LEARNING IN PLACE IN HAWAII: HOW ANCESTRAL STORIES, HAWAIIAN LANGUAGE, AND CURRENT ISSUES INFORM EARTH SCIENCE EDUCATION ORIENTED TO SUSTAINABILITY

The Hawaiian archipelago, volcanic islands located 2,000 miles from any continent, were settled about 1,000 CE by Polynesian voyagers who brought <30 species of plants and dogs, pigs, chickens and rats. Over the next four centuries, life on remote islands vulnerable to natural hazards and with diverse ages, soils, microclimates led to unique Hawaiian knowledge-gathering practices oriented to adaptive learning and engineering practices, e.g., terraces, fishponds, water management, rain-fed field systems oriented to sustainability. Adaptive learning, the updating of knowledge to adjust to changing environments was achieved through formal structures and processes. Resource managers, konohiki in each geopolitical resource unit, ahupua‘a, hosted annual visits by the highest chief enabling the compilation of knowledge across local to island wide scales. Constant surveillance (kilo) developed deep knowledge and attachment to the ‘āina, literally “land that feeds,” while a kapu system guided human actions to maintain sustainable social ecosystems. Evidence of kilo, to watch closely, examine, forecast, is seen in ancestral stories, chants, and hula conveyed across generations to the present and recorded in 125,000 pages of Hawaiian language newspapers, nupepa, published between 1834 and 1948. These practices sustained a population estimated to be 400,000 - 800,000 .at the time of western contact in 1788. Hawaiʻi is now home to 1.4 million people and host annually to 8 million tourists. Reliance on imports of 80% of food and energy coupled with issues of water pollution, western models of land use and climate change are reasons to examine how the past can inform a more sustainable future.

This presentation shares K-12 and post secondary Hawaii educators’ perspectives on grounding earth science learning in ancestral texts, learning in place at culturally and geologically significant sites, learning from cultural practitioners, and learning from the language itself. Our work both in Hawaiian language and English suggests this approach is engaging, personally meaningful, and leads to deeper, connected earning of educators and their Native Hawaiian and local students who do not see themselves in the science stories, places, and practices of mainstream earth science texts.