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ʻOʻili Ke Ahi O Makana

HWST 301 Perspectives in Hawaiian Studies Mālama ʻĀina. A pilot field course that provides capacity building to Hui Makaʻainānā o Makana on Kauaʻi with the goal of maintaining the Hui’s cultural practices at Haleleʻa and Haʻena State Park. Project also supports restoration and preservation of the ancient terraced agricultural complex at Haʻena State Park.

Project lead: Carlos Andrade
Objective: To create an opportunity for collaboration between Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies and Hui Makaʻainānā o Makana, and to fund the planning and implementation phase of a simple, basic, short term trial/pilot program at their Haʻena State Park site. By utilizing KCHS and Hawaiʻinuiākea’s educational resources and expertise, the aim is to assist the Hui in developing an organized curriculum that can be used to more successfully engage with visitors, school groups, and state-level administrators to share and educate them about the traditional and customary practices appropriate to the area. The collaboration provides a way to improve the capacity of the Hui to pass on this ʻike kūpuna through educational activities developed in the planning and implementation of the pilot.
Community Partners: Hui Makaʻainānā o Makana, Presley Wann, President; Department of Land and Natural Resources through a curator agreement with the Hui.
Communities served: Residents and practitioners from Haleleʻa and Haʻena State Park; community members such as schools and community groups from throughout the archipelago who access the site for educational and traditional purposes; the University ʻohana through collaboration that establishes future opportunities to serve and future access to the learning site.
Benefits to communities served: Support and capacity building to Hui Makaʻainānā o Makana to continue their cultural practices at Haleleʻa and Haʻena State Park; restoration and preservation of the ancient terraced agricultural complex at Haʻena State Park; opportunities to learn about traditional and customary Hawaiian farming practices and Hawaiian values in a safe learning environment.

 

Wehe I Ka Pāpale

Data collection to support an upcoming exhibit at Bishop Museum; to preserve the art of lauhala hat making as a traditional and customary practice of kūpuna Hawaiʻi.

Project lead: Annette Kuʻuipolani Wong
Community Partners: Bishop Museum; Michigan State University Museum
Communities served: The greater community
Benefits to communities served: Collected data will be shared with partners and be part of a future exhibit; collected data will preserve an art form of kūpuna Hawaiʻi and become a resource for the general community.

 

Expanding the Definition of “Hawaiian Place-Based Curriculum”

To evaluate the Spring 2012 graduate exchange/seminar between two indigenous studies programs and apply findings to strengthen future efforts.

Project lead: Maya Saffery
Objective: To evaluate the Spring 2012 graduate exchange/seminar between the Indigenous Politics Program (UHIP) at U.H. Mānoa and the Indigenous Governance Program (IGOV) at the University of Victoria, BC, and examine the characteristics and potential benefits that successful place-based education has on native (and non-native) students, their teachers, and their communities.
Community Partners: Organizing IP and IGOV faculty; students, faculty, and community members who participated in the IP-IGOV exchange
Communities served: Organizing IP and IGOV faculty
Benefits to communities served: Completed evaluation serves as an assessment of the IP-IGOV exchange and will aid organizers in delivering a more comprehensive product; strengthens collaboration between IP and IGOV.

 

Pacific Islanders in Communications Filmmakers Workshop: Hawaiʻi

A week-long introductory course in Pacific filmmaking to help emerging storytellers and artists advance their own cultures through film. The actors, musicians, camera operators, and grips were mostly majors from Kamakakūokalani. A product from the workshop, a film entitled “Piko” that told the story of a Hawaiian mother seeking solace from the sacred site of Kūkaniloko, has screened at the Deep Waters Film Festival, the ʻOhina Film Festival, and the Hawaiʻi International Film Festival in Honolulu as well as the Center for Asian American Media Film Festival in San Francisco.

