Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 33, Number 10, 1 October 2016 — Aloha ʻĀina embraced globally [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Aloha ʻĀina embraced globally

By Malia K. Evans From the summit of Kahōkūwelowelo, you ean view the entire coastline of the Waialua moku. In the west, the rugged cliffs of Ka'ena are adorned in 'ehukai. To the north, the sands of Waimea reflect the subdued golds and reds of the setting sun. As the sun descends toward the horizon, a chant is offered up by a group of UH Mānoa Hawaiian Studies students, faculty and Waialua community members. "E Kānehoalani e, E Kānehoalani e, Aloha kāua," resounds among the sacred stones of Kahōkūwelowelo, onee a residential complex for kahuna. This significant cultural landscape was the loeale for a unique field methods course that provided college students an opportunity to integrate traditional Hawaiian knowledge with western scientific methods, while supporting community stewardship goals. The Mālama 'Āina Field Methods Course taught by Assistant Professor Kekuewa Kikiloi and Kelley Uyeoka is offered through the Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies at UH Mānoa. "These types of programs in the field allow academia to be of service to the community," Kikiloi notes. The place-based course was supported by a grant from Kamehameha Schools (KS) and focused on 'āina in rural Waialua managed by KS. The course curriculumintegrates traditional and contemporary management strategies to better understand Cultural Resource Management (CRM) across the dimensions of time and space. Students looked back in time through ethno-historical research of mo'olelo, genealogical lines, land documents and Hawaiian language newspaper articles associated with the Kawailoa ahupua'a. "Through these resources, the voices of our kūpuna form a foundation for our research," explains graduate student Kawena Elkington of O'ahu. That foundation was further strengthened while students and faculty lived in the community during a week of intensive archaeological fieldwork whieh included general surveying, mapping, data collection and analysis. Kahōkūwelowelo was chosen for the fieldwork component because of its significance, strong community interest and hope the field school would serve as a building block for community-based stewardship and educational programming, notes Sean McNamara, Cultural Resources Planner/Analyst at Kamehameha Schools.

Community interest in Kahōkūwelowelo was initiated through kama'āina Bobby Robinson, whose advocacy efforts on behalf of the kahuna complex began over a decade ago. Plans to realign Kamehameha Highway near Laniākea, potentially impacting Kahōkūwelowelo, created a sense

of urgency for the community. Robinson regards education as a vital tool in restoring the site and is pleased

with the development of a restoration plan generated by the faculty, teaching assistants and students during their sununer coursework. The restoration planning process was infonned by oral history interviews conducted with kupa'āina and kama'āina. The student cohorts were trained in culturally appropriate interviewing techniques to gather and analyze oral histories and plaee them within a historieal context. Elkington emphasizes that, "not doing oral histories, an entire database of unique knowledge is bypassed; oral histories document people's historical connections to their 'āina and the intimate relationships they have with their environment." These intimate relationships between people and 'āina are especially significant in rural Waialua as agriculture and food production continue to be major factors in the traditional and eon-

temporary history of this district. Research questions of island sustainability over time and traditional food production systems are integral to the broader field school research strategies. Kikiloi indicates that systematic inquiry to understand ancestral food systems and land tenure ean

benefit the needs of the region today in regards to goals of food sovereignty and community empowerment. As more Native

Hawaiians enter the archaeology and CRM fields, a paradigm shift in research that is responsive to Native Hawaiian needs, worldview and history is emerging. Through the Mālama 'Āina Field Methods Course, a new generation of culturally grounded, technically skilled cultural resource managers are being trained and reconnected to 'āina. Introducing students to integrated methodologies of traditional and contemporary science empowers not only the haumāna, but creates a holistic framework where 'āina is the source of knowledge and research is relevant and benefits the community under study. ■ Mali.a K. Evans is an anthropoīogist and advocate for preservation o/Hawaiian euhwaī īandscapes.

"Through these resources, the voices of our kūpuna form a foundation for our research."

Some of the haumōna, teaching assistants & faculty on the summit of Kahōkūwelowelo, Kawena Elkington (4th from right) - Phoīo courtesy ofKawena Elkington