The Covid 19 Pandemic devasted our Pacific Islander communities who suffered six times the death rate and 12 times the hospitalization rate compared to other racial groups in WA and across the country. Pacific Islanders from all regions of Oceania who spoke many different languages came together to heed the call of healing that our communities needed. In 2022 due to the work of Pacific Islander community healers, we became the most vaccinated community in Washington state. Our lessons learned were: we need to continue to resource our own Oceanian healers with the tools and knowledge to save our people. We also needed to couple our health interventions with language access, access to cultural foods, create spaces of learning, belonging and care. Oceania Healers Initiative (OHI) equips Pacific Islander trusted messengers with the tools to combat disease and early death through culturally effective interventions.

Umu & Talanoa is our programmatic strategy to health and wellness where we center our cultural foods "umu" in feeding our village while we open up space for "talanoa" with our doctors and other medical professions who work with us to improve the health of our families. We work in partnership with Doctor Malik Fuimaono (Samoan) and Dr. Sundar Raj (South Asian) who have been instrumental in ensuring medical knowledge is accessible and digestible for our Pasifika trusted messengers. Our Umu & Talanoa sessions cover culturally rooted strategies that can combat and prevent diseases.