Celebrating Life at Kahalu‘u Bay
Bay Concert 2009
Image: Aerial photo of Kahalu‘u Bay by Randy Magnus.
Over a quarter of the visitors to Hawai‘i Island come to Kahalu‘u Bay. This amounts to 400,000 visitors per year. More than 360 ReefTeach volunteers have helped during the past year to educate visitors to the bay. Now we are seeing so many babies: baby Moorish idols, baby yellow tangs, convict tangs, humuhumu, and coral polyps. Kūpuna (Hawaiian elders) are so happy that the cultural sites are being restored. We see healing happening at the bay, and we know that if it weren’t for our volunteers and supporters this would not have happened. —Cindi Punihaole, Kohala Center Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator
Come join us for an evening of music, humor, fun, recognition, and celebration! This year’s Bay Concert is on Saturday, November 21 from 5:00–8:00 p.m. at the Sheraton Keauhou Bay Resort Convention Center.
Photo: Everyone singing Hawai‘i Aloha at the close of last year’s Bay Concert.
Featuring Na Hoku Award winners Na Leo Pilimehana, Ho‘okena, our own Daifukuji Taiko Drummers, and funnyman Frank De Lima as emcee, the Bay Concert honors all of the volunteers and supporters of the Kahalu‘u Bay Project. The Bay Concert will be a warm, welcoming event with music and laughter, bringing all of us together to celebrate our community and our beautiful natural and cultural landscape. This year our guest of honor is Herbert Kawainui Kane, whose work is itself a celebration of life. To purchase tickets, visit www.kohalacenter.org/bayconcert09. To purchase a table or for information about sponsoring the concert, please contact Cindi Punihaole at cpunihaole@kohalacenter.org or at 808-895-1010.
Seeking Public Comments
Image: The cool misty climate and deep ash soils of the Waimea plain are perfect for growing lettuce and other tasty greens.
The food security issue on the Island of Hawai‘i is a magnification of the national reliance on concentrated, industrial-style, low-cost food production that is dependent on an inexpensive supply of fossil fuel for inputs and transport. Hawai‘i Island’s food supply and export agricultural sector are especially fragile due to our remote location and high dependence on long-distance transport. Importing the vast majority of our food dictates that we export the vast majority of our food dollars—dollars which could benefit the island economy by being circulated locally. —Betsy Cole, Deputy Director, The Kohala Center
The County of Hawai‘i has contracted The Kohala Center and Agricon Hawaii LLC to assist with updating the County’s Agriculture Development Plan. This plan is intended to guide the revitalization of agriculture as a basis for Hawai‘i Island's future economic development. The plan identifies measures intended to increase the island’s agricultural production for local consumption and for export.
The Kohala Center will be conducting island-wide listening sessions starting in late October to seek community input on the County of Hawai‘i Agriculture Development Plan. To provide direct input, community members around the island are invited to attend one of the upcoming listening sessions or send comments to agplan@kohalacenter.org. The most recent draft of the plan will be available for review at The Kohala Center Web site after October 10. Based on public comments received at these listening sessions, The Kohala Center will revise the plan and present a final draft to the County of Hawai‘i in November 2009.
All listening sessions will be held from 6:00–8:00 p.m. on the following dates, at the locations listed:
North Kohala: Tuesday, October 20 at Kohala High School Cafeteria
Kona: Wednesday, October 21 at Kona Outdoor Circle
Waimea: Thursday, October 22 at Waimea Community Center
Pahala: Tuesday, October 27 at Pahala Community Center
Hilo: Wednesday, October 28 at Aupuni Conference Room, County of Hawai‘i Building
Hāmākua (Pa‘auilo): Thursday, October 29 at Pa‘auilo School Cafeteria
Pahoa: Wednesday, November 4 at Pahoa Community Center
For more information, contact Guy Kaulukukui, director of The Kohala Center’s Food Self-Reliance Program, at 808-887-6411 or via e-mail at agplan@kohalacenter.org.
