Jocelyn Doane
NAME Jocelyn Doane
AGE 42
TOWN/MOKU Mililani
ISLAND Oʻahu
SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLE @jocelynmdoane
NOMINATED BY Sherry Broder
Leadership Category Civic Engagement/Emerging Law
Share with us a little about yourself and what you do.
I advocate to increase and maintain existing public policies that further Native Hawaiian interests related to some of the most important, complex, and controversial issues facing our community—issues related to protecting our ‘āina and its resources, protecting the lāhui’s legal and political interests in maintaining the “ceded” aka stolen land corpus and our limited natural and cultural resources, and ensuring our people continue to be able to exercise the practices that make us uniquely maoli while also maintaining connection to our ancestors, our ‘ohana, and our community.
Why is the work that you do important to you? The community?
I spent most of my youth in the suburbs of Mililani. My immediate family went from Hakimo Road in Nānākuli, to Pupuʻole Street in Waipahu, to Kamehameha Highway in Waimalu, to Kahikinui Street in Mililani. If you have ever been to Mililani, you know that when you enter Mililani there’s a sign that reflects its designation as an All-America City; and consistent with that designation, Mililani lacks cultural landscapes and has little evidence of cultural practices connected to ʻāina. My ‘ohana is most recently from Kaimukī, Kane‘ohe, Mā‘ili, Hilo, and then Molokaʻi, Lahaina and East Maui, but other than our connection to ʻāina on the Waiʻanae coast, where we will eventually spread my fathers ashes and kanu his iwi, our connection to the ‘aina of our ancestors is relatively weak, and so is our connection to the practices that connect us to them.
I believe that my experience is very common in our community and therefore ensuring that our people who have maintained that connection can continue to do so and that our people who have not can start connecting is critical to maintaining a distinctly maoli identity.
Share with us the qualities of leadership you admire and how you express those in your life.
Kūlia i ka nuʻu ʻaʻale i ka puʻu- I believe in striving for excellence when performing tasks and undertaking projects, particularly when done in furtherance of the lāhui. In order to build and maintain a reputation for quality work and convince others, you have to ensure your work is well thought out, researched, accurate, and compelling.
Ma ka hana ka ʻike / Lawe i ka ma ʻalea a kuʻonoʻono - You must show that you are willing to dig into the work if you expect others to follow and in doing so you will acquire knowledge, skills, and hopefully wisdom. More importantly to motivate your followers and staff, you should be working harder than anyone else in the room.
“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” There is value in trying and trying, even if often failing.
Who has inspired you to do the work that you are doing?
My family and our experiences and the exposure my family provided me, has definitely been the impetus and motivation for the work I do.
What is one word that describes something you are excited about for the lāhui?
Manaʻolana
What is one word that describes a pressing issue that is facing our lāhui?
Mālama