and an award-winning Storytelling for Peace and Justice specialist, Folklorist and Artist
Tarcisius Kabutaulaka, Associate Professor at the Department of Pacific Islands Studies/Center for Pacific Islands Studies in the College of Arts, Languages & Letters at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Hawai'i Summit on Employment First
Thursday, February 29, 2024
8:00 AM – 4:00 PM (HST)
Entrepreneurs Sandbox
643 Ilalo St.
Honolulu, HI 96813
Building on the momentum of Hawaiʻi’s Employment First efforts to increase and improve employment among people with disabilities, the 2nd Annual Summit on Employment First will bring together self-advocates and those who support their full participation in work and careers. The post-conference summit will feature a full day of training, inspiration, and collaboration to expand competitive integrated employment and community inclusion.
The Employment First movement seeks to help ensure that people with disabilities can enter the workforce with the same aspirations and opportunities as others without disabilities. The summit will feature speakers, workshop style training sessions, and a panel of subject matter experts working to help us build capacity in our state. Hawaiʻi Employment First seeks to improve education, training, and employment opportunities and outcomes for adults with disabilities in Hawaiʻi.
The Pacific Way: What does inclusive emergency response and recovery look like on your island?
Thursday, February 29, 2024
9:00 AM – 3:00 PM (HST)
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Campus Center Executive Dining Room
2465 Campus Road
Honolulu, HI 96822
The session will explain an overview of emergency preparedness, emergency management, and disaster management. Participants will recognize how their role in the disability network would contribute to emergency preparedness and why a disability integration advisor can be a game changer in pre-, during, and post-disaster. The need to build relationships with key stakeholders engaged in emergency and disaster management will identify how disability networks can bridge the equity gap in response and recovery. In addition, the session will engage participants in lessons learned, cultural resilience, and political insecurity for the Pacific Territories and Hawaiʻi.