We discuss 'āina based thinking, conscious tourism, and participatory governance systems.
Mahina Paishon-Duarte is co-founder and chief executive officer of Waiwai Collective, a regenerative urban oasis, a kīpuka, for creatively growing community, culture, and commerce. As a social entrepreneur who has also led several educational and cultural organizations, her vision and mission are one and the same––to catalyze positive, lasting change for Hawaiʻi in one generation. Most notably, Mahina is the founding executive director of Paepae o Heʻeia, the first modern Hawai‘ian fishpond that created ground-breaking ʻāina-based education programming for students from preschool through post-doctoral levels. She gained public sector experience as a policy program manager with NOAAs Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, as well as head of school for both Hālau Kū Māna and Kanu o ka ʻĀina public charter schools. Today, Mahina is a part of the ʻĀina Aloha Economic Futures movement to address long-standing socio-economic inequities that the COVID-19 pandemic underscored; and to bring to life a resilient economy through our core value of ʻāina aloha—a deep and abiding love for Hawaiʻi’s communities and natural environments.
In our conversation, we discuss: radical aloha; what it means to have ‘āina based thinking; her recent appointment by the Governor of Hawai‘i to the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority, and their strategic plan for regenerative tourism; and, the need for a governance structure, such as a food policy council, to help achieve Hawai‘i’s goal of increasing local food production.
Mahina graciously accepted my request to begin our conversation with a pule (aspirational chant).
For more info on Mahina:
Mahina’s suggested reading:
Credits:
Created, produced, and hosted by Paula Daniels
Sound engineer: Keola Iseri
Project support: Sue Woodard
Theme music: Caryssa Shinozawa
Other music: "Monomer" by Leroy Wild, “Waialua By Night” by Pacific Sounds
Logo: Reiko Quitevis, Sue Woodard
Thanks to our sponsor, the Hawai'i Institute for Sustainable Community Food Systems at the University of Hawai'i - West O'ahu
Thanks also to the students at Waipahu High School for sound creation (Caryssa Shinozawa, Landon Guzman, Syd Sausal) and graphic design (Ashley Alfaro, Erika Pagtulingan, Reiko Quitevis); and their teachers, Noelle- lili Edejer and Sky Bruno.
[Music: Theme Song, composed by Waipahu High School students]
Paula: Welcome to the 30% Podcast. We are a podcast about goals to create a good food ecosystem across the country…
[Music: Leroy Wild - Monomer]
… from New York to Illinois, from Austin to Boston, and to the Hawaiian Islands in the mid Pacific. Hawaiʻi's goal for a local food system is a thematic structure for this podcast and is the focus of this first season.
Hawaiʻi's goal is embedded in its statewide Aloha Plus Challenge which aims to double local food production in the islands by 2030; by most accounts, that means to get to 30% local by then. The goal is important to Hawaiʻi for a number of layered reasons. One being a matter of resilience. The island state is currently heavily dependent on imported food to feed its over 1 million residents and to host the 10 millions of tourists who visit every year. In this season, we discuss the many other reasons and the efforts underway.
We are grounding this season in receiving wisdom and insights from Native Hawaiians and longtime residents of Hawaiʻi, leaders in their realms of action in the islands who are all deeply engaged in the vision of a more localized food system for the islands. In prior episodes, we've talked about ancestral Hawaiian culture regarding thriving in place and how to respect, but not romanticize, that knowledge as an innovation elevating a time-tested technology of integrating a profound connection to land, and fluency in the language of the land as a source of knowledge to be respected and honored and utilized in modern society.
In this episode, we are fortunate to receive the wisdom of Mahina Paishon Duarte, a recent gubernatorial appointee to the board of the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority. Mahina is deeply rooted in Hawaiian culture and knowledge. She's a self-starter of many valuable initiatives in the state. She's well-known for her skills at conflict resolution and facilitation of complex decision-making processes, and recently was co-facilitator of the Mauna Kea Legislative Working Group, which led to the development of the new Mauna Kea Stewardship Authority. Most importantly, for this discussion, know that she is deeply committed to addressing longstanding socioeconomic inequities and to bring to life a resilient economy through a core value of ʻāina aloha, which she will discuss with us and explain, but please understand it as a deep and abiding love for Hawaiʻi's communities and natural environments.
