Calling Back the Treasured Moʻolelo From the Past to Transform the Pedagogy of the Present

• In Event: Accepting Educational Responsibility: The Importance of Indigenous Research and Praxis 1

Abstract

In the Hawaiian tradition, a blooming plant, ̒a ̒ ali ̒ i has been used as a metaphor in ‘ōleo ‘na eau (Hawaiian proverbs) to model strength, resiliency, and flexibility of wahine (women) because this plant can survive challenging environments and elemental forces and bloom to become a beautiful and a useful resource. In contemporary Hawai‘i, kānaka (native) wahine have become this beautiful resource. By strengthening the ties of sovereignty within the Hawaiian Islands, the wahine are teaching the youth new ways to engage in schools and communities to transform their education through cultures of home, Indigenous, local, and global encouraging growth from within empowering families, students and teachers to become producers of knowledge and agents of social change.

Author

• Renuka Mahari de Silva, University of North Dakota