Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 33, Number 4, 1 ʻApelila 2016 — Cultivating abundance in Kalihi [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Cultivating abundance in Kalihi

OHA gnantee aims at nestoning the health of the Kalihi ahupua'a anel the people who live thene

ByTreenaShapiro At Ho'oulu 'Āina, a 100acre nature preserve tucked into the back Kalihi Valley, everything has a purpose. A mangrove tree that's suffocating a fishpond might interfere with restoration efforts, but onee removed its wood ean be sanded smooth and used to erect a hale. Feral pigs could be protein, but when penned, they also help to enrich the soil using natural farming techniques. Even a broken poi pounder has a plaee, adding its mana to a pā pōhaku (rock wall) constructed using traditional techniques. Using knowledge passed down from the kūpuna, a handful of employees and thousands of volun-

teers are working together to restore the health of the ahupua'a and the people who live there through la'au lapa'au (herbal medicine), native agroforestry and native food systems. Their goal is to create eollective, generational abundance. "For us, 'āina sustainability is not just the physicality of the 'āina. It's also the leadership capacity of the lāhui to mālama that 'āina," said Puni Jackson, program manager at Ho'oulu 'Āina. A program of Kōkua Kalihi Valley, Ho'oulu 'Āina is envisioned as a welcoming plaee of refuge where revitalizing the 'āina could have positive heahh results for those sharing in the labor. Dr. David Derauf, a physician at Kokua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services and executive director of Ho'oulu 'Āina, conceived of the idea after discovering that the word exercise didn't translate into some patients' native languages. "Farming" was a word they could understand, however, so when Derauf learned that his patient Mary Rose McClellan had been trying to secure the 100-acre property for community

'āina, he saw a way to help those who needed the 'āina to be healthy, Jackson explained. "Some of those formative stories talk about the importance of exercise to heahh and the importance of land to exercise and the cultural relevance of farming as exercise and healthy food production to physieal heahh," Jackson said. "What we found is that the physical heahh of an individual from a cultural eontext is not necessarily as motivating or as important as lāhui heahh and so that is heahh of the land and the vibrance of a person's soul when they're able to provide food for their family in some way." Mueh of the knowledge shared at Ho'oulu 'Āina comes fromkūpuna who have passed — 'ike many of the younger staff and students didn't have access to growing up. "One of the very powerful outcomes of OHA's support for us is to invest in the leadership capacity for this next generation, to perpetuate 'ike kūpuna. You cannot do that just in a classroom. You need to be in the soil," Jackson said, describing how learners keep repeating tasks until they get them right. "Restoring that generational knowledge means restoring that connection to 'āina," she said. Mueh of the 'ike is imparted by Ho'oulu 'Āina's youth coordinators, who Jackson describes as awesome, dynamic, loving uncles

who have knowledge and aloha to pass on. "They're not just preaching," said Jackson. "I love that their 'ike lives in their hands." One of these nurturing uncles is Scotty Garlough, who has been working at Ho'oulu 'Āina for the past five years. "This was the job that gave me halanee," he said, sitting on a heneh in a hale he helped build. "I was a water person - fishing, diving, playing in the water, surfing in the water, harvesting from the oeean. I knew the oeean and this is what was teaching me the land," he said. Now he passes on what he's learned to young people who are taught how to build rock walls without cement or how to lash branches together to build hale. Tapping the wood of Ho'oulu 'Āina's hale, he notes, "This is mangrove. This is what is suffocating our fishponds. To be able to take that out of the fishpond and make a beautiful hale, the kids that eome, this is exactly what we're teaching them. It doesn't matter what happened in the past or what you are going to be in the future. Everybody has a purpose. Even the invasives have a purpose. They create oxygen." Community members are encouraged to eome to Ho'oulu 'Āina and, in fact, are part of the reserve's reason for being. On community workdays, 100 to 200 volunteers might be swinging machetes, pulling weeds, harvesting produce or participating in an art activity. "It depends. Whatever the 'āina needs is what we're going to do," Jackson said. She points out that many of

the medicinal plants grow near the parking lot so kūpuna don't have to hike too far to get to them. While most of the volunteers are working in the forest or garden, a group stays back in the food production area, using the harvest to prepare a meal for 200. The week's harvest might include taro, cassava, hanana, yams, breadfruit, papaya, kale, chard or ehili peppers. There's enough for everyone and when the day is over, everyone is encouraged to take away bags of food to bring to kūpuna. There's a lot of focus on sharing, Jackson pointed out. "You cannot buy it but you ean take it and you ean donate to how it eame to be," she said. "Those donations ean be in the form of kālā or hana or buckets or shovels or community booths. We recently got a great set of diesel meehanie tools." Garlough said this sharing is passing on true weahh. "Just feel this plaee. Look at what we do. We no more money, we're a nonprofit. But we have true weahh. We have community members coming to piek medicine, to piek food, to pass on their knowledge, to learn our knowledge," he said. "We're building our community." By looking to the past, Ho'oulu 'Āina ean build a better future. Jackson said, "Onee we start to heal our desires to get the most for the least investment, then I think we ean, as a lāhui, start to create generational abundance, whieh is the direct outcome of practicing the 'ike kūpuna." For more information, visit www.hoouluaina.com. ■

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OHA GRANTEE SPOTLIGHT

"For us, 'āina sustainability is not just the physicality ofthe 'āina.It's also the leadership capacity of the lāhui to mālamathat 'āina."

— Puni Ja,ckson Program Manager Ho'oulu 'Āina

Photos: Ka'ohua Lucas