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The Ethical Culture Society of Essex County
Platform Programs 2013-2014Platform Programs each Sunday at 11:00 AM
516 Prospect Street, Maplewood, New Jersey 07040
Corner of Parker and Prospect
Phone 973-763-1905
Current Week
Sept 8 , 2013 Leader Martha Gallahue, "What's in a Name?"
This opening platform of the season will be a welcome to all those interested in the ethical culture locus in our community. We will host an interactive guided discussion and share on our collective experience in the movement and our dreams and aspirations for the coming season.
Martha Gallahue, Leader in ESEC, has spent an active summer participating in The US Army War College Seminar Series at Carlisle, Pa, (by invitation): at the 98th Annual American Ethical Union's National Assembly in Fairfax, Va. whose focus was on criminal justice; as Workshop Facilitator in Brooklyn Society on the "culture of ethical culture"; as key planner for a United Nations High Level Forum on the Culture of Peace, September 6th in collaboration with the President of the General Assembly.
She is an interactive psychoanalyst in private practice in NYC and in active conversation with three grown children all in public service. Her lead edu-learners (mutual educators) are her two
grandchildren Teagan and
Neve, seven and four years old. She also guided our ESEC youth member Lucy Schmitz through a min-internship at the UN. [see photo] Caption: Lucy Schmitz, our new youth member, and Martha after a meeting at the UN on planning for a High Level Forum on the Culture of Peace to take place, Sept. 6th, in General Assembly Hall at the UN.
Sept. 15 Chef Jesse Jones, "Being One of My Kind - A Look at Race in the Kitchen"
In a Q&A exchange with Elaine Durbach, Chef Jesse will explore his path, as an African American, to becoming a chef in "an aggressively white collar industry." Reflecting on issues raised by the Trayvon Martin case, he will discuss discrimination in the kitchen, and what he calls "life as a chameleon," at times being called an Uncle Tom while learning how to retain his integrity and will to be the best, and his faith; his work with urban kids, and serving as a mentor to young would-be cooks.
He will also give a brief cooking demo for a small group in the ECS kitchen after the platform, showing participants how to make one of his signature dishes, shrimp and grits. For details and the cost, call Elaine at 973-275-1633.
Chef Jesse Jones' Southern cooking with a country French twist has earned him a loyal following who
love his style as much as his dishes, and his victories at cooking competitions. He has also gained a reputation as a celebrity chef, between catering for Tyler Perry at 98.7 Kiss FM, posting recipes on The Alternative Press, hosting Chef Jesse Live cooking demos, and opening a pop-up restaurant serving prix-fixe Sunday dinners in South Orange in 2012.
Jesse attended Hudson Community Culinary Arts Program in Jersey City, but he inherited his passion for cooking from his mother, Mildred Jones, and his grandmother, Hannah Jones. Under their tutelage, following them around in their home kitchen in Snow Hill, North Carolina, he honed his culinary vision and developed his flair for New Carolina Cuisine.
After several years of working in top kitchens, Chef Jesse opened his own, ultimately deciding in June 2006 to focus on his own catering business, Chef Jesse Concepts, which has grown to include many high profile clients. He has won many cooking competitions including in 2010 the coveted title Ultimate Chef of Bergen County.
Chef Jesse lives in Irvington, NJ with his wife, 2 boys and Zeus, his Italian Mastif. You can find more information about Chef Jesse at http://chefjessejones.wordpress.com/; contact Chef Jesse at chefjesse1@aol.com.
Sept. 22 Terri Suess, "The Right to Privacy — Whose Right and When?"
We will hold an open forum on the topic of government accountability with regard to transparency and adherence to international law. We invite discussion on what makes a whistle blower? Are there ethical boundaries for whistle blowers? Terri Suess, former President of ESEC, will discuss the special instance of the military case against Bradley Manning. Martha Gallahue will preside.
Bradley Manning Trial – A Charade:
Under the Geneva Conventions and the Nuremberg Principles, a soldier's responsibility is to do exactly what Bradley Manning did — expose any and all war crimes.
Nuremberg Principle VII states, "Complicity in the commission of a crime against peace, a war crime, or a crime against humanity as set forth in Principle VI is a crime under international law."
Watch the video online of “Collateral Murder”— the army’s own videotape of soldiers shooting unarmed reporters, civilians — and laughing about it … Then tell me if Bradley Manning — who released this information to the public — is the war criminal.
