Hawaii Nei

 This semester is one I definitely enjoyed. Sometimes I struggled getting through assignments, but I still pushed myself and made it through. Both of my teachers are amazing and I hope I can maintain a good relationship with them after this semester. With the support and help that I received from both, it made me very excited to see how it will be next semester. I would definitely recommend these courses to other students still trying to figure out what class to register for.

 1) The amount of kuleana lands that are left today compared to the amount, even though still small, before was much bigger.  2) Families of kuleana lands sell portions or all of the ohana kuleana lands to large landowners and they just end up using the land for new developments that don't help Native Hawaiians.  3)Kuleana lands were used for native tenants to reside on and use for agricultural purposes. Now, Hawaii struggles with limited land availability to build homes for Native Hawaiians and/or any agricultural purpose. 4) The waitlist for Hawaiian Homelands is extremely long, and even though Native Hawaiians apply, they could be waiting their whole life to be placed into a home.

 Lately, I've been a little more stressed than usual. After doing some brief research on my Paper 3 topic, I learned very quickly that there's not enough information on kuleana lands. It's becoming very difficult for me to understand my topic the way I feel like I should be understanding it, but I'm not giving up. I'll try to gather as much information as I can and use it.  Overall, I"m completely stressing about ending the semester on a strong note. I would like to get a B or higher for both of the classes that I am taking, but there are times where I feel like I could do so much better on my assignments and class work.

  Within the Hawaiian community today, the most pressing issue relating to shared/common resources or the environment that I’ve learned about by reading Kaiaulu and other articles is kuleana lands. This is an important issue because Native Hawaiians were awarded lands to perpetuate kuelana, natural resource management and connection to a place through protection of cultural landscapes and family lands. From 1839, Hawaiians lost their family kuleana lands through family members making a decision to relinquish their claims to the land or through court battles. To this day, some Hawaiian families continue to fight to upkeep their family kuleana lands.

As stated in the book, kuleana lands were described as "plots of land given by the governing ali'i of an area...to an 'ohana or as an individual as their responsibility without right of ownership. (Vaughan 5) But "the concept and process of awarding ownership under the Kuleana Act was very foreign. Maka'ainana had to register for ownership of their kuleana lands, pay to have that land surveyed, find two other native residents as well as one "foreigner" or non-Hawaiian citizen to testify in support of their claims, and, if awarded, pay taxes."  Today, there are still a few 'ohana with kuleana lands. For instance, my hanai mom and her 'ohanas hui, as they call it, has/had kuleana land in Kona from the mountain to the sea. Over time, their hui discussed amongst themselves and decided to sell part of their kuleana lands. As new developments were being built, the government wanted to buy more land to expand the mall in Kona, but the hui decided t...

Mehana Vaughan talks about sharing resources between the people and the community throughout the book. She also stated that some konohiki were greedy and would keep majority of the fish to themselves. Same thing with modern society, nowadays, so many people are greedy. We  are so used to taking things, we automatically think, "it's okay if I take one/some", without giving back.   Loke Pereira said, "you feed on each other's talents, you share that with one another. That is the part we miss, in today's generation. They don't think that way. They on the opposite side, they wanna take," and she's right. We take advantage of all the resources that we are given today, and look what happened recently, egg shortage. We wouldn't have this type of problem if we malama the 'aina that malamas us. In the mo'olelo, Minamina, the kupuna sharing this story talked about their Uncle Ah Meng doing hukilaus in Hanalei. After a big commercial operation a...

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.

Throughout my childhood, I've attended many programs that taught me more about my community and ways we could mālama our community. When I was 12 years old, I attended a Kamehameha Summer Program that allowed me to learn about wa'as (canoes). I had a great experience learning about a wa'a named Makali'i. In middle school, I attended another KS Summer program that taught me more about how to read the stars, wind, current, etc. During my high school years, my school would work with the Polynesian Voyage Academy (PVA). They taught me about how we maintain our wa'as in dry dock so our wa'as continue to ride smooth in the water. I also had opportunities to go on other wa'as such as Hokule'a, Hikianalia, and Kanehunamoku. In the summer of 2014, 15 students total from the islands, including myself, and some of the PVA crew members sailed on a boat named Makani Olu to the Northwestern Hawaiian islands, Nihoa and Mokumanamana. After a very meaningful and spiritua...

Mehana Vaughan shared a lot of intergenerational skills and knowledge, how they mālama their community by making sure they mālama their kuleana, and their ways of protecting, cultivating, and nurturing their community. A lot of the stories being told brought back a lot of flashbacks from my childhood to my high school days to today. These stories are the reason why I chose what to write for my Paper 1. One mo'olelo that stuck out to me the most was 'Lawa Pono: Take Only What You Need'. With many industries today, people don't think about what they're taking and how much they're taking or how it could affect other people. Everything around us is considered a living thing. If we keep abusing the land and the ocean, our future will be left with nothing. 

  Growing up away from my biological family, my grandma and hānai mom pushed for me to attend different programs and schools that would teach me more about my Hawaiian community. From participating in marches, dancing hula, mālama ʻāina, mālama loko i’a, learning about wa’as, etc. During one of my programs, Hālau Holomoana, I had an amazing opportunity to sail to the Northwestern Hawaiian islands where I had a very spiritual experience that completely changed my life. My community relates to Kaiāulu because each person has their own kuleana to mālama our community for our people today and for future generations.

One of many issues that has affected my community is that our land is being bought or sold to foreigners, rather than the government pushing to help our community. With that being said, another thing that's affecting my community are the prices of things such as groceries, rent, electric, gas, car payments, etc. It has gotten extremely bad this past decade forcing a lot of family members to leave their home and move to the continent where it is more affordable or what people call "priced out of paradise". This past Friday, was the day that Hawai'i was illegally overthrown by the United States. To this day, my community stands up for what we believe in, participates in marches, continues to perpetuate our culture, educate others about our community and figure out what else we can do so our voices can be heard.

In my life, I have two beloved elders that hold a special place in my heart. My grandma, who passed away in '06, and my hanai mom, who is my grandma's partner. Growing up in a LGBTQ household, it was very different. As a child, I watched people make comments about them being together and how it was not safe for me. Their relationship was like any other; there were ups and there were downs. That didn't stop them from loving me unconditionally and teaching me. They put me in many different sports, had me attend meetings with them, taught me how to swim, do lomilomi (massage), work in a lo'i, go on marches, share testimonies with the legislation, and how to interact with everyone. Today, my hanai mom, who retired from UH Manoa, does ho'oponopono (counseling) sessions with those that need it, as well as, teach it to students who are willing to learn. She taught me about the many different ways of doing ho'oponopono and how it impacts a person's life. To this day...