What Does It Take to Be Carbon-Neutral?
Photo: Bridget Hass helped to survey the vegetation at eight sites near Waikoloa Village as part of her internship with the Hawai‘i Wildfire Management Organization.
Students enrolled in the 2009 Cornell Earth and Environmental Systems (EES) Field Program experienced firsthand how to minimize their carbon footprint during their five months on the island. The students used solar water heating and monitored their electric and propane usage. They participated in a food cooperative and shopped at the farmers’ market to purchase locally grown fruits and vegetables, and they purchased grass-fed island beef as often as possible. They volunteered time working in school gardens and they planted over 300 trees, shrubs, and other native plants in the forests of Kohala and Kona. Each student interned with island-based organizations, and in their course of their six-week internships the students developed new display boards for the ReefTeach program and gathered valuable baseline data for use by local organizations which are working to preserve Hawai‘i’s watersheds, coral reefs, and dryland forests. At final count, the students sequestered four times as much carbon as they emitted in the course of their stay on the island. These results are even more impressive when you consider that visitors to Hawai‘i Island typically utilize two to three times more water, electricity, and gas than island residents do.
I had not been thinking of our small project in terms of what impact it might have beyond us or after we leave Hawai‘i, but I am glad that instead of a bunch of big scientists trying to solve the question of carbon neutrality, it is our small group of people living in a house together and using tools that anybody could use—internet, books, car odometer, gas meter, and some paper and pencil—trying to tackle the issue. Actually planting the trees has made real for me what a Web site could not, and it has also made me realize how much work needs to be done for our society to truly do something about greenhouse gases and global warming. —Grace Ha, Cornell University, Biology & Society, 2010
The Cornell students showed that it is possible to make their field program carbon neutral, and now they are busy sharing their knowledge with others. Nine of the students submitted a paper to the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, held this October in Portland, Oregon. The title is "What Does It Take to Be Carbon-Neutral?" The students will attend the meeting and give a presentation describing their carbon-neutral semester. Link to their abstract at http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2009AM/finalprogram/abstract_161935.htm.
The Cornell EES program is currently accepting applicants for its 2010 program, which runs from January 23 through May 16. Applications and more information are available at the EES Web site, www.geo.cornell.edu/hawaii.
Assessing the Health of Hawai‘i Island’s Reefs
Photo: Courtney Couch recording data and wrapping up a coral disease survey at Ke‘ei. Photo by Petch Manopawitr.
Hawaiian coral reef ecosystems have been shaped over time by a number of natural disturbances, such as waves, storms, predation, freshwater input, bleaching, and disease—all of which are part of the natural dynamic state of reef ecosystems. There is mounting evidence that humans are altering the scales of natural disturbances to coral reefs and presenting reefs with novel disturbances that may be outside their physiological limits to respond to. Environmental stressors such as elevated sea surface temperatures and coastal pollution have resulted in dramatic changes in coral health and coral reef community structure around the globe. While disease is a normal component of most wildlife populations, an unexpected increase in coral disease worldwide over the past three decades has alarmed the scientific community.
In order to understand what is causing this increase in coral disease, numerous researchers have established long-term monitoring programs across many regions of the world. Data from these studies provide baseline information on patterns of disease and enable researchers to investigate potential pathogens to determine whether specific environmental conditions affect disease dynamics. In an effort to study and better understand the factors which influence coral health on the Island of Hawai‘i, The Kohala Center is working with Courtney Couch, a graduate student at Cornell University and coordinator for the Coral Disease Working Group, one of six working groups within the Coral Reef Target Research and Capacity Building Program funded by the Global Environmental Facility and the World Bank. Courtney will be conducting coral disease surveys and measuring coral reef community structure at 11 sites in West Hawai‘i over the course of the next three years. Courtney has also been helping TKC to develop the Citizen Scientist water quality monitoring program at Kahalu‘u Bay. Learn more about Courtney’s work on the back page.