Bradley Manning was held for three years without being charged, and 10 months in Solitrary Confinement. That alone should secure his freedom, and he should sue the United States for violation of basic protections to be accorded any prisoner.
This whole charade of a military trial should be an embarrassment to any American who believes in our constitution, our role in the global community, and as signatory to international treaties.
The conviction of Bradley Manning for releasing information about War Crimes and abysmal war planning and engagement — not to the enemy, but to the American Public! — is a travesty of the highest order. He has provided the truth; precisely the information needed in a democracy to direct policy.
Inform yourself and speak out: www.Bradleymanning.org; www.CouragetoResist.org; www.WorldCantwait.net.
Sept. 29 Liberato "Levi" C. Bautista, "World Peace in a Conflicted World"
Levi Bautista, the Assistant General Secretary for United Nations Ministry of the General Board of Church and Society, will explore his proposal that another globalization is possible — where there is “food and freedom, jobs and justice, land and liberation.”
The GBCS is one of four international general program boards of The United Methodist Church. It has headquarters on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., and at the Church Center for the UN in New York City. In addition to UN Ministry, the General Board is defined by four other areas of ministry: Public Witness and Advocacy, Administration, Ministry of Resourcing Congregational Life, and Communications.
Levi graduated from the University of the Philippines with a degree in history and political science. He is now a doctoral candidate in Christian social and political ethics at Drew University. He represents the board as a non-governmental organization (NGO) as the Main Representative to the United Nations at the UN headquarters in New York, Geneva, and Vienna.
Levi comes from the Philippines where he served for 10 years as the human rights coordinator for the National Council of Churches in the Philippines during a period he characterizes as “the brutal Marcos dictatorship and the coup-ridden Aquino regime.” He is known in ecumenical and civil society circles in Asia and elsewhere around the world in the field of international affairs, human rights and social and political ethics. Those areas are also the focus of his academic pursuits, and he has written essays and edited books and journals on them.
"Levi" has been a good friend to the National Ethical Service and to the American Ethical Union. He attended the national AEU Assembly in l998, and several programs at the UN planned by the NES.
Sunday, Oct 6. Colloquy: Syria, and the question of international responsibility
With the U.S. role as international enforcer under debate, we will delve into members’ views on the question of intervention, peace vs. enforcement of shared norms, and autonomy vs. coalition-building. Post Iraq and Afghanistan, is this a turning point in American attitudes to war, and the value — or price — of military might?
Martha is working toward certification in PeaceLearning/Peacebuilding with National Peace Academy. She is a founding member of a civil society group at the UN, United for a Culture of Peace. Martha is Leader with National Ethical Service at the UN and Ethical Culture Society of Essex Culture. She is active on The National Leaders Council of The American Ethical Union and served on the Assembly Planning Team in 2012. She is a member of the Social Justice Caucus of the Leaders Council and member of the National Ethical Action Committee for the AEU.
Martha is an interactive psychoanalyst in private practice in NYC and in active conversation with three grown children all in public service. Her lead edu-learners (mutual educators) are her two grandchildren Teagan and Neve, seven and four years old.
Sunday, Oct. 13 Martha Gallahue: War and Peace … What is Possible in Today’s World?
“The seed of peace exists in all of us. It must be nurtured, cared for and promoted by us all to flourish. Peace cannot
be imposed from outside; it must be realized from within” — Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury
October 24th will mark the 68th birthday of the United Nations. Martha will discuss its achievements and its failures from the perspective of its stated mission to achieve world peace. She will further explore why Ethical Culture as a movement stands behind the UN despite its failures. She will focus upon the struggle for human rights as expressed in the Declaration of Human Rights and the Declaration and Programme of Action on the Culture of Peace, the two resolutions most hotly debated in the General Assembly in the history of the United Nations.
Martha Gallahue, ESEC Leader, also serves as Leader and Main Representative for National Ethical Service, an affiliate organization of the AEU. National Ethical Service is founding member of Global Movement for the Culture of Peace at the UN, a coalition of 16 other organizations dedicated to provoking governments to implement the goals of the UN Charter for Peace. On September 6, GMCOP brought together over 600 civil society members from 40 different countries to a day-long High Level Forum on the Culture of Peace convened by the 67th President of the General Assembly.
