\nStories of adversity and hope\n\n[[Hawaiian]]\n\n[[Yorta Yorta]]\n\n[[Maori]]\n\n[[Heiltsuk]]
\nFor a thousand years, Hawaiian culture and nature have been interdependent upon one another. The Hawaiian way of knowing is inextricably related to a familial connection to the life of the land, oceans, forests, and waters of Hawaii and other Pacific Islands. When our Hawaiian monarchy was illegallly overthrown and our were lands stolen, part of our bio-cultural connection was lost, locked away under the control of a foreign state. The faliure of western conservation agencies to meaningfully consult with local people and incorporate local knowledge into protected area design has resulted in policies incongruent with the values of our people.....\n\nWe Cannot change what has happened in the past... but we can resist, we can protest, we can preserve our Hawaiian identity through self determination as a community. We can come together as a community at the grassroots level - to protect and sustain our biocultural connection to Hawaii for generations to come. \n\nHere are two examples of where communities are coming together to take responsibilty for the life of the land and oceans. \n\n\n[[Mauka]] Mountains \n\n[[Makai]] Oceans
Eco-imperialism refers to the [[forceful imposition of Western environmentalist views]] on indigenous nations. \n\n
Keli’i Alapa’i, a 57-year-old Haena resident and lifelong fisherman, was taught at a young age to respect and care for Kauai’s natural resources.\n \n“It’s a way of living,” he said.\n\nAnd if you do that, he said, the land and ocean will provide for and take care of you in return. \n\nToday, that way of life has been lost, Alapa’i said. The ocean has been overfished, and its resources have been overused and exploited.\n\nA subsistence fishery area, however, could be right around the corner for the North Shore community of Haena. Alapa’i views it as an attempt to return things to the way they were in the old \n\ndays — before things got “out of hand.”\n\nPresley Wann, president of the Hui Maka’ainana o Makana, said Haena’s pursuit of a designation and co-management relationship, one that will allow the community to address overfishing, started almost 20 years ago.\n\n“It’s been a long time coming,” he said. \n\n[[Mauka]]\nBack to [[forceful imposition of Western environmentalist views]] on indigenous peoples
Indigenous Peer to Peer Exchange
First Nations
The leadership of local indigenous communities in the design and implementation of place based conservation plans can offer novel and practical perspectives on the direction of scientific inquiry and the development of socially sustainable conservation policies (Alaback 2012). \n\nThe Aina mauna demonstration project is a proposal to use a 1600 acre representative sample of degraded pasture on Hawaiian home lands in Humu’ula Hawaii to serve as a model system where beneficiaries of Hawaiian Home Lands (BHHL) are empowered to partner their local values and traditional ways of knowing with the tools of scientific inquiry to address pressing conservation problems in the region. Through an iterative process of community meetings and working groups, BHHL have come to define a vision for Humu’ula that uniquely interconnects the elements of research, restoration and recreation to conserve the biological and cultural heritage of the area.\n\n The key issue in Humu’ula revolves around its large populations of unmanaged sheep. BHHL recognize the threat sheep pose to native ecosystems but because sheep, are valued for food and contemporary hunting traditions there is a need to find balance between goals for restoration and hunting in Humu’ula. We propose an experiment using sheep populations in fenced units at Humu’ula to examine the effect of varying the intensity and duration of grazing on measures of plant cover and composition as well as, site hydrologic properties. This work will enable greater understanding about the capacity of targeted sheep grazing to limit invasive species and reduce fire fuels in Hawai’i. Taken together, the Aina mauna demonstration model will provide new insights about ways in which human and natural systems may interconnect and adapt to restore and sustain biological and cultural resources.\n\n[[Makai]]\n\nBack to [[forceful imposition of Western environmentalist views]] on indigenous peoples