With the return to in-person schooling, traditions like homecoming that were previously modified will be carried out this year. Staff and students alike are making the most of their time on campus to return to a normal school year. MILILANI HIGH SCHOOL | ISSUE 1 | NOVEMBER X, 2021
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a letter letter from from a
the editor
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ith the school’s return to in-person learning, a sense of familiarity has spread through campus. As the puzzle pieces of our community are being put back into similar, yet undoubtedly different positions to create a new sense of togetherness, I’m happy to sit in this familiarity with my classmates, teachers, and especially the other staff members of the recently resurrected Trojan Times. Last year was my first year on this team, taking on the responsibilities of being a writer, designer, and social media editor, and I never would have thought I’d have the privilege of serving as it’s editor-in-chief, sitting here writing this letter today on campus - not in my bedroom. We, as the Trojan Times, would
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like to communicate the positivity and growth that our school and community have shown as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This has been clear through the sports, organizations, and students themselves that have presented immense perseverance during the pandemic. Our staff has accomplished so much in the last two years, in spite of what drawbacks the situation may have had on their creative spirit. Although I cannot say I am familiar with the previous students of the paper who grew it to flourish so well, I am honored to be able to help our many new members to uphold and continue this growth, reaching above and beyond the high expectations that were previously set. Each member, new and returning, has shown talent and ambition that only expands and expands. In addition to these printed issues, our online presence has grown tremendously through our media editors, which I feel is very important. Emma Lee, our digital editor last year, took amazing care of the website throughout virtual learning and then passed her title onto Alexander Ozawa, our only three-year staffer this year, who has taken the time to redesign the entire website, work with our design team to create a new logo, and work on videos, stories, and posts for our Instagram page, @mhstro-
jantimes. Shaylee Oshiro has also played a large role in expanding this Instagram page and our presence vastly, always, always brainstorming and creating new content of super swag potential. I am also grateful for all of the other editors who brought their experience and confidence to the team this year (listed to the right), as well as our advisor, Mr. Sato, who drives us all to work harder each day. This year is particularly special, as it is his last year advising the group, so we all hope to put our best foot forward in every issue we make. Our team, as the past editor-in-chief has said, is a very close-knit family, and that’s what makes the class so special. I have been able to watch Mr. Sato’s Journalistic Writing and Publishing class grow closer under his direction and it is a good feeling to see our puzzle pieces fit back together in the best way that they can. We hope that this issue finds everyone and their families well, and that you continue to stay safe and healthy through the rest of the school year. Thank you so much for helping us to complete this issue and for all your love and support. <3
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Trojan Times’ mission is to inform the community of news, people, and issues of concern. Community. Responsibility. Dependability.
Head Social Media Shaylee Oshiro
Editor-in-Chief Jenna Kim Story Editor Kanako Yonashiro
Head Design Clare Sullivan
Opinions Editor Macallister Graves
Head Photographer Johnathan Escasa Photo Stylist Brynn Vincent
Copy Editors Isabella Makino Akira Pescador
Advisor Christopher Sato
Digital Editor Alexander Ozawa
Staff Serena Birchard
Dannika Pila
Alexia Cramer
Ken Sakata
Sarah Dittle
Shelby Seu
Anya Hubbard Kiyana Okita-Cagdan
Serenity Shadowens Kalli Tanita
Jacob-Tavini Uelese
CTE to establish Trojan Trading Post in Town Center Writer Isabella Makino
Photographer Brynn Vincent
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he Career and Technical Education department (CTE) is planning to launch a pop-up store in Town Center, where various items made by CTE students themselves will be sold. Set to run from November 19 to December 18, the store will be open on Fridays from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. “It’s our first time ever, I mean I haven’t heard of any other schools doing something like this, where it’s an actual retail space,” said business teacher and assistant CTE advisor Janise Kim. “So I think that’s huge and the experience the students are getting, we’re already seeing how much they’re enjoying it. They’re excited.” While the store was originally conceived by the business teachers, it now includes ASMHS as well as many other areas of CTE such as marketing, building and construction, graphic design, culinary, and agriculture.