Sunday, Oct. 20 Zia Durrani and Betty Levin: War and Peace
Based on a review of the book, The End of War by John Horgan, Zia and Betty will discuss the ongoing violence plaguing our world and the attitudes required for future peace. These concepts, emanating from the book under review, will also reflect the idea of the two presenters. They will attempt a realistic evaluation of these conflicts, at the same time identifying areas of hope in which we can humanistically direct our efforts and commitments.
E. Betty Levin has been a member of the Ethical Culture Movement almost all her adult life and a member of the Essex Society for over 50 years. During this period, she has served as president, on the Board of Trustees and as a Sunday School teacher. Betty still works as a private practice psychotherapist, for the past 37 years.
She has been founder and past president of the N.J. Association of Women Therapists where she has been honored for her “wisdom and contributions to the creativity and development of the Association.” She has also had 3 invited articles published in professional journals. Currently, as she has been for years, Betty is active in the Peace
Movement.
Zia Durrani, a former ECS Board Member, was born and raised in Kashmir, India, where she lived until 1963. Educated in India and England, she was a teacher of English in a women’s college in Srinagar, her home town, until she married and left Kashmir to live briefly in Madras, and then moved to London. Zia came to the US in 1976, and lived in various places before coming to South Orange. When she lived on Long Island, Zia was involved with the local theater group. She has taught ESL in New York, Oregon and New Jersey. Zia has three children. Her two girls live in New Jersey, and her son lives in Kansas. At present Zia is a member of the Adult School Board of Trustees and is also involved with their ESL program.
Sunday, Oct. 27 Barbara Lipton: Masks — Art and Ceremony
Barbara Lipton says, “In this country, we tend to think of masks in a somewhat limited way, especially in this season of Halloween — like masks of ghosts, Batman, Elvis or Mickey Mouse. But masks fill many functions and roles, perhaps more than we realize, and have been ubiquitous around the world for thousands of years. I will show images of masks from several different cultures, but will concentrate on masks of the Alaskan Eskimos, which I think are perhaps the most varied and imaginative ever made. I will also bring some masks with me for you to look at and handle (carefully).”
ECS Friend Barbara Lipton previously worked at the Newark Museum as Library Director and Special Projects Director: curator of Whaling Days in NJ, SURVIVAL: Life and Art of the Alaskan Eskimo; Director and Curator, Tibetan Museum, Staten Is., NY; Adjunct Professor of Art History The New School, SUNY Purchase, Drew University, Montclair University. Currently Chair, Exhibitions Committee, Atlantic Highlands Arts Council; Speakers Bureau, the Newark Museum. She has exhibited her photographs and has spoken at ECS a number of times, most recently with Zia Durrani, on the handcrafts they saw on a trip to Gujurat, India.
Nov. 3 Bill Graves, “Protecting Whistle Blowers in NJ”
Bill Graves will talk about the Conscientious Employee Protection Act of New Jersey (CEPA) & the various court cases dealing with its application. There is other New Jersey law based upon the N.J. Constitution & Supreme Court case law dealing with it. He will give a broad non-technical outline of the CEPA and will talk generally about how it works and what a whistle blower should do to be protected by it. I will also relate Mr. Boswell’s experiences & his feeling that it is a last resort.
Bill Graves was admitted to the N.J. Bar in 1966 and was an Assistant Deputy Public Defender in the N.J. Public Defender Office for about 17 years. During that time, he was part of a team of experienced attorneys assigned to represent defendants charged with capital murder and tried four death penalty cases. Bill later joined the N.J. Attorney General’s Office. As a Deputy Attorney General, he represented the N.J. Bureau of Securities. The Bureau’s assignment was to protect NEW Jersey residents from penny stock fraud & other predatory practices. Bill was also the City Attorney & Law Director for the City of Hoboken for several years.
Nov. 10 Rob Agree, “How my mother’s childhood in Nazi Germany taught me moral authority”
Rob Agree will speak about his mother’s youth (birth to age 19) as a Jew in Nazi Germany. She was among the very last German Jews to legally emigrate — after the War started in 1939. It is also a lesson about moral authority, and how Rob learned it from her.
Rob says: “How I learned moral authority from my mother is a long story (come hear it on November 10th), but it’s enough to say that it was her behavior in my lifetime, combined with my understanding of her early experiences with the rise of Nazism that provided the lessons. She was born in 1920 in a small farming town in central Germany. She lived there, under growing persecution, as Hitler rose to power. Her family was chased out in 1936 (the town was officially Judenrein) and they moved to Frankfurt where they lived through Kristalnacht, finally emigrating after the start of the war in September 1939. They were literally among the very last German Jews to legally do so. My mother and her brother recorded several hours of their memories in the 1980s, and my talk is based on these recordings.”