I asked Mahina to lay a foundation for our conversation with a pule or incantation.
Mahina: [reciting pule]
Paula: Mahalo Mahina. You know, moments like that really render me speechless. So I wonder, if you don't mind, if I ask for some interpretation.
Mahina: Sure. So this, first of all, this mele was recently taught to me by a researcher, Native Hawaiian researcher, by the name of Dr. Kalei Nu’uhiwa, and she started this group during the height of the first [COVID] shutdown because she saw, you know, in her own family, around her, around her neighborhood, people were very fearful, very unsettled, very uncertain. And so what she did was she began to return back to some of the research that she has done over her life and wanted to provide an opportunity for us as a community, whoever would like to come, to center around mele, song compositions, pule, or prayers-- aspirations, really-- requests, around this idea of radical aloha. Radical aloha, it was needed, is needed, and will be needed in the future. This idea that when I greet you, Paula, I not only greet you, but I greet the ancestors that sit on your shoulders, that stand behind you, and I acknowledge the future, and all of the current work that you are a part of that's putting energy and intention to, you know, bring humanity closer to ʻāina, to our earth.
Paula: Powerful concept. It'd be really powerful if it were to radiate throughout the world, if you can imagine that, right.
Mahina: Absolutely.
Paula: And the pule, the oli that you started with, did it have a specific meaning?
Mahina: Yes. So I, you know, I was asking specifically, I brought a request to Kāne and Lono who are deities or sacred sources, if you will, are the protectors of certain environments, certain ecosystems, and elements related to those ecosystems. So Kāne is assigned to, is of the atmosphere, everything above our head is the atmosphere. He is also of thunder and lightning. Life giving forces of our, of the, you know, of the atmospheric realm. Lono is represented in, you know, in our soil, in specific trees in our tree canopy, in the lichens and the liverworts and the fungi that, you know, in which all of these species work interdependently on one another and depend on one another. And so I wanted to call upon these sacred sources to recognize them and to affirm who they are and also to invite them in as we have this conversation about food systems here in Hawaiʻi and its relationship to communities and our relationship as kānaka, or people of this land, to ʻāina, I wanted to make sure that they were present with us. So that was the intent and purpose of that particular pule.
Paula: Thank you so much. Your ability to deliver it in the way you did and your deep knowledge of ancestral traditions, how does this come in you?
Mahina: Yeah. Thank you for that question. You know, so I am of this land and I can trace, you know, my responsibility, my ancestral obligation, or kuleana as we say, to as far as Papa and Wākea and, you know, and all the great chiefs of this land. And I also have ancestry with three generations back. You know, my Filipino ancestors came and they first came to Kaʻū and worked in plantations and so forth, and so I'm very fortunate that my family has always encouraged me to take on some of our family practices which is of song and dance, of mele, of kanikapila, of hula, and of nearshore fishing practices and nearshore marine stewardship.
[Music - E Ho Mai]
Paula: If folks look you up, they'll see an awful lot about your being involved with charter schools, with the Heʻeia and with the marine National Monument that was created by Obama; the Oʻahu Economic Development Board, the Waiwai Collective, the Trust for Public Land. Tell me about your work experience.
Mahina: My work experience, yeah, I mean the common thread between all of those different spaces. You're right. I've worked in the education sector for 10 years as a charter school principal, I've worked as a nonprofit, a founding executive director for another 10, and then, you know, had a little bit of time, shorter time in the policy realm, and now as an entrepreneur and small business owner, and I do a lot of volunteerism.
Paula: Yeah, you do.
