Pacific Island Times June 2020 Vol 4 No. 6 | Page 5

Brief Chat
Dr. Bwarenaba Kautu
The best of both worlds
By Johanna Salinas
The dark skies and heavy rain in Boston make
for the perfect weather to cozy up indoors with
Netflix and hot chocolate. However, Harvard
scientist Dr. Bwarenaba Kautu, who has been holed
up in his home, itches to return to his lab after weeks
of being in quarantine. Kautu, a medical researcher,
is not too worried about returning to work during the
Covid-19 pandemic. “I’m not an expert on the pandemic.
The best we can do is follow the guidelines by
the state medical experts. They know more than we
do,” Kautu said.
Quarantining alone in the big city is not too difficult
for Kautu, who stays connected to his family in
Kiribati. “A lot of people in the islands are far from
the virus,” he said. “In Kiribati, there are still no
recorded cases. People are still hanging out with each
other. They’ve reduced parties and cultural festivals.
They’re not doing that anymore.”
Growing up homeless in Kiribati, Kautu is no
stranger to difficult times. “A lot of people may have
fear, but we have to be positive and try to help each
other in times of difficulties,” the scientist said. “I
think the Pacific way is if there are people who are
sick and need help, we all come together as a community
to support. That’s something that helps psychologically,
getting with an entire village community
to support each other. It’s the way to go and it’s one
of the reasons I’m proud of the way we live in the
Pacific.”
Kautu believes that social distancing should not
stop people from being kind. “Here in the U.S., it’s
different. A lot of conflict is going on. A lot of things
are politicized during the pandemic,” he said. “We
shouldn’t be doing that. We should do it the Pacific
way where we help everyone and are being kind to
everyone. It’s something unique about us in the Pacific.
We don’t march or protest. We try to control things
by supporting each other.”
While majoring in Kiribati culture in college,
Kautu became aware of old island traditions such as
farming. “There are a lot of plants in the Pacific and
many scientists from Europe and the U.S. go to those
islands to study the plants and local medicines,” he
said. “They were able to find things—the chemicals
and compounds of the plants—that are important for
treating diseases. I really believe in local medicines.
We need to build research in that area in the Pacific. A
lot of local medicines are very powerful. In Samoan
islands, they have mamala plants and scientists are
extracting chemicals from these plants to treat HIV.”
Kautu, who is currently based at Harvard Medical
School, Boston, Massachusetts, also holds a tenured
professorship position at Greenville University, Illinois
where he teaches biomedical classes and supervises
undergraduate neuroscience research. Kautu
received his Ph.D training in cell/molecular neuroscience
in the lab of Guy and Kim Caldwell at The
University of Alabama.
Despite his many years researching Western medicine,
Kautu believes there is great value to traditional
healing. “We shouldn’t be afraid to try to integrate or
connect Western medicine with local medicine,” he
said. “These things could be complementary. If we
use some of our skills in the Western medicine world
to study Pacific medicine, it can be a powerful thing
for Pacific islanders.”
Like many Micronesians in a diaspora, Kautu
sometimes finds himself stuck between two worlds,
but he sees this as an advantage. “I’m trained in
both worlds. I have an understanding of local herbs
and Western medicine. I’m trying to gather all these
things and combine them together because that’s the
way to go. I believe if we put all these things together,
they’d be complementary,” he said. “There are
problems in both worlds, but most of these problems
are related to humans. For example, some people just
want to make money off of medicine. They promote a
drug or medicine because they want to get rich.”
Although he is committed to Western medicine,
Kautu is aware that the system sometimes has its
flaws. “Sometimes Western scientists go to the Pacific
and say, ‘Hey guys we want to take tests of your
DNA,’ and there are no consent forms. We have to be
careful about that,” he said. “I feel very uncomfortable
with that aspect of Western medicine. We need
to be respectful of indigenous people. If we want to
study indigenous people—if we want to study their
bodies, we need to explain to them why we do it. It
has to be informed consent. Why are we doing this
and what are the consequences of doing this—we
need to explain to indigenous people.”
Kautu is grateful for the opportunities he has had to
work at Harvard University, but he always remembers
his humble beginnings. “I was having a very difficult
time understanding things in the classroom in the
American system. It was new to me,” he admitted.
“I was really struggling communicating with people.
I misunderstood instructions all the time. I ended up
missing labs sometimes because of misunderstanding.”
Meeting with the diaspora in Hilo, Kautu believes
that Micronesians in the U.S. are blessed with opportunities
to create a better future. “I feel that the
Micronesian community there, if they work really
hard in Hawaii since they’re already there and they
should already know the school system, I believe they
can do really well and excel in the community and go
achieve great things in their lives. For me, I started
with American culture late in life,” Kautu said.
Having only encountered one other Pacific Islander
(a Hawaiian) at Harvard, Kautu is hopeful that his
Micronesian people can join him at Harvard.
Kautu reminds people to be careful with information
online. “If there are no data available to support a
claim, I’m going to try to advise against it. If someone
says, ‘this plant cures Covid-19,’ but there’s no scientific
evidence, then I have to be careful.”
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