Rob Agree is Ceremonial Leader of the Congregation for Humanistic Judaism of Morris County, a former public school teacher and administrator, a three-year resident of Maplewood and a member of Essex Ethical. He is married to Melissa, and they have three grown sons.
Nov. 17 Martha Gallahue, “Aging and Spiritual Practice: what is the Connection?”
Martha will draw upon her personal friendships with older friends who continue to engage in larger social issues at the same time they maintain a spiritual practice. Not all her friends identify as religious or share the same ethnicity or culture. She will identify what they seem to share and how it influences their preparations for dying.
Martha Gallahue, ESEC Leader, also serves as Leader and Main Representative for National Ethical Service, an affiliate organization of the AEU. National Ethical Service is founding member of Global Movement for the Culture of Peace at the UN, a coalition of 16 other organizations dedicated to provoking governments to implement the goals of the UN Charter for Peace. On September 6, GMCOP brought together over 600 civil society members from 40 different countries to a day-long High Level Forum on the Culture of Peace convened by the 67th President of the General Assembly
Nov. 24 Hilding Gus Lindquist, “The Transformative Power of Art: Freeing the Art Spirit in each of us”
The essential existential characteristic of a human being is our mind, the brain-body continuum of acquired memory capable of applying that memory in new ways. And that, my friends, is art.
Self-directed mental and physical activity is our reason for existence, sublimely said in French, our raison d’être.
The joy brought by awakening a passion for whatever it is that engages us from within is our reward, and the motivation for pursuing our passion.
The “gift of the art spirit” is the freedom to self-direct our mental and physical activity in the creation of whatever motivates us. It pulls us into learning how to do it better. It awakens the passion that has created the world we know as ours and will create the new worlds to come.
It is why “freedom” is the fundamental principle of human society, and working out how to maximize our own freedom while minimizing its impact on the freedom of others is the fundamental purpose of our “political arrangements.”
A longtime friend of ECS, Hilding “Gus” Lindquist lives in Maplewood. Gus worked as a research data administrator and, for over twenty years, worked developing administrative computer programs. He draws on life experiences from developing administrative systems for a diverse set of organizations. He has also devoted many years to social activism. Since retiring a few years back, he has turned to creating cultural programs dealing with art, music, drama, and poetry.Dec. 1 Martha Gallahue, “On Starting a Peace Center at Ethical Society of Essex County”
December 1 Martha Gallahue: A Colloquy on the Future of a Peace Center at Ethical Culture.
While it will be interactive, she will offer some linkage between basic premises of ethical culture and modern peace centers that are proliferating throughout the world. She will focus on Adler's conviction of humanity's comprehensive interrelatedness, the attribution of worth of each person and the practice of shared leadership within our community. She will share some stories as to how other peace centers began. Martha invites all members, friends and others interested in developing this initiative to contribute their own good ideas on the subject.
Martha is ESEC leader in Maplewood, and serves as edu-learner faculty with National Peace Academy USA. As leader and main representative of National Ethical Service at the UN, she is in shared leadership with a coalition of non-governmental organizations called the Global Movement for Culture of Peace. She will illustrate the progress of Peace Centers with stories about her colleagues in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Gainesville, Florida and Portland, Oregon.
Dec. 8 Widney Brown, “How the Criminal Justice System Undermines Effective Civil Disobedience Today”
Widney Brown will speak on the undermining of effective civil disobedience through the current criminal justice system. Not only is it in conflict with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but it breeds a culture of punishment and suppression rather than the open discourse necessary for the progress of healthy legal framework in an increasing complex world. Widney will share stories as examples of this premise including the recent cases between Greenpeace and Russia, Ed Snowden and Bradley Manning in the United States.
Widney Brown is senior director of international law and policy, leading development of human rights policies and analysis for Amnesty International. She is responsible for Amnesty International's strategic litigation program and negotiations on international standards. Widney is responsible for advocacy in the UN and regional human rights bodies. She is also responsible for overseeing Amnesty International's work on global thematic issues which includes the business and human rights, refugee and migrant rights and abolition of the death penalty. Widney oversees the organization's work on all forms of discrimination. She is a key spokesperson on women’s rights.