Project lead: Kimo Armitage
Objective: To underscore the importance of collaboration in filmmaking, and to help emerging storytellers and artists identify others in their community with whom they can collaborate on projects to tell their own stories and advance their own cultures through film.  The project involves an intensive 6-day workshop where participants learn various elements of film production (story development, locations scouts, caera work, audio, lighting, editing, directing, etc) and hands-on instruction of filmmaking strategies, techniques, and equipment use.  The workshop culminates in the creation of a short film.
Community Partners: Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies; Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language; Academy for Creative Media; Pacific Islanders in Communication; 1013 Integrated.
Communities Served: Participants in the workshop; the greater community who sees the finished product; the Hawaiian community whose story has been told thoughtfully and accurately; Pacific Islanders in Communications who endeavors to empower Pacific communities to tell their own stories.
Benefits to communities served: Emerging filmmaker and storyteller participants receive basic training in filmmaking strategies, techniques, and equipment use; emerging filmmakers and storytellers are able to identify each other for future collaborations; PIC is able to identify on-island talent for collaboration on future film projects, as well as showcase the completed short films in its library of community-produced films.

 

Fat Ulu: A Creative Writing Curriculum Guide

To create and publish a curriculum for secondary students that will cultivate a literary community grounded in place-based consciousness.

Project lead: Kimo Armitage
Objective: To cultivate a literary community conscious of and committed to the arts as a vehicle for positive change in Hawaiʻi’s communities. Exposure to, and creation of, literary works that demonstrate our diverse perspectives and unique challenges as opposed to those that perpetuate the prevailing romanticism of Hawaiian art can reaffirm our Hawaiʻi identity as shaped by place. To engage and enhance student learning by presenting works that bring Hawaiʻi literature to the forefront of secondary education curriculum by illustrating the works of local writers. To re-imagine a post-colonial identity established through non-native texts; To encourage secondary students to explore mental, physical, and spiritual aspects of “place” in their writing.
Community partners: Educators and writers affiliated with U.H. and Oʻahu secondary schools; the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education; the University of Hawaiʻi. Over 25 of Hawaiʻi’s most recognized authors committed to the 250-page project.
Communities served: Secondary education teachers in the DOE; students who access this curriculum; the greater community. Over 200 copies of the published curriculum were donated to Hawaiʻi public, private, and charter school educators.
Benefits to communities served: The publication is a self-contained semester of work designed to assist teachers no matter their level of knowledge of place-based literature; the students’ level of engagement is heightened when they read literature that is about them and pertain to real life situations and circumstances that they can relate to.

 

Welina Mānoa

A place-based, ʻāina-focused curriculum for learners ages 0-8 and their families that encourages them to visit four locations in the ahupuaʻa of Mānoa-Waikīkī and learn the amazing way they all are tied together. Interactive foldouts in both Hawaiian and English guide families through activities at each site. Led by Maenette Benham, Dean, Hawaiʻinuiākea, in partnership with Lyon Arboretum, Mānoa Heritage Center, Ka Papa Loʻi ʻO Kānewai, and Waikīkī Aquarium.

Puapuaʻi Ka ‘Ōlelo

Through the restoration of ʻāina at Hanakehau Learning Farm, participating ʻohana from Pūnana Leo o Waiʻanae and Kula Kaiapuni o Waiau actively reclaim Hawaiian cultural space.

Project lead: Kekeha Solis
Objective: To create a future in which cultural practice is integrated into the daily lives of the lāhui with the consciousness and kuleana that comes with it; to create a place where Hawaiian language thrives; to create a place where self-determination is expressed in all aspects of our lives. This is done by creating and actively using implements in traditional Hawaiian practices, developing ʻōlelo Hawai‘i learning materials for use in immersion environments, and strengthening relationships with one another.
Community partners: Andrez Perez; Camille Kalama; Hanakehau Learning Farm; Pūnana Leo o Waiʻanae; Kula Kaiapuni o Waiau
Communities served: ʻOhana from Pūnana Leo o Waiʻanae and Kula Kaiapuni o Waiau; community members who attend work days and events; the lāhui in general who are enriched by the existence of this puʻuhonua.
Benefits to communities served: Use of  ‘ōlelo Hawaiʻi learning materials at Hanakehau Learning Farm; pili strengthened between immersion school ‘ohana; access to ‘ōlelo Hawaiʻi opportunities in the community; hoʻoikaika language use in the home, at school, and in the community; participants learn hana noʻeau and utilize implements in traditional cultural practices.