Mahina: A lot, a lot, a lot of volunteerism. I mean, the common thread between all of those things is that I love my homeland. I love Hawaiʻi. You know, one of my volunteer initiatives, community initiatives, is ʻĀina Aloha Economic Futures and we, you know, we basically... our volunteer coalition group that wanted to create a new table to envision Hawaiʻi 3.0, if you will. So we wanted to create opportunities where community could co-design and co-create an economy that was founded in ancestral values in this beloved homeland. And, you know, here are some of the themes that came out of our conversations with, you know, over 600 community members when we launched this platform and initiative, ʻĀina Aloha Economic Futures, is to place as a top priority the wellbeing of our ʻāina water sources, ocean, skies, and the biodiversity integral to these, recognizing the long-held understanding that the ʻāina is our aliʻi, or our chief, and we are its servants. And yeah, you know, food and ʻāina; ʻāina is always at the core of everything that I do, and when there are moments where I kind of veer off-course, it's probably because I am a little bit less grounded in ʻāina thinking.
Paula: Let's talk about that a little bit, ʻāina thinking; so ʻāina, you know, can be - when you translate Hawaiʻian concepts into English, it I think loses things sometimes so it takes a lot to explain it - but can you talk about ʻāina and what that means to you in the way you just said?
Mahina: Sure. So ʻāina is that which feeds, that which sustains, and ʻāina thinking, for me, is really about open heart, open mind, open will, and finding the ways in which we can meet and live in our fullest potential. ʻĀina is an energy. It's also a physical space, and it's also an energy. It's also that in-between, that connective tissue, right, between you and I and this room here and this terraforma that we call Hawaiʻi, right? And knowing that our ancestors are around us and continue to guide and inspire. So when we say ʻāina, ʻāina is the wholeness or the fullness of, and the oneness of all these different systems coming together.
Paula: That's so beautiful. And yeah, it explains why, when you describe it that way, it explains why that rough translation, if you were to look it up somewhere, ʻāina equals land, is so reductionist and not that complete, because especially if you think of land in a Western concept of something that you own and explore…
Mahina: Extract from.
Paula: ...extract from, yeah, whereas the ancestral relationship to land was much deeper and more along the ways of what you described, understanding the interdependence.
Mahina: That's right. And in the simplest form, ʻāina is a family member. It's my kin.
Paula: You couldn't survive without it being thriving itself.
Mahina: That's right.
Paula: And so you'd have a respectful relationship with it.
Mahina: That's right.
Paula: So this leads me to this question of your more recent venture with the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority. You just became sworn in just this past week as a member of the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority.
Mahina: That's right.
Paula: Tell me about how you took this on and what you would like to bring to it.
Mahina: I'm just one of, you know, the more than 10 members of, you know, that serve on this volunteer board. Why? Because if tourism is going to continue to be our primary, or our number one economic driver, and if we as a community are not satisfied or unsatisfied with the impacts of tourism, the results of tourism to the environment, to community, to our quality of life, then I'm not going to stand on the side. And if there is an opportunity for me to be at the table to exercise my voice and to make sure that I am just a place-- I'm really just, I'm holding space and I'm a proxy to, you know, these... a voice of kamaʻāina that wants to see their lands protected, our lands protected, our water sources protected, our culture protected, then you have to participate. So that's my reason why I said yes to the challenge. Am I comfortable? No. But am I up for a challenge? Yes. And here's the reason why: I really resonate with the strategic plan, with HTA's strategic plan. I affirm their major core pillars with natural resources, respect for natural and cultural resources, Hawaiian culture, support Native Hawaiian culture and community, to ensure tourism and communities enrich each other. I think that's a really important one. So if we can create like new ʻauiwai (or new pathways) for which tourism can be, instead of the number one extractor from one perspective - the number one extractor of a quality of life, the contributor to waste and crime, increased crime and all of these things - instead, reverse that and tourism becomes the number one contributor to a more healthful and equitable future. Yeah. I'll work alongside my colleagues and do what has to get done. It's important. If not then, I mean, what is our alternative? It's really just to let the status quo powers, you know, perpetuate business as usual and then we will continue to just kind of grumble on the side. And I didn't want that to be the case anymore.
Paula: I appreciate your standing up and showing up. As I understand it, by the way, the strategic plan is fairly recent, right? It's only within the past couple of years or so that it came forward.
Mahina: That's right.
Paula: And I think it came out of when COVID hit tourism, which is a big economic driver in Hawaiʻi, so that was problematic to lose that money, but there was also a sense, "here's what the islands could be like without 10 million people visiting the islands a year".
Mahina: That's right.
