i Hōlani ke Kuʻina i Hōlanikū

By Hōkūokahalelani Pihana

Puka mai ka lā i Kumukahi lā ʻeā
The sun bursts forth at Kumukahi

A welo ana i Lehua lā ʻeā
And sets at Lehua

He Waialoha ka makani lā ʻeā
The wind is the Waialoha wind

ʻO Hawaiʻiloa ke alahula lā ʻeā
Hawaiʻi Loa is the frequented pathway

I Hōlani ke kuʻina i Hōlanikū
Joining at Hōlani, at Hōlanikū

“The ocean feeds us, it nourishes us, it is all around us.” – Kumu Heanu Weller

i Hōlani ke kuʻina i Hōlanikū is a short film created to share our pilina (relationship) to Papahānaumokuākea through the voices of our ocean community and the next generation of ocean stewards. The Nā Waʻa Mauō (NWM) Marine Stewardship program uses waʻa to care for our ocean and uplift our youth through our waʻa practices and relationship to the ocean. Haumāna from NWM led the creation of the film, conducting interviews with community members about their relationships to waʻa, ocean stewardship, and how these practices connect us to Papahānaumokuākea.

Haumāna worked with the filmmaker to creatively tell our story of ocean stewardship and how the work we do in the inhabited Hawaiian Islands contributes to the health and wellness of Papahānaumokuākea.

They shared their relationship with waʻa and how waʻa connected them to Papahānaumokuākea, to each other, and to the ocean. Haumāna saw that the same ocean they voyage in our waʻa here in Hilo, Hawaiʻi, is the same ocean that connects us to and surrounds Papahānaumokuākea.

That was a profound moment because to connect our haumāna to Papahānaumokuākea, they needed to feel Papahānaumokuākea. So, when they swam in the ocean or paddled our waʻa they began to feel Papahānaumokuākea.

i Hōlani ke kuʻina i Hōlanikū, was also an opportunity for our keiki to recognize their relevance in marine stewardship and brought their voices to the forefront of our efforts to care for our ocean and Papahānaumokuākea. NWM haumāna have learned how to use waʻa to steward our coastal ocean areas. They apply a blended stewardship approach that combines Indigenous and institutional sciences and practice. This helped them become more closely connected to the ocean and understand the value of using our Indigenous ways of knowing to tend to these places.

i Hōlani ke kuʻina i Hōlanikū, enabled our haumāna to share their experience using waʻa to steward our ocean, express how these practices have impacted them and changed their relationship with the ocean, and how the perpetuation of these approaches strengthens our connection to Papahānaumokuākea.

As the next generation of ocean stewards, it was important to give them a space to tell our story through their voices. It enabled them to contribute to the moʻokūʻauhau (genealogy) of Papahānaumokuākea and perpetuate our ancestral practice of storytelling.

“We acknowledge waʻa as kūpuna because at its foundation is our ʻike kūpuna, our ancestral knowledge.” – Kumu Kainalu Steward

Watch i Hōlani ke kuʻina i Hōl on YouTube.

Hōkūokahalelani Pihana is a mother and marine scientist who has worked with the scientific and Indigenous communities in Hawaiʻi and the Pacific for many years. She was born in Wahiawā, Oʻahu, raised in Long Beach, California, and now lives in Keaʻau, Hawaiʻi, with her sons. Hōkū is a leader in the Papahānaumokuākea Native Hawaiian Cultural Working Group, executive director of Indigenous and Community-based Ocean Governance at Conservation International Hawaiʻi, and executive director of Nā Waʻa Mauō, a marine stewardship program she developed in 2015 that uses waʻa to care for the nearshore and coastal oceans of Hawaiʻi.