{"id":413266,"date":"2024-09-11T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-11T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=413266"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Tavai-attends-Pacific-Islander-Convening-at-White-House","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Tavai-attends-Pacific-Islander-Convening-at-White-House\/","title":{"rendered":"Tavai attends Pacific Islander Convening at White House"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, DC\u2014<\/strong>Delegate Uifa\u2019atali Amata Radewagen\u2019s (R-A. Samoa) chief of staff Leafaina \u201cIna\u201d Tavai represented her in attending the first White House Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Convening last Friday, Sept. 6, at the White House\u2019s historic Eisenhower Executive Office Building.<\/p>\n

Tavai, a retired U.S. Army colonel, has led Radewagen\u2019s staff since Day 1 of her entire time in Congress, and is notably American Samoa\u2019s first ever graduate of a U.S. service academy\u2014the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.<\/p>\n

Speakers at the event included Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, CNMI Gov. Arnold I. Palacios, former Guam congressman Robert Underwood, and several others in NHPI leadership panels, and U.S. Trade representative Katherine Tai.<\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate the invite, and I\u2019m pleased with this focus on Pacific Islanders, as I\u2019ve worked on these issues for years even before I served in Congress,\u201d said Radewagen. \u201cThe territories and Pacific Islands achieve the most when we work together in a bipartisan way, bringing in all the Governors and U.S. Representatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Radewagen has twice served prior administrations on their White House advisory boards for Asian and Pacific Islander Americans. During this White House event, Radewagen was en route from American Samoa, where she had spoken during the week to the ODAPM Disaster Resilience Summit and other activities in American Samoa. She has upcoming White House events on her schedule this month, including the 30th anniversary of the historic Violence Against Women Act.<\/p>\n

The convening was the first with more planned for Pacific Islander leaders from across the country to engage with the administration in conjunction with the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an honor to be there on behalf of congresswoman Amata and attest that it was a good discussion on Pacific Island issues that can lead to consensus for future efforts,\u201d said Tavai. (PR)<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Delegate Uifa\u2019atali Amata Radewagen\u2019s (R-A. Samoa) chief of staff Leafaina Tavai at the White House Executive Office during last Friday\u2019s first White House Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Convening.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

CNMI Gov. Arnold I. Palacios addresses the first NHPI Convening.<\/p>\n

-CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
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<\/p>\n

Former congressman Robert Underwood and Delegate Uifa\u2019atali Amata Radewagen\u2019s (R-A. Samoa) chief of staff Leafaina Tavai.<\/p>\n

-CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
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<\/p>\n

Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland speaks during the first NHPI Convening.<\/p>\n

-CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
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<\/p>\n

Various Pacific island leaders spoke in a panel discussions during the first NHPI Convening.<\/p>\n

-CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, DC\u2014Delegate Uifa\u2019atali Amata Radewagen\u2019s (R-A. Samoa) chief of staff Leafaina \u201cIna\u201d Tavai represented her…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-413266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413266\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}