The Hale Ku’ai Study Committee,
in conjunction with its fiscal sponsor the PA‘I Foundation, is conducting the most comprehensive information gathering effort ever undertaken to assess the needs of Native Hawaiian cultural artisans and recommend ways to preserve and promote the vitality of Native Hawaiian cultural arts.  The Study’s recommendations are intended to support implementation of an optimal program of cultural arts market protection, cultural arts development, and related legislative and policy measures based upon the input of the artisans themselves.
  
Input of Native Hawaiian
Cultural Artisans: 
To provide evidence of the needs of Native Hawaiian artisans and support implementation of the Study’s recommendations, it is vitally important that artisans provide their input into the record being gathered by the Study. A cultural artisan is any person who applies artistry in making arts or crafts that are an authentic expression of Native Hawaiian culture. At the four public informational meetings, the Study Committee will explain the purpose of a cultural trademark and how other indigenous peoples have used it to protect and promote markets for their cultural arts.  Artisans are strongly urged to attend the meetings and provide their input on behalf of their arts organizations, guilds, huis, halaus, and/or as individual artisans.  Artisans will be asked to provide a waiver to allow their feedback and comments to be videotaped and transcribed for possible use in support of the passage of recommended legislation and funding measures. 
 
Artist Survey:
All artisans in the Native Hawaiian cultural arts are strongly urged to fill in the online Artist Survey of the PA’I Foundation accessible under the “Participate” link so that your individual input can be recorded and quantified for the Native Hawaiian artisan community as a whole.  This is especially important for those artisans who cannot attend the meetings, so that your input may be heard.  The Survey includes about 50 questions about your practice as a cultural artisan, and takes about 15 minutes to fill out.  If you have privacy concerns about any of the questions, you can omit answering them.  However, for the integrity of the survey results, we strongly urge you to fill out the survey completely.”