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Mililani High School’s Career and Technical Education department plans to create a pop-up store with the purpose of selling various products, and using proceeds for CTE scholarships at the end of the year. A spinoff of the Trojan Trading Post, the store is set to run from November 19 to December 18, and is planned to be located in Town Center. “So we have all the students in the various career pathways, such as business, culinary, agriculture, graphics, electronics, building and construction, health, information technology. So we actually have eleven pathways total that our program offers. So we’re hoping to get a variety of products that can be sold at our store from all of our different programs,” Business teacher and assistant CTE advisor Janise Kim said.
Designer Ken Sakata
Because of this, a wide variety of products will be sold, including MHS apparel, wood designs, cutting boards, plants and herbs, keychains, gummies and more. These products will be created by CTE students, with the proceeds going to CTE scholarships awarded at the end of the year. “I think it’s just a collaboration of the teachers trying to think of opportunities for our students to be exposed to real-world life examples in the workforce and to kind of connect that to what we try to teach them in the classes that we have,” said Kim. “So that’s kind of how the idea came about, and then it was just like ‘oh how can we get the rest of our CTE department involved,’ so it’s more collaborative effort with all the different students, not just business students.” The pop-up store is a spinoff of the Trojan Trading Post on campus. The Trojan Trading Post—which previous-
ly held events such as Bananarama, Chocolate Day and Pumpkin Palooza—worked with CTE departments like the culinary department to sell products at school. From the pop-up store on campus, the trading post will transition from food-related products to a more general selection of wares. “The best part was honestly the planning process,” said senior Jaime Cortez. “Like I’m in charge of all the marketing materials, so even though we faced a lot of adversities in the beginning with our first two events, we kind of worked our way up.” Students in the Business co-op elective are the student managers for the trading post on campus. Once the store is set up at the Town Center, student volunteers from other CTE departments will help to work at the
store. Because this is the first time CTE has done something like this, there were some challenges regarding inventory and communication. Making sure there were enough products, coordinating with other departments, and planning the events were all difficulties CTE faced. “Yeah, so communicating with the other departments was kinda hard,” said senior Annabelle Ink, a student in the Business co-op elective. “Making sure that we were all on the same page. And then just making sure that we’re also getting products or things to have.” The store will be set up where San Lorenzo was previously located. For more information, talk to Mrs. Kim in her classroom at L204.
Hard at Work: Building and Construction Renovates L-Building Workroom Writer Sarah Dittle
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Photographer Kalli Tanita
ince early September, Building and Construction teacher Jeff Cadiz and Senior John Herold-Nanu have been coming on their own time to renovate the L building workroom into an office for CTE and its coordinators, head of CTE Mrs. Jamie Ludwig and coordinator Janise Kim. “I can’t speak for Wulfred and Ricky but I’d say I got a good experience of a full day of work when I came in on the weekends and it was a good expe-
Designer Ken Sakata
rience overall,” Herold-Nanu said. The project was an opportunity for experience for Herold-Nanu. Installing vinyl flooring-- one of the tasks he and Cadiz did-- is an extra skill trait for construction workers. The room will be finished by Christmas break, with only sliding-door cabinets left to construct and install, along with lighting from the Electronics class to finish. It will also be used as a conference space for teacher-work meetings.
“Well, I guess for the most part Mr. Murphy envisioned us having more of a home-base for Career and Technical Education,” said Business teacher and CTE coordinator Janise Kim. “There’s a lot of school-wide projects that we’re starting to do that we would like to be able to use the space more efficiently next door since it wasn’t really being used.” Cadiz and his Building and Construction class have also helped build other structures on campus in the past. “When we do new projects for the school it’ll involve constructing, making a structure like the dining
Beginning early September, four students from the Building and Construction classes are in the process of renovating the L building workroom, creating an office for CTE. The room, scheduled to finish by Christmas break, is one of the many construction projects that the class does for the school. “Everything was a learning period so I was open to everything that I was getting taught. And I’m sure it was the same for everybody else in the room with me,” said senior John Herold-Nanu
lanai, the second dining lanai, things like that, and then it also involved painting so the project pretty much fell into our area,” said Cadiz.
