Kiakahi Eldredge

“Even though we lived, and grew up in Utah, my parents made it a priority for us to stay close to our Hawaiian heritage. To do this, they taught us and raised us with the same values in every hawaiian home. Along with everyday local phrases and basic olelo hawaii, we were taught to treat others with respect, especially our elders, do our chores, take care of one another, raise our own expectations in all we did; to work hard, but be kind. However, we grew up with the life lesson that even though blood quantum is important in finding your cultural identity, it is how you live that makes you hawaiian; and that is to LIVE ALOHA. In other words, to live a life of love and service. We were taught that what made us Hawaiian is how we treated people, how we served others, and how we loved each other. To be of service to those in need, and to always show love and respect to all coaches, teachers, friends, teammates, and especially family. We were proud to be Hawaiian and we were proud to say we were from Hawaii. However, despite our efforts in the home, living in Utah, especially southern Utah, created an obstacle because we weren't surrounded by a lot of our Polynesian culture as much as we wished we could have been. To help with this, our family moved back home to Hawaii majority our summers growing up. So 3 months out of the year we were able to still live Hawaii and experience what we could of that life. This gave us the opportunity to experience a different lifestyle, adapt, learn, and progress in ways we weren't able to in Utah. It also allowed us be diverse in our own understanding in different cultures, and helped us appreciate the benefits of living in both Hawaii and Utah, for which i am extremely grateful.”