Indigenous Science and Scientists: Our Future
Lily Kukui Gavagan

Written by: Chloe Molou, UHH Seawords Liason

This is the second article of a three-part series highlighting Indigenous Marine Science students at the University of Hawai’i Hilo and their work. Each student profiled for this series was a part of the 2021-2022 Keaholoa STEM Scholars cohort and completed their own independent research projects.

The Keaholoa STEM Scholars Program is an academic program at UH Hilo, aimed at supporting and increasing the representation of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders in STEM fields. The program provides paid independent research experiences with mentors in related fields, community outreach opportunities, academic support, and various professional development workshops. Keaholoa is part of a multi-campus, National Science Foundation (NSF) program known as the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program.

The second student to be featured in this series is Lily Kukui Gavagan, a senior in the Marine Science department at UH Hilo, who is minoring in Hawaiian Studies. Growing up in the mauka (upland) side of Maui, Kukui loved the ocean and cherished every opportunity she got to visit it. She recalls one specific instance in her childhood that started her on her path of becoming a marine scientist. 

“When I was about seven, my cousin, who is an oceanographer for NOAA, gave me and my family a little tour of her facility and told us what she did for work. [It] instantly captivated even more of my heart. I then decided that marine science was the path that I wanted to go towards in my life.”

In high school, Kukui’s love for marine science was allowed to flourish while she also learned more about “who [she was] as a kanaka maoli, a native Hawaiian, and what it means to live, exist, learn, and work as one.”

Kukui was a part of the 2021-2022 Keaholoa cohort, for which she conducted a research project analysing worm specimens collected from the Mokupāpapa Discovery Center by her advisor, Dr. Karla McDermid. 

The project began with a visual analysis of the specimens in order to identify what family they belonged to, followed by a feeding experiment to investigate the worms’ growth in relation to the food they had readily available, i.e., limu (algae) growing in the tank they were collected from. To estimate the length of the worms and get a closer look at the morphology, she used general microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) at the UH Hilo SEM Lab. 

Kukui is continuing her research and conducting a form of metabolomics using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry at the UH Hilo Pharmacy research station. She is using this technique to analyse metabolomes as well as “identify and quantify the number of chemical compounds within the algae, the algae exudate, and the worms separately.”  

Some results that Kukui is excited to share include, “that these worms are from the family Amphinomidae, and that the worms we have are growing in the presence of algae. What we do not know for certain is if these worms are feeding on the algae themselves, or the exudate on the algae.” She is hopeful that in the future she may be able to compare her results to assess what these worms are really feeding on, giving another “clue into these worms’ ecology.”   

Reflecting on this project, Kukui talked about gaining a lot of experience working with different professionals and following directions, especially working in different labs. She showed gratitude to “all of the many mentors, peers, friends, and other supporters that [she has] had, and still continue to have, along the way” as they showed her the importance of independent thought and confidently speaking one’s mind. She identifies this as a “key point working in […] STEM,” but most importantly, an invaluable skill in having a voice as an indigenous scientist. This experience has given her “more confidence within [herself] that [she hopes] to carry with [her] throughout [her] career and pass it off to other people who are interested in the same things.”

While discussing how institutions might better support Indigenous STEM students, Kukui believes that while places like UH are off to a good start by including more Hawaiian-centered curriculum material both inside and outside the classroom, there is always room for improvement. “I believe that significant changes [will] come [by] hiring and recruiting more and more Indigenous professors and/or professors who are adept to the ways of the Indigenous culture of that location of the University. This means requiring more classes to be taken that are centered in the Indigenous culture.”

Her final comment touched on the importance of highlighting Indigenous Science and its contributions, “I believe, and I know that [indigenous science] has a voice everywhere in the world. Every place has its own unique culture with its own ingenuity that brings about new knowledge. […] We all come from different oceans, but we all somehow come together and meet on this same planet, so why can’t our different perspectives on science?”