Widney has extensive experience documenting human rights violations across the world and has contributed written work to numerous publications. Prior to joining Amnesty International, Widney worked for nine years at Human Rights Watch. She was a lecturer at the Yale University School of Epidemiology and Public Health where she taught a course in Health and Human Rights. She is a graduate of the New York University School of Law where she was a Root Tilden Scholar.
Dec. 15 John Freeman, "The Sufi Tradition in America”
John Freeman (also known as Zaahir Muhammad) will discuss:
a. What is “Sufism”?
b. What is a Dervish, and what are they all about?
c. The “arrival” of “Sufism” in the Americas (and what pre-existed).
d. Contemporary Sufi personalities, Sufi Orders, their roles and responsibilities.
John Freeman was in telecommunications management in the “Big 8” (the eight largest accountancy firms), oil & commodities and Wall Street investment banking businesses for 19 years. Migrating to sales and marketing and the marine business, he was marketing administrator for North America for Lloyds Register of Shipping (UK) for 9 years, and is currently a director of sales for a national educational financial management firm. In 1988, seeking a more “spiritual” rationale and purpose in life, the mystical path of Sufism was opened to him, resulting in initiation into the Halveti-Jerrahi Order of Dervishes of Turkey (“The Surgeons of the Heart”), through his spiritual guide, Lex Hixon (Nur al Jerrahi), and as well as initiation into the Muriddiyah Sufi path through Cheikh Abdulla Dieye of Senegal. Zaahir practices Spiritual Aromatherapy via training through the Chishti Sufi Order, is knowledgeable in Unani Medicine, has a B.S. in Natural Health and is completing studies toward the N.D. (Naturopathic Doctor).
Dec. 22 Huda Shanawani, "The Drew Institute on Religion & Conflict Resolution”
Syrian-born Huda Shanawani served as a translator for the Drew University's peace seminar last
summer. She will describe what transpired there and what is happening in her homeland. The Arab Spring had brought hope and dreams for a democratic freedom to this artist / teacher, yet the events that are taking place in Syria bring back the memories and fear that she grew up with. She said, "Living in the US leaves me physically distant yet mentally and emotionally connected to the Syrian people every moment they are fighting for their rights to live a free, democratic life."
Born and raised in Damascus, Syria, Huda Shanawani came to live in the United States when she was 16, with her new husband. She finished her college education while raising four children and learning everything she could from what the free culture of America offered.
She has been translating for the official courts of New Jersey for the past 32 years, which led her to be the lead translator for Drew's peace seminar this past June and July in Madison, New Jersey.
Teaching Arabic privately for many years led Huda to her starting the Arabic program at Union County College after receiving her Masters degree. She has been teaching Arabic at the college for the last four years.
While pursuing her undergraduate degree at Montclair University, she took a jewelry-making course and was immediately captivated by the act of creating art objects by hand. That experience led her to study painting, fiber art and, ultimately, ceramics, obtaining her Masters Degree in ceramics, at Montclair.
Huda frequently returns to Damascus to visit family. The culture, customs and visual images of her native land inform her work with references of the vivid landscapes and vibrant cities she grew up with.
Jan. 5 Phyllis Bernstein, “Israeli Bedouin — The Changing Landscape”
As a member of the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ, Phyllis Bernstein has met representatives of Bedouin communities living in Israel’s Negev region. She has learned firsthand about the dilemmas facing this population, many of whom are still nomadic and many of whom live in settlements the Israeli government doesn’t recognize and therefore won’t provide with basic amenities. Some financial support is given, and there are attempts underway to improve the living conditions of the Bedouin communities, but in so many ways there are great gaps and conflicts between the treatment of them as compared to the Jewish Israelis.
Phyllis was a CPA/Personal Financial Specialist for many years and now makes art from her heart. She paints in oil, acrylic and mixed media, and makes jewelry. She serves on the board of the NJ Jewish News and the Jewish Federation of Greater Metrowest NJ, where she serves as co-chair of the Arab Citizens of Israel Study Group. Phyllis actively serves on the Inter-agency Task Force for Israeli Arab Issues and the Jewish Federation of North America’s Social Venture Fund for Jewish Arab Equality and Shared Society
The term kosmos has several definitions some of which appear to be contradictory. Martha will use the term to explore how humanists might best be able to reconcile those differences. Focusing on how in periods of historical change, theological expressions can become less and less meaningful, she will discuss the impact such loss of meaning can produce and how that works in American culture. Finally, she will argue for an alternative to the argument of a patternless universe without cause or purpose.
