Introduction
Dr. Matthews Hamabata, The Kohala Center
As someone who grew up in Hawaiʻi, I had difficulty fully understanding the Hawaiian history that I was being taught at school. It somehow didn’t make sense to me, and I couldn’t retain it. It felt foreign to me. And it turns out that the history I was being taught actually is a “foreign” view of Hawai‘i’s history, and the Mellon-Hawaiʻi scholars are now uncovering a whole different perspective, an indigenous perspective. The Mellon Fellows are bilingual scholars who are steeped in Hawaiian intellectual traditions. By referring back to original sources and by interpreting them through a rigorous understanding of Hawaiian interpretive traditions, these scholars are helping to rewrite Hawaiian history. What I once experienced as foreign is now finally beginning to make sense to me. These scholars are presenting a whole different point of view.
We are also in the midst of reframing our public policy choices. Roy Takemoto, a former County planner, summed up this shift in thinking. Roy said that the future here is not really about self-reliance, but rather it’s about interdependence. Island communities must come to understand how their choices affect the island as a whole. Island people must adopt a systemic and ecologic perspective as we think through our development choices.
The fact is that effective public policy relies on good research. What has been happening here is unusual in any community. Research-based legislation has been moving forward. The LIEM-Hawaiʻi (Long-Term Industrial Ecosystem Model of Hawai‘i Island) project will generate independent analyses of the highest quality and position this island as a long-term ecological research site. Not only will this bring more science and education business to the island, but it will also provide a basis for informed public policy decisions for the future.