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FEATURE
Homecoming: Trojans, Rewrite Your Story Writer Kanako Yonashiro
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Photographer Serena Birchard
rom November 8 to 12, Mililani High School will hold their annual homecoming event. This year’s theme was based on the concept of a fairytale and is titled “Trojans, Rewrite your Story.” Because this is the first in-person event after a virtual school year, the Associated Students of Mililani High School (ASMHS) and the class councils hope to uplift students’ spirits and reconnect through this year’s homecoming theme. “It’s not just about fairytales and storybooks, but it’s about Trojans rewriting history, leaving our legacy or contributing to coming out of a pandemic year and resetting what school looks like on our campus,” said Student Activities Coordinator Janet Ward-Riehle. Spirit weeks for homecoming typically have five dress up days. However this year’s homecoming only has four because there is no school on November 11. The first dress up day theme is “Modernize your Fairytale,” where students will wear a modern outfit of a fairytale or storybook character. Tuesday’s theme is “Living Out a Royal Dream” where students are encouraged to wear fancy attire. On Wednesday, the theme “The Three Little Trojans” allows students to twin with someone or wear matching outfits with more than one person On Friday, the theme “Tales of the Trojan Kingdom” has students dress up in trojan gear, school colors, or class colors. Although spirit week is an aspect of homecoming that was partially implemented last year, some activities that were removed or modified due to COVID-19 restrictions will be fully
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Designer Clare Sullivan
included this year. “I think it’s really exciting to see those things come back and especially our seniors are really excited to experience things that they were not able to see in years and bring that excitement back on campus now that we are starting to open up again,” said ASMHS President Senior Caleb Beeler. Traditions that were modified last year but will be brought back similar to years prior to COVID-19 and the virtual school year are the Homecoming Court, pep rally, lip sync, banner float building, the game, dance, and the service project. However, the one event that remained modified is the Parade of the Banners and the one event that remained cancelled was the homecoming parade. “I am really looking forward to watching the football game in person and watching the court walk down the field at half-time,” said ASMHS Council Member Senior Miya Nishihira. The pep rally will occur on Friday, November 12, where the class banners, lip sync performances, and the 2021 Homecoming Court will be presented. Representing the freshman class will be Princess Riley Tateyama and Prince Cruz Sagaysay. Representing the sophomore class will be Princess Sara Pritchard and Prince Tavian Hallums. Representing the junior class will be Princess Kassaundra Sewa-Santiago. Representing the senior class will be Princess Alexis Dimaya, Prince Chase Kunihisa, Queen Kevi Anzai, and King Anthony Tom. At the time of printing, the junior class prince has not been determined yet. The homecoming game night
Class of 2022 council members work on banner building in preparation for homecoming. Their banner will be presented at the homecoming pep rally and the homecoming game.
will take place at John Kauinana Stadium on Saturday, November 13 against Kahuku. While spectators are allowed, it will be limited to 1,000 people and vaccination is required. The homecoming social will be held on Wednesday, November 10 from 6:00 to 9:00 pm in the gym and the maximum capacity is 300. Those who wish to attend must purchase a bid before school by November 5 and be fully vaccinated. Similar to last year, the Parade of Banners is modified to have the banners only be displayed by being hung on the fences in front of the school. This year’s homecoming service project is “Trojans Give Back,W” which is a letter writing campaign where students are encouraged to write letters to veterans and those currently serving in the military for veterans day. Letters will be turned into a box corresponding to their grade level in order to earn spirit points, and will be later delivered during the week of Thanksgiving. Even though the school year was fully virtual last year, new distance learning-friendly activities for homecoming such as Instagram challenges and sign waving. Clubs at MHS will have the opportunity to sign up for sign waving throughout homecoming week during the afternoons.
“One of the feedbacks about last year was that sign waving was fun for the community and fun for the clubs in a restricted way that provided them a chance to connect and be a part of the big picture and so, that is one of the things that we gained from the restricted year and we are going to do it again,” said Ward-Riehle. As a result of distance learning, ASMHS also felt that they should continue having an online presence through their student activities Instagram page for those who are still attending online classes. “It is about keeping that positive and hopeful mindset to move us forward and providing the opportunities no matter what the situation is. I think last year, the student council proved that even in a situation where they felt like they couldn’t do anything, they were capable of a lot of amazing things,” said Ward-Riehle. ASMHS is currently planning activities for the second and third quarter, such as Winter Spirit Week. For those interested in more information on upcoming events at MHS, visit their school’s student activities Instagram page @mililani_hs_student_activities.
