Gatherings
2019 Think Tank
In April 2019, the KC convened the very first Kaliʻuokapaʻakai Collective Think Tank. Over 100 participants from 15 different sectors and 80 organizations participated in the 2-day working conference to discuss a range of challenges, opportunities, and solutions for WKS in Hawai‘i. The Think Tank focused on the current priority areas identified by the Collective including building community capacity, knowledge generation and stewardship, restoring wahi kūpuna, and mālama iwi kūpuna. During this gathering, real-time data was compiled through ignite talks, topic area panels, facilitated breakout discussions, and live surveys. Participants shared, documented, evaluated, and prioritized existing and new information, knowledge, and practices regarding WKS.
From here, the KC created working groups to carry on the Think Tank discussions and brainstorm how to implement the proposed action items. Much was accomplished at this first Think Tank and the KC hopes to hold these types of “conferences with kuleana” every two to three years to continue to tackle systems change in CRM.
In our practice, there is no separation between natural and cultural resources. All of the landscape is a cultural landscape because we have been a part of shaping it, responding to it, shaping it some more and perhaps reshaping it as we learn more about it. So culture is the lens we see the landscape through.
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ʻAnakē Hannah Kihalani Springer
Kamaʻāina and kiaʻi of Kaʻūpūlehu
Building Community Capacity in Wahi Kupuna Stewardship
Building Community Capacity in Wahi Kupuna Stewardship
Mālama Iwi Kūpuna
Generating and Managing Knowledge & Data
Kū ʻOkoʻa: Alternative Futures in Cultural Resources and Heritage Management
Kaitiaki and Traditional Custodians Exchange & Presentations
As part of the KC Think Tank, the Collective facilitated an international exchange opportunity with kiaʻi/kaitiaki from Aotearoa, New Zealand and Australia. It was our hope that this gathering would provide space for indeginous sharing and exchange of stewardship ideas and practices, and serve as an opportunity to strategize innovative approaches in caring for our ancestral places in Hawaiʻi and throughout Oceania.
These participants were hosted by members from the KC, presented at the KC Think Tank, as well as a community presentation co-hosted by UH Mānoa Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies Gladys Brandt Chair Series, Huliauapaʻa and the KC.
The title of the event was, Kaitiakitanga and Traditional Custodians- Ancestral Guardianship of Heritage resources in Aotearoa and Australia.
We were honored to host our native cousins during this time to learn more about their stories of struggle and triumphs as well as share some of our moʻolelo with them.
Edith Tuhimata
Panelist
Kaitiakitanga is the freedom of indigenous people to manage their own affairs, to develop based on their own needs and value systems, to preserve their cultural identity and pursue their own cultural development, to collectively or individually own, possess and manage their lands and resources in accordance with their own preferences.
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2017 Hālāwai: Exploring An Interdisciplinary Community Of Practice In Hawaiian Cultural Resource Management
In June 2017 Huliauapaʻa, in partnership with Red Star International, organized the first hālāwai to determine if we (as a hui) wanted to develop a community of practice around wahi kūpuna stewardship. Our focus for this first gathering was to:
Explore our shared values for culturally grounded cultural resource management (CRM) practices in Hawai’i
Reconceptualize CRM and evaluate its current status from an ʻŌiwi worldview
Integrate indigenous perspectives and practices into the CRM field
Launch and grow a community of practice among resource managers, Hawaiian communities, researchers, and supporting partners.
After the first day it was clearly evident that all in attendance supported the idea of creating a community of practice. While the specifics of what this would look like still needed to be developed, we all committed to carrying on these discussions and to organize future opportunities to gather and share.
On behalf of Huliauapaʻa, Kekuewa Kikiloi, wrapped up this first hālāwai with a few reflections. He talked about this effort being part of a larger movement that has been building up for a long time. He acknowledged the kūpuna at the meeting and their struggles and successes over the years, including the monumental Ka Paʻakai case ruling. He acknowledged the late Uncle Eddie Kaʻanaana and how he used the term “ka liu o ka paʻakai”, which literally translates to the essence of the salt, but that there are so many secondary connotations to salt. It preserves, it clears and purifies, it gives flavor to food, it is a gift – an expression of aloha. Kekuewa shared that paʻakai is a powerful metaphor for our work in cultural and historic preservation, and that the meaning behind Kali‘uokapaʻakai can be the foundation upon which to build a strong network alliance. Thus, when we pool our resources together (i.e, partake in the paʻakai), we can achieve many goals collectively. E pū pa‘akai kākou.
KĀKOʻO!
Pledge Support
Join us in re-envisioning Wahi Kūpuna Stewardship in Hawaiʻi and endorse the Kaliʻuokapaʻakai Collective’s vision of empowering communities, professionals, and agencies to work collaboratively to protect, restore, reinvigorate, and appropriately steward Hawaiʻi’s wahi kūpuna.
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