Paula: That's a lot of people, it's a lot of impact on an infrastructure that's actually built to support about a million and a half people.
Mahina: That's right. That's exactly right, Paula. Yeah. So when our doors were closed to tourism via, you know, via airplanes and via cruise ships, we all exhaled. You know, we could actually go to Waikiki and enjoy Waikiki as a, you know, as a beloved place that is so storied, right, with stories of Duke Kahanamoku and so forth.
Paula: All the aliʻi, the chiefs.
Mahina: All the aliʻi and the chiefs of the past. And we all witnessed that, you know, sea life are coming back. Things that we have-- we haven't seen the akule fish, right? The macro fish, you know, for years and years and years, and slowly, we started to see our marine ecosystems recover itself, and while our marine ecosystems were starting to regenerate itself and recover, we saw that in ourselves, right? Where families were coming together, that we could actually find parking, that's number one. Could actually find parking. You could actually find places on the sand for which we could surf. We didn't have to worry about, you know, about the surf line being inundated with all novice surfers, and being, you know, instead being occupied by folks who respected the surf etiquette, right? Just basic etiquette.
Paula: People could actually be hurt if they're not following good surf etiquette.
Mahina: Yeah, that's right. And so that's what we were all witnessing as our oceans, our forests were recovering and regenerating. We, too, were recovering and regenerating, feeling, you know, overcrowded, feeling the impacts of having to drive you know, being stuck in traffic for three and a half hours, one way from Waiʻanae, which is the Western side of the island, to town to come to work, right? And so those are just some of the anecdotes that we hear of, and, you know, part of the thing is, when we were able to take pause from that and just kind of get a sense of like,"wow, this is actually-- Hawaiʻi really is our home!” It's not just a destination for someone else.
Paula: To serve those other visitors.
Mahina: Yeah. And to serve other visitors, you know, that's when this kind of growing consciousness and cry started to just like take up all the social media channels.
Paula: Interesting.
Mahina: It's like, you know, I'm basically focusing., really frustrated that Hawaiʻi…we are basically saying, "we are not your luxury playground".
Paula: Yeah. Those are important two words. "Luxury playground". It's something that I've always noticed when I've been living on the continent in California and what the perception seems to be of Hawaiʻi. And you also mentioned that you would like to get tourism to a place where it isn't destructive of our natural resources. So some of that comes from, I'm imagining, the - where we're building resorts and how we provide infrastructure to that. So the resorts are built generally where there's less water because there's more sun, so people can play in the pools and beaches there, but it means that resources are taken then, water and other natural resources are taken from other places, right?
Mahina: That's right. I mean, that's the reason why I wanted to serve on the Leeward Planning Commission on the County of Hawaiʻi, and we're going to have to, like, really think this through. Water and also, you know, with our Red Hill situation here locally...
Paula: That's where there’s contamination of water by a Naval Station...
Mahina: That's right. Yeah. So, you know, we have... we know that affordable housing, access to healthy locally-grown foods, access to affordable healthcare are like the issues that are compressed right now, and that all relates to, you know, clean air, clean water, and even the impacts of tourism.
Paula: And so some of the ways forward, I keep hearing this term "regenerative tourism", which-- and you also said about having tourists come who have a different relationship to Hawaiʻi – so, what are you imagining would be the ideal outcome there?
Mahina: Branding, you know, first of all, I mean, if HTA is serious about, you know, changing the course of how tourism has been done for a hundred plus years, then we need to take control of our own narrative. I mean, businesses know to do that. They gotta control their brand, they gotta control their narrative. We, too, have to do that and we need to triple down, right, on the reason why people come to Hawaiʻi. They come here not for sand, surf, and sun. They come here primarily for the beauty of our ʻāina, and they also come here because of the richness and the beauty of our people and of our culture. So we need to make sure that we are branding to let everyone know that, "Hey, come to Hawaiʻi, but when you come to Hawaiʻi, you're coming to our home". You're not coming to a destination, you're coming here to our home and we as the kamaʻāina or the people of this land, we also need to be very clear, right? And we need to host, I would dare say that let's host these visitors and let's market to the conscious, mindful traveler that wants to come here to participate in active careship of our, you know, of our streams, of our reefs, of our forest systems that are, of course, guided and led by people of these places much like, you know, New Zealand, much like Palau who have-- who are models, right, of what we're now saying, "regenerative tourism", "regenerative travel".