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Return from a virtual season:
Mililani High School marching band returns to the field Writer Macallister Graves
Photographer John Escasa
Designer Jenna Kim
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ililani High School’s marching band competed in its first competition of the school year on October 23. The new season marks the band’s return from virtual learning, and there are new systems in place during events. This year, the marching band works to rebuild the connections halted over the pandemic. “The first one was pretty good, Menehune Classic’s always rough because, you know, it’s the first one, and people have stage fright, or they all of a sudden blank out, like on a math test,” said assistant marching band director Tori Kawasaki. “Just like a math test, or any other exam, they just kind of blank out right? But I think the band is trained well enough this year, especially that we did just fine at Menehune Classic. In fact, we performed the, more or less, the whole show versus 2019 we didn’t, so this year we’re doing pretty good.” Regardless of the competition being the first of the season, which posed challenges for newer members, the marching band performed the full show. The competition was outside, and the weather was fairly windy. To prepare for competitions, the marching band has regular practices on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday for about 4 hours, as well as the competition before it starts on the day of. During practice, the marching band works on physicality, dancing ability, flexibility, and cardio. The focus of the practice varies on what the band needs to improve upon. “I’m most excited to pass down all the traditions that we have for returnees and stuff that had multiple years in the program, because there’s so many traditions that we got to do, we couldn’t do any of them virtually, and now all the rookies, they’ll get to experience that same thing,” said senior and head color guard captain Paige Thomas. Last year’s season was virtual, with practices held online instead of in per-
Senior Jalen Lum son. With this challenge, there were difficulties in creating bonds between sections. “Sections are like mini families,” junior Ty Wakahiro said. They do activities with each other to create close bonds that are needed for the teamwork aspect of music. Some sections have traditions that are passed down. For example, the trumpet section buys apple cider or root beer for everyone during special performances like homecoming or the Trojan Bandfest. “Yes, so music’s just all about teamwork, and I think that’s very different, we’re not necessarily competing against other people, we’re trying to compete against ourselves, see how well we can work together,” Kawasaki said. The hope for this year is to reconnect, recruit members, and to work hard to create another season that will do as well or better than season’s before. Traditions will continue to be passed down in each section, and activities are hoped to continue for the newer students moving into the marching band. “We play the song, ‘As the World Caves In’ in the later part of our show and it’s just one of these big hits where everyone’s playing and everyone’s in still position, so I think it’s kind of cool,” said Wakahiro. “I think it was just cool because we usually, for shows, we have
Sophmore Adriana Bulay couple bits, throughout the show where we all stand still and play, and it’s just really cool, because nothing else is moving, all you can hear is the nice music.” This show’s title is “The Eleventh Hour,” and it focuses on the global effects of climate change. The performance conveys the message that change is possible, even during the final moments of our world. Another change this year are the new restrictions during practices and competitions. In similar fashion to the Oahu Interscholastic Association, masks must be worn by all students, aside from those who play wind instruments. Members must also be vaccinated and tested for Covid-19. “It’s really fun to get to meet everybody and see other bands and how they run things, I think it’s really interesting.” Thomas said. The performance process is the same; 45 minutes to warm up and then perform, and the show being around 8 to 9 minutes long itself. The difference this year is that the marching band leaves immediately after performing. Instead of arriving home at around 1 AM, which was the norm for members, Moanalua’s competition ended at around 6 p.m., as they were no longer allowed to talk or watch other schools’ performances. Other than a preview
Freshman Ethan Suyama after one of the camps, the marching band performs with no spectators. “I’m just really glad that we’re able to rehearse and perform together. Some schools don’t have it as easy, or are taking things really strictly, which is totally understandable, but because we have that freedom, Mr. Murphy really trusts us as directors, we can do what we need to do, and still be smart about being safe,” Kawasaki said. For more information about the marching band, Tori Kawasaki and Derek Ka`apana can be found in Building K. Kawasaki can be reached at tori. kawasaki@k12.hi.us.
