Abstract
Aloha ‘āina is at the core of a Hawaiian belief system that has guided Native Hawaiians to live sustainably with their natural environment for generations. However, 125 years of the illegal occupation of Hawai‘i by the USA has led to an intentional drift away from aloha ‘āina. Today, the University of Hawai‘i, the only public system of higher education in Hawai‘i, can have a great role in reintegrating aloha ‘āina into not only the academy but also the community for reasons of both social and environmental justices. This chapter looks at core tenets of as well as pathways to aloha ‘āina in the academy and ultimately for our communities. The University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM) is predominantly non-Hawaiian by every definition. At the same time, it is situated upon and reaps the resources from the Native Hawaiian land and natural resources: ancestors of the Native Hawaiian people. Therefore, while UHM has been predominantly non-Hawaiian for its 110-year history, the foundation upon which it sits and the ancestral memory that surrounds it along with the Native Hawaiian people who continue to work for social justice in their homeland have the potential to transform UHM into a Hawaiian place of learning. This chapter will explore how this is possible using core Native Hawaiian concepts, values, and practices. Because Hawai‘i is an unrecognized nation that suffered from an illegal occupation in the late 1800s, the belief system that survived for thousands of years has been heavily influenced by outside power systems and settler colonialism. The university represents a Western canon of belief systems and relegates Native Hawaiian epistemologies to a second-class status. This chapter outlines the history of knowledge and the role of the university and reimagines higher education rooted in the belief systems of the first peoples of these pacific islands.
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Notes
- 1.
Incest in traditional Hawaiian society is a practice reserved for the gods and high chiefs termed nī‘aupi‘o. This was a practice to preserve the high-ranking genealogies (Kame‘eleihiwa, 1992).
- 2.
This is the Hawai‘i Island version of the story.
- 3.
It might seem surprising that UHM has such a Hawaiian-focused goal, given that we just described UH as being founded off a western higher education model. There has been a concerted effort over the last 30 years to make UHM more Hawaiian. For more information, refer to:
Lipe, K. (2014). Aloha as fearlessness: Lessons from the mo‘olelo of eight Native Hawaiian female educational leaders on transforming the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa into a Hawaiian place of learning (Doctoral dissertation). University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.
- 4.
Hawaiians are approximately 25% of the general population. Parity between the state population and representation in higher education is an important focus of the work by some at UH Mānoa toward social justice.
- 5.
‘Ōiwi: Indigenous, and in this context, Indigenous Hawaiian.
- 6.
Ahupua‘a: Native Hawaiian land section usually extending from mountain to sea that was divided as such for proper management of natural resources.
- 7.
Moku: Native Hawaiian land section encompassing many ahupua‘a.
- 8.
Mokupuni: island.
- 9.
‘Ili: a smaller section of land within an ahupua‘a.
- 10.
East-West Center: a fellowship program bringing together emerging scholars from both the east and the west. For more info visit https://www.eastwestcenter.org
- 11.
Haumāna: students.
- 12.
‘Ōlelo Ha wai‘i: Hawaiian language.
- 13.
Mālama: to care for.
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Lipe, K., Ryan, T.K. (2019). Reimagining for Our Children: Aloha ‘āina in Higher Education. In: Jun, A., Collins, C. (eds) Higher Education and Belief Systems in the Asia Pacific Region. Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects, vol 49. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6532-4_9
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