Paula: So I heard some ideas expressed that, for example, a tourist could come and volunteer to work on stream restoration before they get access to the waterfall.
Mahina: That's right.
Paula: As an example, something like that. So maybe spend a few hours interacting before they get access to the waterfall to kind of teach-- share more of the knowledge of place that I think would enrich their experience anyway, right?
Mahina: Yeah, I think so. I think, you know, even before they step off the plane, right? I think the way that we are telling our story as they come onto their airplane and then greeted when they debark all the way through, even when they're picking up their car. I think that we need to figure out where should we locate these kinds of ʻāina-based experiences in a way that is going to be: one, hosted and guided; two, it's going to keep the dollars in local communities, going to employ locals so locals can create the experience that is authentic to that particular place, is mindful of, you know, traffic patterns, safety considerations, and, you know, I think a full experience would not only be that actual ʻāina activity or stewardship activity, but it's also going to be like, you know, maybe they get to eat their lunch or their dinner from, you know, local chefs and meals that are sourced from the places that they help to take care of and learned about, and hopefully if we do this well as a collective community that's all trying to shift the direction of tourism and not just being reliant on a state agency, because that's where I think the power is, right, is when we, as community members, can join hands with state agency to transform the system, is basically we need to just coordinate all the efforts so that these experiences are connected and are integrated and are related to one another.
Paula: Which can bring us to the topic of food because tourists eat a lot of food. But before I do that, I have to get this idea out of my system because I, you know, visited Europe just a couple months ago and the experience of most people when they visit Europe, especially the cities like Florence or Paris, Rome, is they usually-- first on their list, it's to go to the museums, to interact with the history, in part because Western history is tied up in many of those capitals of Europe; but so United States' history is caught up in Hawaiʻi in a way that I don't know that most people interact with. So wouldn't it be great if when people come to visit Hawaiʻi, they have that list of museums and places that teach historical knowledge about Hawaiʻi as well, that they feel very excited about and drawn to, to go to first before they get to the beach?
Mahina: Yeah, absolutely. Places like the museums that you're suggesting should not only be a place of antiquity, but a place of modern relevance. And so we want to make sure that we tell the fuller story of who Hawaiʻi was, who we are, and who-- and more importantly, who we aspire to be for future generations. When I talk about, well, someone asks, "what is my kuleana", or "what is my ancestral obligation"? "What is my ancestral responsibility"? For me, I know in order for me to be my fullest, wholest self, most empowered self, that I need to do a bit of healing. That I need to heal from ancestral trauma that I have inherited because of the injustices that persist. And I will do this, and I am and I will do this so that I can help others too, for when they're ready; that they would then take the next steps to go on their own healing journey. And I believe for us to truly activate our collective highest potential and fullest potential, that we need to create pathways for us to restore and to regenerate. And the pathway for that, for our own personal healing, is,, I – wholeheartedly, with all that I am – believe it is inextricably connected to bringing healing to our ʻāina.
Paula: Our ʻāina from which we produce food. One way I want to focus our discussion is around a current goal of the State of Hawaiʻi called the Aloha Plus Challenge, to double local food production by 2030. So some estimates are that it's 5% to 15%, let's assume it's 15. So that takes it to 30% local food production. What are your thoughts on that goal and why it's important?
Mahina: Yeah, I think it's absolutely important. I mean we know here in Hawaiʻi that we are overly reliant on imports, you know, importing 90% plus of our foods, and here's the thing. So yes, I agree with that aspirational goal and we need to think about all of the-- we need to think about how that goal will interface with all the other land use policies, with the water use policies, with our goals for energy sustainability as well, and to become a much more energy- secure state as well, right? We have this really aggressive goal by 2045...
Paula: And I think we're about almost halfway there.
