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Decolonizing Natural Resource Management: Kānaka Maoli Struggles for Aloha ʻĀina

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_projects/kp78gp53c

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  • This paper examines ways in which natural resource management – NRM – may be decolonized in order to better serve Hawaiʻi communities. Expressed needs for diversity in NRM has brought about inclusion of traditional ecological knowledge in recent years. Here, traditional ecological knowledge is redefined as ʻIK, ʻike kupuna – ancestral knowledge – whereby Kanaka Maoli lifeways are central to responsibly stewarding land, sky, and water. Though sustainability has been hailed as the latest and greatest form of science deployed to combat the ills of the industrial age, indigenous communities around the globe have practiced sustainable science for centuries. Aside from ʻIK, ʻŌiwi communities also have a long and storied history of resistance to settler-colonial machinations of NRM. Interdisciplinary approaches to enhancing NRM are recognized as being critical, though political aspects of NRM are often excluded as irrelevant, impertinent, and inapplicable to both the study and practice. This paper addresses this inbalance in NRM by examining opposing worldviews magnified by political inconsistencies in Hawaiʻi. So unavoidable are the politics that determine natural resource management in Hawaiʻi that Kānaka ʻŌiwi continue to struggle against some of the most powerful political actors in the world – powers attempting to dictate the direction of the evironment, economy, and society in Hawaiʻi from afar. Three Kānaka Maoli struggles for aloha ʻāina are outlined, occuring on Kahoʻolawe, Honokāhua, and Maunakea, to illustrate the resilience and adaptive capacity of Lāhui Hawaiʻi in envisioning a more sustainable nation for generations to come. Whereby ʻIK is not merely incorporated, but is the driving force behind transforming the politics of land, sky, and water stewardship in Hawaiʻi.
  • Keywords: Aloha ʻĀina: Love for the environment; Hawaiian Nation patriot(s), (ism) Kānaka Maoli, Kānaka ʻŌiwi: Aboriginal peoples of Hawaiʻi Lāhui Hawaiʻi: Internationally-recognized, lawful, independent nation-state of Hawaiʻi Kūpuna: Kānaka Maoli ancestors Mālama ʻĀina: Environmental stewardship Palapalaʻāina: Map Kiʻi: Picture
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