Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 21, Number 11, 1 November 2004 — Ka ‘Aha Pono conference explores ways to preserve Hawaiian cultural legacy [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Ka ‘Aha Pono conference explores ways to preserve Hawaiian cultural legacy

By Sterling Kini Wong Kalei Bajo's knowledge of cultivating kalo is hundreds of years old, having been passed down to him from one generation of Hawaiian farmer to the next. Kalo, the staple of the traditional Hawaiian diet, was so important to the culture that according to oral

histories the first kalo was the son of gods and the elder sibling of the first Hawaiian. But Bajo, speaking at the second annual Ka 'Aha Pono ("righteous gathering") conference, said that being a kalo farmer today ean be a struggle, with few financial rewards. "It's hard," he said. "Sometimes I just like I give up and let the I weeds in the lo'i (kalo patch) grow." Several stories similar to Bajo's, of Hawaiians trying to uphold their responsibility to preserve traditional practices, were shared at the Ka 'Aha Pono conference, put on last month by the 'īlio'ulaokalani Coalition and a group of Native Hawaiian students in the William S. Richardson Law School at UH Mānoa. While last year's conference focused on understanding how traditional knowledge ean be legally stolen through the use of Western intellectual I property laws such as I copyrights, trademarks I and patents, this year's I conference explored

methods of protecting cultural practices in order to leave a legacy for future generations of Hawaiians.

Former OHA trustee and Native Hawaiian rights attorney Mililani Trask said that on the front line of preserving that legacy are the practitioners, who ean teach the next generation first hand. She said that of all the ways traditional knowledge ean be taught - such as through reading books and watching videos - the only way to truly perpetuate a practice is through doing it. "The cataloging of our traditional knowledge is nothing more than just that," she said. "The knowledge itself is maintained in the practice. You ean talk about fishing, but that is not the way to learn it. You have to do it." She also talked about how important maintaining the environment is for the survival of the Hawaiian culture. "If the sea is polluted and the stream is dry, and if [Hawaiians] cannot gather what we

need medicinally or otherwise, our traditional knowledge and the application of it will pass," she said. Trask said that with millions of native people around the world fighting similar battles with Western laws, Hawaiians need to remember that they are not alone in this struggle. Three indigenous speakers from the Pacific region and North America were

brought to the conferenee to share what their people have gone through. One of them, Dr. Leonie Pihama, the director of a school in New Zealand that is dedicated to Maori studies, explained the exchange that happens between the cultural practitioners and native activists in her homeland. She said that activists get emotionally and physically drained after they fight for native rights in the courts and in the government. So when they eome home, she said, the cultural practitioners take them in and rejuvenate them. Several participants at the conference said Hawaiians need a plaee where a similar exchange system - one involving ho'oponopono, the Hawaiian practice of making things right - could happen. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs was suggested as one possible plaee. Another issue raised at the conference was how community representatives appointed to 1 boards that review

research projects ean inform the community about what those projects are doing to and for Hawaiians. It was

recommended that guidelines be set, and that community groups engage the different levels of people involved in the projects, including their funding sources, to educate them about the concerns of the Hawaiian people. The theme of the conference was captured by Bajo, whose speech drew many teary eyes from the audience. In his speech, he said that he has to work hard to pay the lease on his Waialua farm on O'ahu, and that his family makes numerous sacrifices for their lifestyle. He said, however, that no matter how overwhelming his responsibility as a Hawaiian may seem, he is determined to "never give up the pono (what is right)." For more information on Ka 'Aha Pono, eaU 845-4652, or visit ilio.org. ■

Cultural practices such as eanoe building, tattooing and kalo farming were the subject of last month's Ka 'Aha Pono conference.