Mahina: Yes. Yeah. So there is a lot of promise. At the same time, we're going to have to figure out – legislators, policy makers, business owners, public servants, regular working class residents – we're going to have to figure out, what are we willing to give up to make that goal come alive and to be met because we are on an island. We have carrying capacities, and I think that the question is, "How are all these important initiatives for energy sustainability, food sustainability, and then economic growth, continued economic growth, what is the intersection between those goals"? I, you know, I don't have it all mapped out, but I would think that there might be some dynamic-- there's going to be some dynamic tensions, I think, because there's going to be, ultimately, there's competing priorities, right, between these initiatives, so I think that's where it's going to get really, really interesting.
Paula: Let's talk about that a little bit. What do you think are the competing priorities? Cost is probably one.
Mahina: Cost is going to be one, but I, you know, we're going to have to look at like the mechanics and the nuts and bolts of how are we distributing food, right? So once we grow it and then we wanna distribute across the islands, take it to other neighbor islands and what’s going to be the impacts of that, and I also think like, how can we, you know, what would be the cost for becoming more regionally self-reliant, right? And I think it's also a matter of, how do we incentivize human behaviors, right? So maybe-- I live on Hawaiʻi Island, I live in Kona so I don't live in Honolulu proper. So, what am I willing to give up in terms of not having access to strawberries, for example? I think it's going to come down to those kind of choices.
Paula: Thank you for explaining that. So I think there are a lot of different efforts, is my understanding, to move this goal forward. There's a lot of hui or groups that are working on farm-to-school or working on food hubs or working on assisting farmers and they're all working mightily in their area. What do you think it would take to have this cohere into a place where it starts gelling – or do you see it gelling now, or do you see it needing to be on a path toward that?
Mahina: Well, I think we need to figure out how we can close the loop and create more closed loop systems with the Department of Education. So if we can get that right, you know, and we can increase, we can meet our goals of serving locally-produced, fresh, locally-produced foods, produce to our kids and proteins to our kids, I think we can then replicate that in other sectors.
Paula: And you bring up the Department of Education because in Hawaiʻi they run all the public schools and serve the meals.
Mahina: Is under, yeah, one single jurisdiction. So there's high potential, you know, for immediate impact for 237,000 students.
Paula: It's a lot in Hawaiʻi.
Mahina: That's right. Quarter of the population. Yeah.
Paula: Yeah. So increasing demand and getting those supply chains moving forward. What about bringing it all together and sort of maintaining the implementation of it? Do you think there needs to be some kind of a governance structure? Or how would you see that happening?
Mahina: Yeah, so, you know, we've had our eye on what other folks have been doing on the continent. Certainly through your work, Paula, and so we were really pleased, you know, to learn about initiatives from New York and in California and from both conversations, and in other conversations, I've heard there's this need for like a food policy council, if you will, right? A group that will help to broker public private partners that will work with the policy makers, will work with the industry folks, will work with all the other institutions and agencies to enact policy and also to make sure that community voice along the way, is always center, is always honored, and that also, the host culture, the indigenous culture of this - the indigenous voice of this land is also amplified. I think there needs to be representation. I think it makes a lot of sense that there would be island-based representation, right? That would also mirror an older governance system that had worked for 2000 plus years.
Paula: There were chiefs of each island…
Mahina: That's correct. And chiefs of each island and other sub offices, whose essentially main responsibility was to care for the waterways and to care for all of the protein needs of people of that particular place. So yeah, I think we need to create these food councils and I think it needs to be island based and we need to then find ways for these network, this network of networks, if you will, to then come together whether it's annually or semi-annually to kind of track progress, whether it's adopting the Aloha Plus Challenge goals and other goals, and then making sure that all of that data and the progress that had been made is reported widely to folks, and somehow there has to be a coordination of all the opportunities for which folks can get involved. I think for Hawaiʻi context, it's really important that people feel connected. That we build upon these 20 plus years effort to restore our relationship and our understanding of how we are related to ʻāina, and I think we have to build on that momentum. We need to create systems and structures, policies and processes, in my opinion, we need to create systems that look like our-- like a healthy ecosystem, right? So creating pathways, creating strategies and tactics that would emulate, you know, water coming down from the watershed all the way down from, to the ocean, and then returning this whole circular form for a new economy to reflect and look like our ʻāina-based systems.