Martha Gallahue, Clergy Leader of Ethical Society of Essex County, was a former Dominican Sister and graduate student of Thomistic theology when she left her Order. She has a Master’s Degree in comparative religion from Columbia University and has continued a life long inquiry into the meaning of religion. She pursues this inquiry through private study and public inter-cooperation with a broad sweep of faith traditions such as United Religions Initiative and Order of the Mystic Heart.
Jan. 19 William Gaines, “African American Leadership: Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois”
William E. Gaines has a long-standing interest in African-American leadership, both historical and for the future. His talk on W.E.B. Dubois and Booker T. Washington will include: background of the two leaders (early life, education and race relations); Booker T. Washington’s Atlanta Compromise Speech and W.E.B. DuBois’s reaction to the speech; Technical Education vs. Higher Education; obstacles in achieving civil rights; lynching; Southern Democrats; and the impact of the two leaders on race relations in the 20th and 21st century.
Mr. Gaines did his undergraduate work at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and later earned Masters degrees in History and in Education Administration. He has taught at Union County College and Essex County College as well as for 26 years at Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, where he teaches World History and African History. In 1989, as a German Marshall Fund Exchange Recipient, he traveled to Germany where he lectured on W.E.B. Dubois and Booker T. Washington. A resident of Maplewood-South Orange communities for 30 years, he was a South Orange Villager of the Month in 1996. In 2002, he was honored with a NAACP Community Award and was profiled in the “Neat Things Done By Teachers” column in the New Jersey Education Association Review. He was chair of the Discipline Review Committee at Columbia High School that wrote the report resulting in a successful alterative high school program in South Orange-Maplewood, and he is the Coordinator for the Columbia High School African-American History Challenge Bowl team that has won 4 of 5 competitions at the state level.
Jan. 26 Iokepa Hanalei ‘¯Imaikalani and Inette Miller ‘¯Imaikalani, “The Return Voyage — Rediscovering the Ancient Wisdom of Hawaii”
Inette and Iokepa are on a mission to bring the teaching of the indigenous people of Hawaii to the world, and to revive respect for other age-old cultures of peace.
“For 12,300 years, the indigenous people of our Islands embraced a culture that refused the possibility of war. Return Voyage awakens that ancient wisdom — ritual and practices that dissipate anger, prevent violence, foster harmony — and shares its profound implications for the 21st century.
Our ancestors were intrepid voyagers building remarkably sophisticated canoes and travelling throughout the Pacific and to coastal America for thousands of years. On every voyage,then and now, there came a turning point: that moment was Huliau — The Return Voyage. These spiritual gatherings are the celebration of that moment — the dawn of our native claim, our aboriginal voice. These gatherings are our map for the Return Voyage to:
• Knowledge of what our ancestors represented (our unadulterated history).
• Confidence in who we genuinely are.
• Personal freedom from the tyranny of others’ explanation of us.
Together we will light the fire of authentic cultural identity and unity. The time is now.
We carry in our DNA all that our ancestors lived. We underestimate our own importance. We see how huge the universe is, and we fail to appreciate the part we play. But when we strike the match…”
In 1997, at the age of 46, Iokepa Imaikalani gave up his successful life as a contractor in Washington State, left his family, friends and hobbies and went to live in his native Hawaii, to study, and to work for the revival of Hawaiian culture, inspired by the words of his deceased grandmothers: “My Grandmothers said: ‘In every culture on Earth, God gave keys to survival. Hawaiians will return to theirs. It is about reminding every soul what they were given at the beginning of time.’” He returned home to Hawaii with one small duffel, $100 in his pocket, “and the light of my Grandmothers’ love inside me.”
Iokepa met his wife, Inette Miller, ten years later. Inette had been a high-powered international journalist and author and was a single mother of teenage sons living in Portland, when on vacation in Hawaii she met Iokepa — and changed her entire life.
She writes: “When I left Portland, I left a trail of friends and family who feared I’d stepped off the deep edge of Middle Earth. I spent the next year fulfilling their worst fears. I went on vacation for a week and I stayed for a lifetime.” She wrote the story of her overwhelming immersion into the authentic kanaka maoli culture in the book: Grandmothers Whisper: Ancient Wisdom — Timeless Wisdom — A Modern Love Story. The book won Book of the Year, Visionary Award 2011. Her new book, The Return Voyage: 95,000 Miles on the Paths of Our Ancestors, continues the journey where the early book left off. You can learn more about them at www.ReturnVoyage.com.
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