Hawaii Nei

At first, I thought writing Paper 1 was difficult. Boy was I wrong. I'm pretty sure I have white hairs now. Ha! To be completely honest, I procrastinated on this assignment, but I absolutely regret my decision. When I first started, I thought I had my outline in order the way I wanted to write my paper, but, when re-reading what I wrote, it was pretty obvious my brain was all over the place. One of the most frustrating things about this paper was picking out parts of the book that is connected to MY most meaningful way of being in a place.  I was able to find a bunch of different parts of the book that I could relate to, but the more parts I added to my paper, the more difficult it was for me to give a detailed, yet straight to the point explanation. I had to take several breaks between writing because my head felt like it was spinning, and I lost focus on what I wanted to write about. After sitting and thinking about the organization of my paper, I was able to figure out my introd...

I had mixed emotions when I learned about how  Hā‘ena  and other families lost access to their ancestral lands. Part of the Hawaiian in me was fuming at first because this is exactly what I see going on today. A lot of Hawaiians are moving out of state because the cost of living in Hawai'i is superfluous. The other part of me is sad and hurt because now their keiki today and future generations to come won't know where they're from, who their 'ohana is, or anything about the land they live on besides what the US or government in general wants them to believe. As a Hawaiian who has a lot of 'ohana spread throughout the island chain, it breaks my heart seeing some of my immediate family members living under a tent behind a house or out on the street drugged out. As a human being just trying to survive and live life, I feel disgusted. Many people may not understand Hawaiian culture and traditions, but that is how OUR kupuna survived before we were overthrown. The US gov...

  In Kaiaulu, Mehana Vaughan shared many different ways people in North Shore, Kaua’i interacted or related to their most meaningful places. For paper two, one way of being in a place I identify as most important, would be ‘ike kupuna or continue to pass down intergenerational knowledge. Without ‘ike kupuna, we wouldn’t know who we are as a person or part of a community. As I mentioned in one of my previous blogs, a Maori scholar told Mehana Vaughan, “When an elder dies, a library burns.” We must preserve our ‘ike kupuna so future generations understand who their ancestors are.

When I think of being in a place, there are a lot of ways that I consider to be most valuable. For Paper 2, I plan on focusing on deep knowledge or 'ike kupuna. Without 'ike kupuna, we wouldn't know about who we, who our kupuna were, wouldn't know about our kuleana, how to care for our aina, the spiritual connections between land and people, etc. Passing on knowledge from past generations to our future generations.

There were a lot of pros and cons while writing my Paper 1 essay. When the assignment was initially given to us, I immediately knew what I wanted to write about. I created a brainstorming process to help guide me through my paper. But, as soon as I began writing, all these thoughts and stories about my Hawaiian community rushed in and my head began to scramble. I took Lance's idea to just write everything I was thinking and work with what I wrote. Although, I noticed the one thing I struggle with while writing was figuring out how to transition from one important topic to the next. I tried to insert quotes or sayings from the book to compare my stories to what was written and hopefully it makes a smooth transition while still being able to understand the connection or comparison between the two.