[Music: Pacific Sounds - Waialua Night Alt 1]
Paula: [to audience] Mahina shares with us an experience that speaks to her profoundly spiritual connection to place. It is about Heʻeia Fish Pond, a notable example of the ancient Hawaiian aquaculture practice of fish cultivation. Heʻeia was most likely built around 700 years ago. It's about a mile of enclosure of heavy lava rock walls that are designed to allow a specific flow of seawater to mix with freshwater and create the perfect habitat for algae and fish to breed and thrive. Sadly, 20th century development encroached on the fish pond structure, leading to its destruction and overgrowth by invasive mangroves. In this 21st century, successful restoration efforts have been undertaken, led by Mahina and others, and heralded by Mahina's vision for a return of traditional Hawaiian values in food systems.
Mahina: And so I had the great invitation to volunteer at a 800-year old historic fish pond based out in the Windward side of Oʻahu. Koʻolaupoko, Oʻahu and I'll just tell you a quick story if you don't mind.
Paula: Yeah, please.
Mahina: So I was, I think I was 19 years old and I had transferred over to Oʻahu from Hilo to take care of my tutus, to take care of my great-grandmother, and I was really homesick because in my short time on Hawaiʻi Island, after graduating from high school, I was, I threw myself into all things ʻāina. So I was literally helping to build a voyaging canoe, I was helping to restore fish ponds, I was helping to restore traditional agricultural field systems, and that was the lifestyle that I hadn't grown up with, you know, being a part of urban Oʻahu. So when I came back to Oʻahu, I asked my parents, "Hey, do you know of any volunteer opportunities I can be a part of?" and they quickly put me in contact with a person that I had not yet met. I took the city bus to this place and was greeted by a tall haole person by the name of Mary Brooks and she had very few words. I followed her for, I felt for a very long time, and I couldn't see where we were actually going because it was like thick, thick, thick, thick with mangrove. It was like a mangrove forest. And I kept on following her for a good half an hour or so. It was like hot and humid and little dank, you could smell the mud and so forth. I was like, "Oh my gosh, what am I getting myself into?" We go out to, you know, walking for about half an hour and then there's this place that starts to open up, and then she turns, and I kind of just, you know, follow her movement, and I turned with her and I, see that we were walking a seawall. We then face the watershed area called ‘Ioleka‘a and I close my eyes. And at that moment I feel like warm air press against my body, and then I smell, you know, like, really like, kind of like real musty soil kind of smell, you know, when you're like traversing a, you know, a really old forest and you smell this like living earth. And then, I heard literally hundreds and then…
[Music: E Ho Mai]
… thousands and then 10,000 voices just like full, like I just was teeming with like a joyful chorus of people. I could tell that they were working, they were playing, they were in fellowship. And I knew from that point on I, and I could, and I had a vision that it was literally thousands of people there to restore this 800-year old entity we call Heʻeia Fish Pond, and what I got the sense of was like communicating together that was deeply in love with this place and wanted to be a part of the stewardship of this place. So, from experiences like that as a kiaʻi loko, as a fish pond caretaker, learning how to restore, you know, these human-engineered social systems, if you will, that's overlayed upon, you know, a natural system and trying to figure out, like, how does, what is that intersection between these social systems and these kind of like community-led governance models and these spiritual systems that work in concert with these natural estuarine environments? My time, 10 years, at Heʻeia Fish Pond taught me everything that I know about strategic planning, about, you know, tactical planning, about business modeling now as an entrepreneur, and about, you know, how we build community-led governance systems-- participatory systems.
Paula: Thank you for that vision. Now with that note, I want to thank you for taking time to be with us today.
Mahina: Thank you, Paula. Aloha.
Paula: Aloha.
[ Theme Song]
Paula: Many thanks to our sound engineer, Keola Iseri; and to Sue Woodard for project support. And to the students at Waipahu High School: thank you, Carissa, Landon and Sid for your sound creation; thank you Ashley, Erica, and Reiko for graphic design; and to their teachers, Noelle-Lilli Ediger and Sky Bruno. And mahalo nui loa, much gratitude, to our sponsor, the Hawaiʻi Institute for Sustainable Community Food Systems at the University of Hawaiʻi West Oʻahu.