We bring family together with food, but we feed each other the exact foods that are killing us. The way we eat culturally is fucked up.

The white guy saying, “Oh yeah, you islanders love KFC and corned beef, yeah?” doesn’t get too many laughs outta me anymore

Too often I’ll flick through stories on this app—one’s a toanai feed, usually with “family” or “blessed” captions all over what would be the food that’s killing us. Flick to the next story, and it’s a funeral for one of our own. Sitting here doing the math like, damn, that’s another premature death that could have been prevented. Of course, assuming the cause of death here, but how can I not when diet-related health issues are the leading causes of death among us Islanders?

This has been well documented. Islanders have a lower life expectancy, with the leading causes of death being cardiovascular-related, largely coming from our diet choices. We don’t need the numbers or fancy journal articles to tell us this, though. Shit, just look around at your next toanai and tell me if you see healthy people.

I remember walking away from a burial one time where most were crying hopeless, looking down thinking to myself… what did y’all think was gonna happen when we eat like this for our entire lives?

I’m aware the Western lifestyle has been an influence, and I’m aware the lack of education and finances means in most of our households, this topic for “eating healthier” ain’t even up for discussion. But I’mma still speak on it through my art, cause we gotta be aware that our cultural foods are fucked up and we gotta change it up. Our diets are robbing us of decades we get to spend with our loved ones.