Salt Making
Photo: One of the hale manō or houses of the shark, as recounted by elders of Ka‘ūpūlehu. These inlets line the Kalaemanō shoreline and add to its uniqueness and specialness.
These forays to farms and into the fields around the island have been both educational and fun! Learning about agricultural techniques of both the past and the present has given me an insight into the ways that we have provided, and are still providing, our communities with vital nourishment in the context of sustainability. I so look forward to gathering salt on the upcoming field trip. These events provide another opportunity to expand our knowledge of our unique island home... from mauka (mountain) to makai (sea). —Le‘a Mizuta, new member of TKC’s Circle of Friends
Our 2009 series of member events concludes with a journey to the ahupua‘a (land division) of Ka‘ūpūlehu on Saturday, October 24, from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The coastline of Ka‘ūpūlehu once provided salt for the entire North Kona district. Participants will visit sites that Hawaiian salt makers and fishermen were intimately familiar with. They will see the natural basins or kaheka where salt was collected, and if the weather permits, they will have the opportunity to gather the sea salt themselves. They will view ancient petroglyphs of canoe sails, emphasizing the kinship between the Hawaiian people and the ocean. Ku‘ulei Keakealani will lead this excursion. Born and raised in Pu‘uanahulu, Ku‘ulei will share mo‘olelo wahipana, stories of the landscape, to enrich our relationship with this beloved place of Hawai‘i.
The cost for each event is $25 for The Kohala Center's members, or $75 for non-members, which includes the event, lunch, and membership in TKC’s Circle of Friends. Learn more or download the registration form.
Sustainability in a Hawaiian Context
Photo: Dr. Manulani Aluli Meyer.
Join Dr. Manulani Aluli Meyer for a free public talk on ‘Ike ‘Āina: Sustainability in a Hawaiian context. Dr. Meyer’s presentation will focus on Indigenous sensibilities about Hawaiian views on sustainability and their role in accurately describing the issues. “The rigor of specificity within place is vital to this discussion and will lead, ultimately, to universal principles. But first we begin with Hawaiian fundamental ideas found in the differences between mana‘o‘i‘o (knowing through experience), mana‘olana (knowledge through thinking), and aloha (liberaton through action),” says Dr. Meyer.
Dr. Manulani Aluli Meyer’s family has been dedicated to Hawaiian issues of land, health, justice, politics, economics, music, and education for many generations and through many world changes. Her work in Indigenous epistemology (philosophy of knowledge) has now entered the research, science, and sustainability fields. Dr. Meyer is currently working on understanding the impact of capitalism on all facets of knowledge production and exchange, and on documenting how money shapes even our ideas of intelligence. Dr. Meyer helped found Halau Wanana, a teacher training site for the Hawaiian Charter School movement. She is also a part of ‘Ike A‘o: Quality Education/Sustainable Communities working in our women's prison. Dr. Meyer helps to produce Hoea Ea: Return to Freedom food sovereignty events and community gardens with and for youth. She is an associate professor of education (Ed.D. Harvard) at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, teaching in the Education Department. Her book Ho‘oulu: Our Time of Becoming - Hawaiian Epistemology and Early Writings is now in its third printing.
Dr. Meyer will give two talks, one in Hilo and one in Kona. The Kona talk is on Friday, October 23, from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. at the Keauhou Beach Resort Ballroom III. The Hilo talk is on Monday, October 26, at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo from noon to 1:30 p.m. in University Classroom Building 127.
The Puana Ka ‘Ike (Imparting Knowledge) Lecture Series is presented in partnership with Kamehameha Investment Corporation, Kīpuka Native Hawaiian Student Center at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, The Kohala Center, and Keauhou Beach Resort. For more information and a list of upcoming talks, visit http://kohalacenter.org/puanakaike/about.html or http://www.keauhouresort.com/learn-puanakaike.html.
