Eleven of our dozen new MDs of Native Hawaiian ancestry in the Class of 2019. Photo by Deborah Manog Dimaya.
By Tina Shelton, JABSOM Communications Director
A dozen physicians of Native Hawaiian ancestry graduated from the University of Hawaiʻi John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) in 2019, a record just edging past the 11 in the class of 2010.
The Native Hawaiian medical community came together in a ceremony honoring the students and welcoming them into the practice of medicine. The students were each presented a ceremonial cloak or Kīhei, which in the ancient Native Hawaiian culture represents a significant achievement, and through patterns made using dye to print the cloth, recounts their life’s journey to this point. The students labored to decorate the cloaks in the last weeks of school. The event in which they receive their Kīhei was held near the JABSOM campus healing garden, which is filled with plants Native Hawaiian healers used before the arrival of western medicine.
About the music: Acoustic Meditation 2 by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Artist: http://audionautix.com/
See entire photo album from the intimate ceremony
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