The full length version of this story can be found on our website, www.trojantimes.org.
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Mililani High School introduces new club A passion for fashion Writer Jenna Kim
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Designer Kiyana Okita-Cagdan
he Mililani High School Fashion Club was conceived over the summer and emerged during this year’s club rush, welcoming all students with any interest in the art form. The club also serves as a way to recruit students for the Career and Technical Education Program’s new fashion pathway. As CTE expands its horizons with the implementation of many new courses in the upcoming school year, this growth is shown through this new club. “I feel like fashion plays a really big role in society, because it communicates who you are as a person to everyone around you without even saying a word, which is really powerful,” said vice president senior Anthony Tom. He, like his fellow officers, share a large passion for the art and believes the club is a great place for anyone who can say the same. Beyond basic sewing, which is what most Family and Consumer Science courses teach, Tom and the other officers hope to delve more into the creation and design of clothing itself, as well as educating students about how clothing has connotations and how it is used as a form of expression. “I thought it’d be kind of cool to do an interest club where the main goal is to give people a chance to hang out, express their ideas, and be around people that hopefully have similar interests. Just a place for people who are into the same things and be able to gather,” said advisor and Public and Human Services teacher Karla Deguchi. Deguchi, along with president senior Rain Hashimoto, had the same idea to form a fashion-related club over the summer and both separately approached Student Activities Coordinator Janet Ward-Riehle with this premise. Deguchi planned to create
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this club to help recruit students for the upcoming CTE fashion and design courses, falling under the “Cultural Arts, Media, and Entertainment” Pathway, and she also would like to be able to teach these classes herself. Meanwhile, Hashimoto came up with the idea out of interest and her personal passion in the art. Last year, she was accepted into the Fashion Institute of Design and merchandising in Los Angeles, California and will be studying fashion merchandising and design. “After getting accepted into FIDM and talking to my admissions advisor, I realized that I wanted to leave my mark on something I was passionate about at the school,” said Hashimoto. “Starting the club gives me an opportunity to learn and grow, teach others the thing that I love, and help prepare myself for my future. To have something at the school that I started, that hopefully will continue on, gives me a lot of pride and a sense of accomplishment.” Hashimoto’s spirit for fashion has been prominent throughout her high school career, and one of her goals is to help other students feel more comfortable dressing the way they would like to. Deguchi and Hashimoto shortly began to work together to create the club, plan activities, and seek out officers, those students being vice president senior Anthony Tom, treasury senior Paige Villaruez, and secretary junior Mahina Onekea. The main goal was to create a safe community based on interest and creativity. The club had its first official meeting on Monday, October 25. There, they met in Deguchi’s classroom to participate in a bleaching project, using paint brushes to create images on old clothes the members brought from home. This project was an example of upcycling, which is a creative reuse of unwanted materials.
As part of a Fashion Club bleaching project, sophomore Emily Keane holds her newly-designed attire. The club’s first meeting was on October 25, where they created designs out of old materials and paint as a way to promote upcycling. The club hopes to endorse sustainable means of fashion production, with this bleaching project being one of them. Photo courtesy of Karla Deguchi The club aims to complete service projects like donating to organizations such as Goodwill, as well as teaching the members to utilize processes like upcycling, to create less waste and promote healthier forms of fashion. During 2020’s worldwide pandemic and quarantine, the controversy over “fast” and “slow” fashion began to rise. Similar to “fast” food, “fast” fashion is the rapid response by companies to create cheap clothing based on the most popular trends, usually those that came to be on the internet. This quick selling of items often took unsustainable means of production, which caused backlash from the media onto those individuals who bought from “fast” fashion companies anyway. “Fast” and “slow” fashion are just a couple topics that Hashimoto would like to cover in this club. She also pointed out that the fashion industry, especially online, tends to choose who could wear specific styles based on how they looked. “You mainly had to be skinny and of caucasian descent to popularize the trend,” she said. “Take the
strawberry dress that blew up online, that was previously rocked by a plus size celebrity. Everyone thought the dress was horrendous until a more "conventionally" attractive person wore it.” Hashimoto, in addition to service projects, hopes to use the club to educate students on subjects like these and help to demonstrate fashion’s role in society and communication. “Being fashion aware does not mean you need to necessarily dress with the latest trends or looks, but rather understand what trends and looks are going on and how that influences us in the modern world,” she said. “Students in fashion club will be able to better understand the fashion world and how it shapes today's society.” Their next meeting is on Monday, November 15, and the club can be found on Instagram at @mililanihsfashionclub.
Voice of change First feminist club kicks off at Miliani High Writer Shelby Seu
Photographer Brynn Vincent
Designer Kiyana Okita-Cagdan
In the Feminist Club’s second meeting, the council raises a discussion on Mililani High School’s rules and disciplinary actions in regards to their dress code. They compared the code to other schools on Oahu and led discussions on issues the students had seen within the student body. The club proposed many possible solutions that could be implemented at the school to create a more leveled environment. “We just want equality for all despite what your gender is because that shouldn’t be a factor in your value in society or in any setting” said club president senior Ila Nako.
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ommunity, equality, worldwide. Those are the words Sophmore Ava Maclachlan, recording secretary, used to describe Mililani High School’s first Feminist Club founded by vice president senior Annabelle Ink. Ink noticed in her business courses that not many females were in high positions within the workforce and that it was harder for women to climb this ladder than men. In response to the lack of discussion around this issue, the club was started to promote a safe and open-minded space for students to have their voices heard. “All of our executives are women and just making that climb to the top more of an equal playing field for us and also just the struggles that we each face everyday, simply because we are women,” said Feminist Club president senior Ila Nako. “It's something that we care about and we don’t see that discussion in school much, we don’t see that discussion any-
where actually in our world and it's something that needs to be brought up or needs to be taught at this young age before we go out into the world and we just like, kicked by reality.” These topics and discussions then lead to advocacy projects that take place once a semester. The club aims to find projects that could benefit their community, as well as providing the members with a deeper understanding of the struggles women may face in Hawaii. The club council, who began organizing their first semester project, says that they will be focusing on violence against women. “I know it’s easy to think that ‘Oh, I’m just one person, what can I truly do?’ when yeah you are one person, but in a community with people that will uplift you,” said junior Lyric Illiana Bernard, the Feminist Club treasurer. “I think that it's really easy to strive for change, and I think that’s what we’re building here.” The Feminist Club also focuses
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on educating their members on what feminism truly is. They wish to change the views on feminism by addressing the negative stigma around it. According to the club’s corresponding secretary junior Zoey Dangleman, the typical stereotype of feminists are women who are lonely, man hating, aggressive, and only wish to be in power. Yet, the club hopes to get rid of this stereotype by teaching the members that feminism is much more meaningful than just angry women protesting against men. “Well, I think that feminism is the belief of the political, social, and economic equality of all people,” said AP World History teacher and advisor Kimberly Lauzon. “All people and genders are included.” The club’s members consist of a variety of genders, races, sexualities and stories all connected by numerous common goals and views. They hope to show that feminism is not only limited to women, but it accommodates anyone, no matter who they are or how they identify. “I think it’s more about coming together as a community to fight these horrible stigmas against feminism,”
said Bernard, “along with coming together as a whole to get to somewhere where we need to be, which is equality.” The club also did a time capsule project during their first meeting. The capsule consisted of personal questions they would answer and keep away till the end of the club’s year to read them. One of the questions had the members rate their confidence level. The goal, set forth by the council, is to promote self growth. During the meetings, confidence will be one of the main focuses because it’s an important skill relating to feminism. “By the end of this, we want to see that growth that they can accept themselves more fully because that’s also a problem with feminism,” said Nako. “That in society women are taught to be pushed into a beauty standard and that’s not something realistic that we can all do so we need to learn to love ourselves fully as we are. That’s what we want to encourage with our members.” For further information to join the Feminist Club see Mrs. Lauzon in P15. Mrs. Lauzon can also be reached via email Kimberly.Lauzon@k12.hi.us.
As numerous ideas flow through the club, members communicate topics and issues that are most important to them. Some targeted community issues from personal accounts, while others covered a general, universal struggle. The club officers hoped to create a project theme that surrounded the recommendations shared. “[Inclusion] allows us to ensure that our projects are inspired by something we all care about and all of our members can care about as well. It was really their input that helped direct us,” said club president Ila Nako.
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Bringing awareness to indingenous women,
Mhs’ Senior Lopez-Sanchez stars in short film Writer Akira Pescador
Designer Dannika Pila
When Maxine’s daughter Jenny goes missing on the reservation, the local police force offers no help in finding her. Thus, Maxine enlists the help of fellow Native women Molly, Samantha, and Karina to aid her in the search. Molly, accidentally walking in on the rest of the team arming themselves with guns, is now torn between relying on the authorities or taking direct action to find Jenny.
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pon the disappearance of her cousin Jenny, Molly—portrayed by Mililani High School senior Julissa Lopez-Sanchez—and a group of Native women from their reservation community take it upon themselves to search for the missing girl in the 11 minute short film “In Our Own Hands.” Public viewing of the film will be available from November 5 to 13 on the American Indian Film Festival website. “It’s to bring awareness to the missing and murdered Indigenous women and the whole Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement that advocates for the end of violence against Native women,” said Lopez-Sanchez. “It works to draw attention to the higher rates of disappearances and murders of Native people, particularly women and girls.” Inspired by writer and director Jennifer Varenchik’s own personal experience with the disappearance of a friend, the film addresses the dismissive attitude of local and national authorities towards the crimes committed against Native American women. In fact, a 2016 study by the Urban Indian Health Institute revealed that only 116 of 5,712 reported
cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women were logged into the Department of Justice database that year. While Varenchik’s friend was eventually found, the fact remains that the police initially did not take the appropriate measures to help. Not only is this short film meaningful to Native women who are affected by situations like those depicted in the film, but also to the Native performers and directors—including Varenchik and Lopez-Sanchez—behind the film itself. “People from an online script reading group I was participating in during lock down told me it would be difficult. One of them, an older gentleman, told me, ‘I don’t think there are any Native American actresses.’ He meant at all, not just in Hawaii, but as in none existed,” said Varenchik. “Which is why this short film is so important, people need to know we are still here.” As vice president of the Oahu Native Nationz Organization, Varenchik reached out to the membership, offering them an opportunity to act in her upcoming film. Lopez-Sanchez, hailing from the Menominee Tribe in Green
Bay, Wisconsin, decided to step up and volunteer. “I’m not an actress, but I told her I’ll do it because I wanted to prove those people wrong for saying that she’s never going to find Native people to be in her short film,” said Lopez-Sanchez. Despite this being her first time in acting, Lopez-Sanchez’s character Molly was the main protagonist of the film. And while Lopez-Sanchez enjoyed experiencing the filmmaking process firsthand, she does not intend to pursue an acting career unless directly approached with any future opportunities. The filming of “In Our Hands” took place in April over the course of two days, with one day each being spent on rehearsal and shooting. This was made possible because Varenchik won the Hawaii Filmmakers Collective Pitch Contest in January. As a result, Varenchick gained free access to the HFC studio, lighting equipment, her own film crew, and up to $1000.00 in covered production costs. “What you can do is educate yourself, you know, we always have more to learn about the whole thing. That’s all I can ask people to do, is just educate themselves on the whole topic of the MMIW and also use your voice,” said Lopez-Sanchez. For anyone interested in viewing “In Our Hands,” tickets will be available starting November 15, 2021 at 1 p.m. HST at https://watch.eventive.org/aiff46/ play/61521484f8b0760071c2cdf0. To learn more about the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women Movement, their website is https://mmiwusa.org/. Additional information about Jennifer Varenchik and her films can be found through the helpful links provided at https://linktr.ee/NativeMuse.
Jennifer Varenchik, the writer and director, started as an actress but then moved behind the camera to create more accurate depictions of Native people in film.
Senior Julissa Lopez-Sanchez poses for senior portraits in her Native American regalia, usually worn when performing the fancy shawl dance. Photos courtesy of Lifetouch and Jennifer Varenchik
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