Mellon Fellow Profile: Ku‘ualoha Ho‘omanawanui
Photo: Ku‘ualoha Ho‘omanawanui (center) with her mother Georgia Meyer (left) and father Sam Meyer (right) on graduation day, May 2007.
There are areas of Hawaiian culture which are ‘accepted’ as important—hula, for example, or the Hokule‘a and voyaging, or music. Hawaiian literature is not an area that has received as much attention, and in extension, as much validation. I feel my book project will contribute to encouraging Hawaiians (and others) to see literary production as a ‘legitimate’ and valued form of Hawaiian cultural expression and expression of deep, important knowledge which contains the mana (wisdom) of our ancestors. Literature is built on stories, and stories make up history and everything we are. —Ku‘ualoha Ho‘omanawanui, 2009–2010 Mellon-Hawai‘i Postdoctoral Fellow
Ku‘ualoha Ho‘omanawanui earned her doctorate in English from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, where she is an assistant professor of Hawaiian Literature in the English Department. Ku‘ualoha was awarded one of three Mellon-Hawai‘i Fellowships for the 2009–2010 academic year, which includes a grant of $50,000 to support her as she completes her book project. The book project focuses on the extensive body of Pele and Hi‘iaka literature published in 19th and early 20th century Hawaiian language newspapers. Ku‘ualoha’s book seeks to establish a framework for indigenous literary analysis of native Hawaiian literature—something which has not been done before. “Ho‘omanawanui's work promises to transform the ways in which Hawaiian literature has been read—or not read—in contexts that include comparative and indigenous literatures,” explains Cristina Bacchilega, Ph.D., professor in the Department of English, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and Ku‘ualoha Ho‘omanawanui‘s mentor for her fellowship year.
Learn more about Ku‘ualoha Ho‘omanawanui’s work on the back page, or read more about the Mellon-Hawai‘i Fellowship Program.
Spotlight on School Gardens:
Wonder Gardens at Innovations Public Charter School
Photo: Third and fourth graders sprinkle shredded paper recycled from the IPCS school campus onto the garden plot adjacent to their new classroom building. Photo by Ashley Hedemann, 3rd/4th grade lead teacher.
Being a Garden Teacher is a very physical job. You are out there alone most of the time, digging holes. Knowing that Wonder Gardens is one of 49 school gardens around the island makes a big difference to me. Knowing that I am part of an island-wide movement to bring sustainability education to island youth is inspiring. —Krista Donaldson, IPCS Garden Teacher
Wonder Gardens at Innovations Public Charter School (IPCS) broke ground in 2007–08. The idea to start a school garden originated with local school board and community members who wanted healthier lunches for students. Inspired by the model of Mala‘ai: The Culinary Gardens of Waimea Middle School, local school board members proposed the idea of a garden to Barbara Woerner, IPCS Executive Director, and to the IPCS teaching team. Two school board members, including current Garden Teacher Krista Donaldson, harvested the freshest lettuce possible, made some lemongrass tea, and served the team and administrators a beautiful salad complete with vinaigrette dressing prepared right before their eyes. “We explained that our students could grow nutritious, fresh food on our campus, too,” recalls Krista. “After that, the teachers decided to give school gardening a chance.”
Funded through matching grants from The Kohala Center, the Wonder Gardens program has evolved from a peripheral class to an official school subject. Students in grades 1–6 spend one period each week in garden class, similar to their physical education, drama, and Hawaiian studies classes. Wonder Gardens also planted the seeds for school-wide transformation through “green” education which reaches beyond the students to their parents and to the entire school staff. IPCS sponsors school-wide recycling and composting programs, integration of compostable food service ware into school food service, and efforts to offset the school's electrical energy carbon footprint since 2007. “Wonder Gardens is inspiring an army of insect-understanding, journal-writing, soil-loving gardeners who gobble down whatever they grow,” says Krista. Learn more about Wonder Gardens at IPCS on the back page.
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