On the shores of Kāneʻohe Bay, young children ages 3- to 6-years-old make kilo, their observations of nature. They’ve learned 10 cloud patterns and currents unique to the bay, and they apply this knowledge to making small weather predictions and noticing ocean conditions before they board a waʻa (canoe) to sail.
The students are not on an annual field trip. This is their normal. This is part of their classroom at Kūlaniākea, a nonprofit nature and Hawaiian immersion school. The children engage in activities outdoors, including plant identification, biology, geography, engineering and zoology, as well as learning about navigation and cloud names.
“They watch, they look, and they learn. They feel the movement of the wave. They can tell you what direction the wind is coming from, because of the way the sail moves. That experience is invaluable. People have said, ‘Wow, your kids are so smart!’ It has nothing to do with that, it has everything to do with the environment we put them in,” said Wailani Robins, executive director of Kūlaniākea.
The environment Robins speaks of is a school built on intentionality and aloha. In 2015, the school got its nonprofit status. The following year it officially opened with about nine children. But it didn’t have a space. It was a preschool without walls that traveled with keiki around the island of Oʻahu, often visiting Bishop Museum. In 2018, Papahana Kuaola, a mālama ʻāina-based education organization, gave them a space to store their things and put down a hale peʻa (tent).
Though the school technically opened six years ago, it is the culmination of 30 years of experience in education. Robins worked at two Pūnana Leo sites, where she learned a lot about immersion. Then she was the director at Kawaiahaʻo Church School, a Christian Montessori school. Taking what she learned from children, families, educators and environments, she sought to create something different.
Parents Kaniela and Tash Lyman-Mersereau said they chose Kūlaniākea for their 5-year-old son Paʻakanialeʻa (Paʻa) because they wanted a safe place where he could deeply connect and experience all that is Hawaiʻi.
“It is the language, the experiences with kai and ʻāina, and the compassionate, caring kumu that make this school so special,” said Kaniela Lyman-Mersereau. “We want our children to share the same love for home and seek the same ʻike as us so we can all connect to our genealogy without shame and move forward to remake Hawaiʻi into the unique, beautiful place it is. To us, this is what education needs to be in this day and age. This school shoulders the kuleana of our generation in so many ways.”
Paʻa and his classmates have learned about kindness, sharing their feelings, taking care of one another and taking care of their space. They are also growing their knowledge of ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi and the natural world, and they share this knowledge with their families.
“Paʻa teaches us new words in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi and is quick to correct us if we mispronounce a word,” said Kaniela. “Recently, they learned about Lā Kūʻokoʻa and he came home telling me about Timoteo Haʻalilio. He has learned how to observe and interact with the language of nature with his trips on the waʻa, Kaʻihekauila, and up ma uka at Papahana Kuaola. He can name the native plants and birds around him, tell us the name of the winds, rains and mountain peaks of his home. The list goes on…”
Robins believes Kūlaniākea is unique because of its dedicated and knowledgeable staff, and its untraditional classroom setting. The current enrollment for the combined preschool and kindergarten class is 24 students, ages 3 to 6 years old. Their toddler program is maxed out at eight students. Robins said they hope to expand the school up to fifth grade, believing that keeping children until this age will prepare them for any future educational path.
The participation of families is integral to the school’s philosophy. Community is baked into everything the school does and is.
“ʻOhana Kūlaniākea does an excellent job of making it clear how we can support and what is expected of the mākua (parents). We all have basic kuleana in bringing snacks, fundraising and helping set up and break down their off-campus classrooms, but like other families we have also been able to help based on our given skill sets and work expertise,” said Kaniela.
For example, Tasha runs a small business and helped the school set up their online purchasing system, while Kaniela is a teacher responsible for a small coastal sailing canoe similar to the one the kids learn on.
Kūlaniākea has a waiting list of two years for both programs. Robins said that while the waitlist indicates a high level of interest in their programs, it also illustrates the unmet needs for this kind of education. This is why they’ve made their educational resources available to other preschool programs, homeschooling families and the larger community. These resources include home labels, puzzles, posters and themed resource boxes. All of this can be purchased through the nonprofit’s website.
Taking the community outreach even further, Kūlaniākea started an event in 2021 called Ola Ka ʻĪ, the Hawaiian Language Thrives. It takes place at Windward Mall every February during Mahina ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language month) and is a celebration with local musicians, storytelling and more. More than 3,000 people attend the event annually. That original event inspired the development of other Ola Ka ʻĪ events in ʻEwa, on Maui, and on Kauaʻi with Niʻihau participating. This year, new events will be added in Hilo, Kona, and on Molokaʻi.
More recently, through an initiative called “Let’s ʻŌlelo,” Kūlaniākea is also building a database of Hawaiian words that people can access through a QR code in various community spaces. “If you learn to include one to two words a day in your everyday conversations, that’s keeping (ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi) alive,” said Robins. “Through this initiative, we’ve touched hundreds of people.”
For more information go to: www.kulaniakea.org.
