Aotearoa to Saipan: Culture, connection and collective action for Pacific wellbeing

We don’t bring the answers, we bring our hands. Our job is not to lead the work, but to walk with those who already are.” – Denise Kingi-‘Ulu’ave

Pacific Population Health Summit 2025 | Garapan, Saipan | 16–18 June 2025

Earlier this month, four members of our Le Va team had the profound honour of travelling to Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands to attend and contribute to the inaugural Pacific Population Health Summit, with the theme of ‘Navigating Pathways Through the Pacific: Building Healthier and Stronger Island Communities.’

Sponsored to present, be keynote speakers and deliver suicide prevention training, Le Va’s small but mighty contingent from Aotearoa was privileged to share in talanoa and learning alongside passionate changemakers from across the Blue Continent.

Our team

Representing Le Va were chief executive Denise Kingi-‘Ulu’ave, Pasifika equity lead Pakilau o Aotearoa Manase Lua, and senior managers for suicide prevention Leilani Clarke and Tiana Watkins. Each brought a depth of cultural knowledge, lived experience and professional leadership in suicide prevention and mental wellbeing. The strength of their presence went beyond their knowledge and expertise, manifested in their shared commitment to cultural integrity, aroha and collective uplift.

Keynotes, talanoa and wānanga

Denise and Pakilau opened the event with a powerful plenary session titled ‘Culture and Wellness’, weaving insights into the enduring value of Indigenous ways of knowing and doing, and how they must sit at the centre of any sustainable wellbeing system. Their talanoa echoed throughout the summit, reverberating through sessions on healing, data equity and behavioural health.

Leilani and Tiana participated in the panel session ‘Addressing Suicide Prevention Strategies in the Blue Continent’, where they presented on Le Va’s LifeKeepers and FLO: Pasifika for Life suicide prevention programmes. Their contributions highlighted the critical importance of aligning clinical safety with cultural and community responsiveness. The kōrero was both sobering and inspiring, shedding light on the persistent suicide rates across Pacific nations while uplifting the strength of collective action, cultural reconnection and enduring hope.

Together, Leilani and Tiana brought forward voices grounded in the va – relationships, connection, and sacred space.  They reminded us that suicide prevention does not begin within systems alone, but in the everyday spaces that shape our lives: the home, the village, the church, the school. Their kōrero affirmed that lived stories carry the same weight as data, and that community wisdom must sit at the heart of any meaningful response to suicide.

Mana Akiaki: LifeKeepers for Māori

After the summit, more than twenty first responders and crisis response workers gathered with intention and purpose to participate in Mana Akiaki: LifeKeepers for Māori training. Our team delivered this full-day training to showcase how suicide prevention can be meaningfully grounded in Indigenous knowledge systems and relational practice. Their hope was to witness firsthand how a culturally tailored programme could look and feel, so they might explore how to do the same for the rich diversity of their own island communities across the Pacific.

The wairua in the room was deeply felt and participants honoured the kaupapa with humility and fierce dedication, many moved to tears by the cultural integrity of the programme and how closely it resonated with their own Indigenous worldviews. The sharing was raw, real and restorative, reminding us all that cultural identity is not just a foundation for wellbeing, but a powerful pathway to healing.

The ties that bind

This journey reminded us that although our island homes are scattered across vast oceans, our roots run deep and are interwoven. Whether in Saipan, Aotearoa, Samoa, Guam, Tonga, or Hawai‘i, our ancestors speak through us and our shared struggles and strengths call us to act collectively.

Our heartfelt thanks to the CNMI Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation (CHCC), the Pacific Behavioral Health Collaborating Council, and all those who made this summit possible. Si yu’us ma’ase, ghilisow, fa’afetai tele lava, malo ‘aupito, ngā mihi nui.

As Denise said in her closing words, “We don’t bring the answers, we bring our hands. Our job is not to lead the work, but to walk with those who already are.”