Kūkulu Ea: Indigenous Research Tools for Rebuilding More Sovereign Futures

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Unforgetting Histories and Imagining Futures: Indigenous Narratives in Education Research

Abstract

One living waihona (repository) to which many Kanaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) researchers are instinctively turning in their quest to unearth our Indigenous research tools and epistemologies is our traditional cultural practices. This presentation highlights a recent groundswell of Native Hawaiian graduate students who also serve as cultural practitioners of mahi ʻai kalo (taro farming), uhau humu pōhaku (Hawaiian rock wall building), hula and mele (Hawaiian dance and chant), and lei hulu manu (Hawaiian feather lei making). I reflect on how these scholars are drawing upon the traditional wisdom and epistemologies embedded in these cultural practices and art forms to guide their research methodologies at various stages of the research process.

Author

• Julie L. Kaomea, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa