Hawaiʻi B-WET

Indigenous Knowledge

Students face the ahupuaʻa or watershed in their community with their hands up in offering. — Students build pilina (relationships) with the community and ʻāina (land) as part of their Hawaiʻi B-WET project. Credit: Pacific American Foundation

Native Hawaiians are well-known for their integrated and sustainable resource management practices, along with their ability to perpetuate environmental and cultural values from generation to generation. Hawaiian culture is founded on keen observations of earth’s processes and applying that knowledge to shape sustainable practices that support ʻĀina Momona (fertile land). Intimate knowledge and expertise of the local environment and observing changes over time allowed Native Hawaiians to thrive through sustainable relationships with finite resources, supporting a population of nearly one million Hawaiians prior to European contact. Native Hawaiian worldview recognizes humans as part of a genealogical connection to the environment, not as a separate entity.

The Hawaiʻi B-WET program seeks applications for projects that provide opportunities for students and educators to immerse in Indigenous, local, and traditional knowledge (e.g. ecological, social, and historical). These projects will use Indigenous knowledge as the foundation of program design, structure, content, and implementation. Projects should clearly state how these foundations are supplemented within a Western science framework and should include an explanation of how science, technology, engineering, math, and science tools will be incorporated. The goal is to teach science that aligns with their Indigenous knowledge, which may also include, but not limited to, the use of the Indigenous language.

Students looking at the Ulu Mālama terrace farm at Haleaha — Students visit Ulu Mālama Terrace Farm, where sustainable farming has been practiced for centuries. Credit: Waikōloa Dry Forest Initiative

Projects should support systemic and structural changes in education programs by creating quality Indigenous knowledge frameworks as models that can be generalized and implemented across the state. Examples of project deliverables as resources or curricula that support the use of Indigenous knowledge could include, but are not limited to:

a MWEE framework that is based on Indigenous knowledge and methodologies;
creating then implementing a Hawaiian pedagogy; and/or
designing a holistic evaluation inclusive of cultural perspectives.

Cultural knowledge and understanding should be incorporated into the K-12 student educational experiences or teacher professional development to enhance the participants' interaction and connection with their environment. Program pedagogy and methodology will include a detailed description of the cultural practices and processes that are incorporated into the lesson plans for students and/or teachers, as well as the appropriate education standards.

Reciprocity in pilina (relationship) to ʻāina (land) was premised on caring for ʻāina in the way that it cares for you. Today’s conservation challenges require multi-disciplinary solutions that weave multiple knowledge systems supporting ʻĀina Momona.

Ahupuaʻa management includes:

Engagement with local community partners who are active contributors to the social, cultural, biological, and spiritual components of biocultural stewardship in Hawaiʻi.
Long-term community partnerships that include a multi-generational vision of biocultural stewardship of the ʻāina.
Provides opportunities to promote diverse community engagement, especially with Native Hawaiian organizations that are actively involved in place-based knowledge, to take an active part in decisions about the management of the ahupuaʻa to support community resilience. Part of community resilience is balancing the use of environmental resources with social and economic needs, assessing research needs, integrating earth sciences, and developing solutions for land-use planning and coastal hazard resiliency.
Long-term community partnerships provide a powerful example and management mechanism to integrate earth sciences and community resilience to hazards in contemporary land-use planning, which also assists with decision-making processes.