Living Treasure of Hawai'i shows how social work theory should be local

One of the nice things about the US is that they are not so anti-elitist about congratulating their colleagues on their achievements. I like the title 'Living Treasure of Hawai'i': that's what Masaru Oshiro has just been awarded in celebration of a lifetime in social work. A notable aspect of his work was how he contributed to the resurrection of repressed local cultural responses to difficulties with families and children. My comment is that we should all be looking for appropriate local responses to local issues, not simply imposing international soicla work theories of practice where they are inappropriate.

You can read about his work at: http://www.hawaii.edu/news/article.php?aId=4180

He was a social worker at the Queen Lili`uokalani Children’s Center in 1963 where he remained for twelve years, being promoted to executive director in 1967. Noticing that classic western social work was not effective with some of the Hawaiian children, the workers brought their concerns to Oshiro. He encouraged them to explore other practices.

They created the “culture committee" - the purpose of which was to examine the cultural aspects of conflict in Hawaiian families. Kumu Mary Kawena Puku`i was generous enough to observe their case presentations and provide advice and mentoring. The committee (including Lynette Paglinawan, also a social work alumna) resurrected ancient healing practices, including ho`oponopono. These had been forced underground or discredited when early missionaries prohibited Native Hawaiians from engaging in many indigenous practices, including speaking in their native tongue. Out of these consultations, the classic two-volume Nana I Ke Kumu (Look to the Source) was published and is still in use today.