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I Kahiki ka ua, ako ʻē ka hale

While the rain is far away, thatch the house.
Hikianalia sunrise
A crewmember on the voyaging canoe Hikianalia reads the morning conditions preparing for the day up ahead.  PC: Ka'aleleo Wong

 

Native Hawaiians have long recognized that culture and tradition connect people, families, and the Native Hawaiian community to one another and to the lands, waters, and all environmental manifestations that encompass Hawaiʻinuiākea (the expanse of the Hawaiian archipelago). This understanding has created an important relationship with environmental nuances, processes, and changes, whether localized extreme weather events or larger climatic shifts.  Ancestral ingenuity and adaptation in the face of environmental change was memorialized within moʻokūʻauhau (genealogies), moʻolelo and kaʻao (traditions, histories, and stories –often referred to as Indigenous Knowledge).

This knowledge and understanding is demonstrated through traditional cultural practices over many generations, including, but not limited to: food cultivation, the arts, science and observation, voyaging and celestial navigation, language, religion, family care, health and medicine, natural resource conservation, and site preservation.  These types of practices connect Native Hawaiians to the natural, physical, and spiritual environment in a manner that requires attention to change and the ability to respond, adapt, and evolve as necessary and appropriate to preserve the integrity of the Community at-large.

As the NHC stands on the front lines of climate impacts, the relationships and knowledge that are held as a collective are integral to achieving and sustaining resilience in the face of climate change.  As the late Dr. Noa Emmett Auwae Aluli, MD, once said,

“The health of our lands (ʻāina), is the health of our people (kānaka ʻōiwi), is the health of our nation (lāhui).”

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