He Lāhui Hawaiʻi Ma O Ka Hoʻomomona Hou I Ka ʻĀina: Nā Moʻolelo Lōkahi Ma Ka Mokupuni ʻO Oʻahu (A Hawaiian Nation Through The Restoration Of ʻĀina Momona: Stories Of Unity– Among Ourselves, That Which Feeds, Community, And Spirit–On The Island Of Oʻahu)

Abstract

This ethnography composed as moʻolelo (stories) documents my personal huakaʻi (cultural excursion, journey) to understand my kuleana (profound sense of duty) as a non-Kanaka ʻŌiwi (non-Native Hawaiian) with intergenerational ties to Hawaiʻi. I draw insight and methodologies from ʻike kūpuna (Hawaiian ancestral knowledge) and Hawaiian studies, as well as studies in anthropology, history, and science, technology & society (STS), to promote a sustainable, self-determinant Lāhui Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian Nation). These mokuna (chapters) are chapters of my life, volunteering and working alongside mahi ʻai (food cultivators), each week for one year, with two non-profits that aim to restore ʻāina momona (abundance of that which feeds) on the island of Oʻahu. Like looking to the roots of a plant for connections below the surface, through nānā i ke kumu (look to the source), I saw my ʻohana (family) as part of community-building in Hawaiʻi: we mālama (actively care for) the people and ʻāina who care and have cared for us, including the Kānaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiians) whose kūpuna (ancestors) have regenerated with their kulāiwi (ancestral homelands) for 100 generations. While I do not trace my biological lineage to Kānaka ʻŌiwi, I learned through my moʻolelo moʻokūʻauhau (genealogy story) that my roots belonged to a wider network of ancestors who have helped to keep the mauli (life spirit) of a Lāhui Hawaiʻi alive. Each mokuna of this dissertation depicts separate legs of my huakaʻi during fieldwork, to hoʻoikaika (strengthen) respective pilina (mutually sustaining relationships) with kuʻu mauli (my life spirit), kānaka (people, such as family and community), ʻāina (glossed in English as “that which feeds”), and akua (gods, the divine). My moʻolelo show how strengthening these pilina leads to lōkahi–a concept of balance and harmony in Hawaiian worldview–for individuals and our Lāhui Hawaiʻi.