Aloha nui kakou,
Palena ole ka mahalo ia oukou for your presence, kokua, and kakoo last night. Great evening of inspiring conversation, relationship building, and connecting with our community. So awesome to see a room full of people on a work night talking story about how we can work together to restore aina and identity to Kailua as well as ensure that Hikaʻalani's name will always be remembered but her fear of being the last Kanaka with knowledge of her people and place will never come to pass. Pā nō ka naʻau!
Kaleo and I spent the rest of the night talking about all the cool ideas we heard as well as the manaʻo that kupu-ed inside us just from listening to others. And it got us thinking, you folks probably went home with some overall impressions as well as some specific things that resonated. So, if you folks have a moment in the next few days, please email us any manaʻo that stuck with you or overall themes that might have stood out to you as you were facilitating, take-notes, walking around and listening to the small group discussions, or talking story with attendees afterwards.
For me, some of the big take aways from listening to the people in my group were:
--partnering is super important--with other non-profits, cultural practitioners, teachers, schools, because we all bring our own ike, relationships, skills that when put together can create great opportunities
--there are more opportunities for younger kids (elementary age) to engage in culturally grounded, aina-based learning but very few opportunities for middle and high school aged kids.
--intergenerational learning, opportunities for families to learn together
--everyone benefits from culturally grounded, aina-based learning--Hawaiians, non-Hawaiians, kids, parents, teachers, etc.
--Anuenue Punua: "create the ono, increase the ono", "if you feed them, they will come", we need to create the ono in our kids for this kind of food, work, learning; if we create the ono they will be ono for more
--MAIN NEED: they could list a lot of great aina-based programs in our neighboring ahupuaa of Waimanalo, Kaneohe, Heeia (Hui Malama o ke kai, Malama Honua Charter School, Kamakau, Paepae o Heeia, Kakoo Oiwi, Papahana Kuaola) but none they could really think of in Kailua except for Halau Mohala Ilima. So there is definitely a need that they identified that Hikaalani can address. :)
There were definitely more but these are the ones that stand out the most right now.
ke aloha nui,
Maya Saffery
Palena ole ka mahalo ia oukou for your presence, kokua, and kakoo last night. Great evening of inspiring conversation, relationship building, and connecting with our community. So awesome to see a room full of people on a work night talking story about how we can work together to restore aina and identity to Kailua as well as ensure that Hikaʻalani's name will always be remembered but her fear of being the last Kanaka with knowledge of her people and place will never come to pass. Pā nō ka naʻau!
Kaleo and I spent the rest of the night talking about all the cool ideas we heard as well as the manaʻo that kupu-ed inside us just from listening to others. And it got us thinking, you folks probably went home with some overall impressions as well as some specific things that resonated. So, if you folks have a moment in the next few days, please email us any manaʻo that stuck with you or overall themes that might have stood out to you as you were facilitating, take-notes, walking around and listening to the small group discussions, or talking story with attendees afterwards.
For me, some of the big take aways from listening to the people in my group were:
--partnering is super important--with other non-profits, cultural practitioners, teachers, schools, because we all bring our own ike, relationships, skills that when put together can create great opportunities
--there are more opportunities for younger kids (elementary age) to engage in culturally grounded, aina-based learning but very few opportunities for middle and high school aged kids.
--intergenerational learning, opportunities for families to learn together
--everyone benefits from culturally grounded, aina-based learning--Hawaiians, non-Hawaiians, kids, parents, teachers, etc.
--Anuenue Punua: "create the ono, increase the ono", "if you feed them, they will come", we need to create the ono in our kids for this kind of food, work, learning; if we create the ono they will be ono for more
--MAIN NEED: they could list a lot of great aina-based programs in our neighboring ahupuaa of Waimanalo, Kaneohe, Heeia (Hui Malama o ke kai, Malama Honua Charter School, Kamakau, Paepae o Heeia, Kakoo Oiwi, Papahana Kuaola) but none they could really think of in Kailua except for Halau Mohala Ilima. So there is definitely a need that they identified that Hikaalani can address. :)
There were definitely more but these are the ones that stand out the most right now.
ke aloha nui,
Maya Saffery
