Growing up in Kona, Jade Onaka said her parents instilled in her a love of the aina and a passion for food sustainability. Whether it was her uncle bringing home fresh fish for dinner or growing their own vegetables, food always brought the Onaka family together after a long day.
The Konawaena High School senior built on that passion by creating a film, in collaboration with Teach for America, about her family’s history and Native Hawaiian food sustainability. Her six-minute film, “Ohana and ‘Aina: Connecting Family, Farming and Freedom,” was selected as a finalist at last month’s Zensa Media International Film Festival in Montreal.
“My last name is something I carry with respect and dignity. Food sustainability has always been in my life and a normalized thing for me,” said Onaka, 17. “The goal was to take this conversation to a larger audience. Food affects everyone. The response is amazing and I couldn’t be more thankful.”
Onaka, who is Native Hawaiian, Japanese, Portuguese and Korean, said the project started last year when she was invited to speak on a Teach for America panel with other Indigenous students about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Joel Serin-Christ, director of studio production at One Day, an affiliate program of Teach for America that produces multimedia stories, said he remembers Onaka talking about her passion for food sovereignty in Hawaii. He said he found the topic interesting and decided to reach out to her.
What started as an idea soon turned into a documentary about Onaka and her family’s history and love for conservation and the land. Onaka comes from a long line of ranchers, starting with her great-great- grandfather in 1914. Both her mom’s and dad’s sides of the family preached conservation, and one of Onaka’s early childhood memories is of her and her family testifying against sheep eradication on Mauna Kea.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Onaka, who plans to pursue a college degree in communications, said she decided to learn more about Native Hawaiians’ relationship with food and the aina. She said she was shocked to learn that Hawaii imports a majority of its food.
“I could never get tired talking about Hawaiian people and food sustainability,” she said. “That might be an indication of what I’d be happy to do and what would be meaningful to me. With this project, it’s making me rethink all of the roots of my passion.”
Onaka said she was stunned and overjoyed when she got word of the film festival selection, adding that she never thought so many people would take the time to watch her video.
Karina Hernandez, Onaka’s advisory teacher, said the teen has always been outspoken and passionate. She said Onaka’s film is an example of her determination to seek solutions to problems.
“She’s always one to say, ‘Let’s make this better.’ When we were watching the video, we were all like, ‘Wow, this is so beautiful,’” Hernandez said. “I was just amazed but also not surprised. When there are opportunities out there, students do check them out. Many of them are brave enough to go for it, and great outcomes come from that. Students have a lot of talents and ideas to showcase.”
Serin-Christ said Onaka’s film was submitted to several other local and national film festivals. He said Onaka was involved in every step of the film-making process, from animation to direction.
“The film selection is exciting, but more than any award, what’s the most inspiring thing for me is that this is being seen by people across different countries,” he said. “It’s a really inspiring video. And part of the really inspiring piece is this vision of a youth and what she hopes could be different in the future. That’s the guiding goal for us, to continue finding ways that Jade’s story can make an impact and inspire others to think.”
———
Jayna Omaye covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a national service organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.