 

Ka Papa Loʻi o Voyager

A community partnership to develop Hawaiian science curriculum at Māhuahua ‘Ai o Hoi, a 200-acre mauka-to-makai area in Heʻeia that includes loʻi kalo and loko iʻa.

Project lead: Hokulani ʻAikau
Objective: To provide Hawaiʻi ‘ohana and ‘ōpio with content that is culturally relevant and appropriate in a learning environment that challenges the classroom-centrism of Western school systems; to develop a 3rd grade science curriculum that utilizes Hawaiian ecological knowledge and provides haumāna with hands-on ‘āina-based learning at Māhuahua that meets Hawai’i content area standards for science. Includes:

  • Safe access to the wetland areas to engage in place-based learning opportunities and activities that increases students’ cultural, historical, and ecological knowledge about Heʻeia ahupuaʻa and Māhuahua ‘Ai a Hoi.
  • Culturally relevant, hands-on learning opportunities to increase enthusiasm about science, technology, engineering, and math.
  • Understanding of how Hawaiian ecological knowledge builds on the interconnectedness of science, technology, and society
  • Research that focuses on: the value of water in a Hawaiian cultural context; how water moves through the ahupuaʻa; the ecological significance of the loʻi system for downstream systems; and the impact of restoration on native and non-native plants and animals who live in the wetland.
  • Opportunities that will inspire haumāna to become advocates for their community, their ahupuaʻa, Hawaiʻi nei, and the world.

Community partners:  Kelly Ralleta, Voyager Public Charter School (3rd grade kumu)Nathan Dube, Kākoʻo ‘Ōiwi (a non-profit working to restore loʻi kalo along Koʻolau coast)Māhuahua ‘Ai o Hoi.
Communities served:  3rd grade students at Voyager Public Charter School; Māhuahua ʻAi o Hoi and their ongoing restoration efforts; the greater community as the project creates learners who are aware and respectful of the natural environment.
Benefits to communities served:  Integrating Hawaiian scientific knowledge and cultural practices into the curriculum will positively impact students’ school engagement which will translate into greater engagement with STEM subjects; “…as haumāna see the relevance of STEM for their community, they will also be advocates for the places they live…” Māhuahua ʻAi o Hoi receives kōkua in their ongoing restoration efforts of the Heʻeia wetlands; Voyager kūmu have curriculum created.

 

Video Documentation of Hana Maʻawe

Video documentation of the process of making hīna‘i lauhala (lauhala baskets) and kapa.

Project lead: Maile Andrade
Objective: Video documentation of the process of making hīna‘i lauhala (lauhala basket) used in the burial of ‘iwi. Video documentation of the process of kapa making for the Hula/Kapa Collaboration Project at the Maui Arts & Culture Center designed to showcase Hawaiian kapa in its functional, cultural, and traditional uses. Documentation of interviews with founding members of Hui Mālama i Nā Kūpuna o Hawaiʻi.
Community partners: Hui Mālama i Nā Kūpuna o Hawaiʻi, Kīhei Nahale-a; Hula/Kapa Collaboration Project.
Communities served: Lauhala hīnaʻi and kapa practitioners past, present, and future; the greater community in its appreciation of Hawaiian fine arts.
Benefits to communities served: Learning today and preservation needs for the future.

 

Moʻolelo Hāloa

Production of a seven-to-eight-minute animated film about the Hāloa brothers and their connection to the Hawaiian people and land.

