Oli, mālama ʻāina at heart of UH Mānoa initiative
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
UH Mānoa students, faculty and staff work in loʻi at UH Mānoa.
Link to video and sound (details below): https://go.hawaii.edu/gZn
***VOSOT script below for consideration***
Pronunciation guide: oli (oh-lee), mālama ʻāina (mah-la-mah eye-nah), moʻokūauhau (moh-oh-koo-ow-how)
WHO: University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, deans, professors, faculty, staff and students from 13 units (college, school or department)
WHAT: Embark on a two-year journey to engage in culturally-based activities and concepts to help advance UH Mānoa as a Native Hawaiian place of learning. Guided by the university’s Native Hawaiian Place of Learning Advancement Office, the initiative will immerse employees and students in Native Hawaiian values and traditions such as mālama ʻāina (care for the land), moʻokūʻauhau (genealogies that shape us) and oli (chants).
WHEN: Spring 2024–2026
WHERE: various locations across UH Mānoa campus
WHY: This initiative is part of a multi-step process to achieve goals articulated in the UH Mānoa’s strategic plan, which outlines the university's main priorities and strategies for achieving them.
The team tasked with helping advance the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa as a Native Hawaiian Place of Learning has officially launched a two-year initiative immersing a diverse range of students and employees in Native Hawaiian values and traditions. This spring, more than 10 units from a wide array of schools, colleges and departments across UH Mānoa are engaging in culturally-based activities as part of a multi-step process to achieve goals articulated in the university’s strategic plan.
Native Hawaiian concepts, activities
- Moʻokūʻauhau (the many genealogies that shape us)
- Kaikuaʻana and Kaikaina (Intergenerational interdependent relationships)
- Kuleana (our responsibilities and privileges)
- Hānai and Hoʻomalu (Nourishing and protecting each other)
- Mālama (tending to and caring for one another)
Participants join in on activities such as mapping various moʻokūʻauhau (personal, academic, place based), mālama at the loʻi kalo (taro patch), oli (chants), and pilina (dialogue) circles.
“There are three goals in the Native Hawaiian Place of Learning area of the strategic plan. The one we are focusing on right now is that 100% of schools and colleges and other similar nonacademic units will create five-year strategic plans focusing on how their units can take steps toward becoming a Native Hawaiian place of learning in four specific focus areas,” said Kaiwipunikauikawēkiu Punihei Lipe, director of the Native Hawaiian Place of Learning Advancement Office (NHPoL AO) who is leading the initiative.
The four focus areas, which come from the 2012 Ke Au Hou Report and the 2016 Ka Ho‘okō Kuleana Report and Action Plans, include:
- Native Hawaiian Student Success
Native Hawaiian students are holistically supported from recruitment through post-graduation. Best practices are gleaned from efforts to support Native Hawaiian students and are applied to student success strategies for all students across the campus.
- Staff and Faculty Development
Native Hawaiian staff and faculty are holistically supported from recruitment through promotion and leadership development in every unit across the campus. All staff and faculty at UH Mānoa are more knowledgeable and culturally rooted in Mānoa and Hawaiʻi.
- Native Hawaiian Environments
UH Mānoa is a physical, cultural, spiritual and interactive environment that exemplifies the values of ʻohana and community, mālama ‘āina and kuleana, thereby perpetuating Native Hawaiian values, culture, language, traditions and customs.
- Native Hawaiian Community Engagement
UH Mānoa and Native Hawaiian communities are consistently connected and engaged in order that there can be reciprocal teaching and learning for positive impact throughout Hawaiʻi.
A total of 13 UH Mānoa units comprise this first cohort called Cohort Kumukahi. They will engage in an initial two-year process with the NHPoL AO. These units include:
- UH Cancer Center
- College of Arts, Languages and Letters (CALL)
- College of Engineering (CoE)
- College of Social Sciences (CSS)
- Division of Student Success (DSS)
- Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB)
- Institute for Astronomy (IfA)
- John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM)
- Nancy Atmospera-Walch School of Nursing (NAWSON)
- Office of Communications
- Thompson School of Social Work & Public Health
- Hawaiʻi Sea Grant
- School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST)
Karen Jolly, a history professor at UH Mānoa, expressed her enthusiasm for incorporating Indigenous perspectives into her curriculum.
“I want to be able to do that, as well, to integrate Native Hawaiian ways of thinking and being and doing into my classroom and research,” Jolly said.
With this initiative, UH Mānoa is taking significant steps towards fostering an inclusive and culturally rooted educational environment that pays homage to Hawaiʻi’s Indigenous people.
“While also meeting the goals of the Mānoa 2025 strategic plan, this initiative keeps in line with our office’s commitment to foster a rooted, resilient and responsive community that advances UH Mānoa as a Native Hawaiian Place of Learning: a place that is responsive to Native Hawaiians and reflective of Native Hawai‘i for all to learn, grow, connect and heal from,” said Lipe.
This May, more than 90 participants will form the second cohort and begin training.
VIDEO BROLL: (1 minute 40 seconds)
:00-:10 NATS of Students, faculty and staff learning Hawaiian oli (chant)
:11-:38 Participants work in loʻi (taro patch) at UH Mānoa
:39-1:32 More cultural engagement activities
1:33-1:38 Exterior UH Mānoa Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge
SOUNDBITES:
Punihei Lipe/UH Mānoa Native Hawaiian Place of Learning
(13 seconds)
“If we want our students, the next generation to be more connected to each other and to this place we have to model that and sometimes that means we have to go learn that and so we are growing the next generation by also growing the sources that nourish them.”
Karen Jolly/History Professor, UH Mānoa
(7 seconds)
“I want to be able to do that, as well to integrate Native Hawaiian ways of thinking and being and doing into my classroom and research.”
VOSOT SCRIPT
INTRO
A team from UH Mānoa is spearheading efforts to cultivate a deeper connection to the culture of our islands.
NATS CHANTING
VO
This week, students and employees from a variety of units delve deep into Native Hawaiian values and traditions. Its part of the university’s effort to become a Native Hawaiian Place of Learning. For the next two years, this first cohort of leaders will work with the UH Mānoa Native Hawaiian Place of Learning Advancement Office to advance key areas on campus. Everything from student success to employee development.
SOT
(Punihei Lipe/Director, UH Mānoa Native Hawaiian Place of Learning Advancement)
<“If we want our students, the next generation to be more connected to each other and to this place we have to model that and sometimes that means we have to go learn that and so we are growing the next generation by also growing the sources that nourish them.”>
(Karen Jolly/History Professor, UH Mānoa)
<“I want to be able to do that, as well, to integrate Native Hawaiian ways of thinking and being and doing into my classroom and research.”>
VO
This initiative is part of UH Mānoa’s strategic plan that incorporates Native Hawaiian values and is culturally rooted to Hawaiʻi. About 100 participants will form the next cohort this May.