Project lead: Kimo Armitage
Objective: Re-territorialization of Hawaiʻi’s educational system from a Western-dominated structure to one more reflective of Hawaiian culture and values; establishment of Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies as a cultural resource for advice and guidance on culture-based community projects; production of a short film about Hāloa, a central creation moʻolelo.
Community partners: Twiddle Productions and Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies. The film was a massive collaboration between Hawaiian language charter schools and Kamehameha Schools art classes and will be used to develop curriculum for students in grades K-6th.
Communities served: The greater community in its understanding of this important creation moʻolelo.
Benefits to communities served: Provides new media focused on Hawaiian culture for keiki and adultscreates opportunities for local talent in animation; strengthens collaboration between Twiddle Productions and Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies.

 

I Ka ‘Ōlelo Nō Ke Ola

A pilot program for early admission with Kula Kaiapuni o Ānuenue.

Project leads: Noʻeau Warner, Maya Saffrey
Objective: Provide continuity in learning from Kaiapuni schools to U.H. Mānoa through the design and execution of a four-credit Hawaiian language course, HAW 200, designed specifically for kula kaiapuni seniors and graduates attending U.H.Mānoa. This college and career readiness support project brings students to the Mānoa campus three times a week during the semester. Upon successful completion of this course, students can enter HAW 202 when they begin their first year at Mānoa.
Community Partners: Moani Lee, Kumu, and Charles Naumu, Poʻokumu, Kula Kaiapuni o Ānuenue.
Communities served: Haumāna from Kula Kaiapuni o Ānuenue.
Benefits to communities served: Bring fluent speakers of Hawaiian into the new meta-linguistic system of Hawaiian being implemented at Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language.

 

E Hoʻi Ka Nani I Waineʻe

A historical partnership between Hawaiʻinuiākea and Waiola Congregational Church in Lāhaina, Maui to create a comprehensive preservation plan.

Project lead: Ron Williams
Objective: Working with Nā Kīa‘i o Waineʻe (The Guardians of Waineʻe), this partnership has amassed primary source documents regarding the historical significance of Waiola Church, creating an official preservation plan for the repository of ʻiwi kūpuna kaulana on the church grounds. Founded in 1823 under the direction of Queen Keōpuolani, sacred wife of Kamehameha Paiʻea, the cemetery at the Waiola is recorded to house her remains, as well as those of their daughter, Nahiʻenaʻena, two other of Kamehameha’s children from chiefess Kalama, and other aliʻi nui such as Ulumāhiehie Hoapili and his wife Kaheiheimālie, Kaumualiʻi (the last ruler of Kauaʻi), Kekauʻōnohi, Kalakua, and Liliha.
Community partners: Nā Kīaʻi o Waineʻe; Waiola Congregational Church
Communities served: The greater community; families of ʻiwi kūpuna interred on the church grounds; Waiola Congregational Church
Benefits to community: The collection of primary source documents regarding the historical significance of Waiola Church, the creation of an official preservation plan for this repository of ʻiwi kūpuna kaulana on the church grounds, and the creation of an opportunity for community ownership and pride in a wahi pana in Lāhaina.

 

Waiʻanae Mālama ʻĀina Field School at Nānākuli

A pilot summer school course for Nānākuli High & Intermediate middle school students entering grades 8 and 9 in the 2013-2014 school year. The primary goal of the course is to strengthen students’ core skills in science, math, and English/language arts by connecting them to the ‘āina and their culture. In doing so, the program engages students in learning and school so that they will be successful learners and contributors to their community, and will begin to understand the role of the 21st century konohiki. Students explore college and career paths and develop contacts with potential employers.

[LINK TO NEWS CLIPPING & THREE FIELD SCHOOL DOCUMENTS]

 

Nānākuli Mākua Series

This program connects Waiʻanae Coast families to a diverse set of learning opportunities through a unique collaboration with HSHK, INPEACE Keiki Steps Program, and the Kamehameha Schools Ka Pua Project. The learning exchange is a sustainable series of workshops which create opportunities for families to reinforce and raise consciousness around Hawaiian language, culture, and identity. Each community session is designed to address the short-term goal of building relationships among families to strengthen resilience and increase interest in education as well as the long-term goal of expanding capacity for critical analysis and engagement in social, political, and educational advocacy that impacts the landscape of their community.

[LINK TO NEWS CLIPPING]

 

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