He lei poina ʻole ke keiki: Weaving pilina, connections and aloha

• In Event: I ulu no ka lālā i ke kumu: Grounded histories, growing thriving communities, schools and families.

Abstract

Purpose: This Hawaiian ʻōlelo noʻeau (wise saying) talks about “A lei never forgotten is the beloved child” (ʻŌlelo Noʻeau #740) and speaks of how beloved and cherished our children are in society, never to be forgotten. Families, schools and communities actively juggle multiple needs and tough choices of time and resources. Drive through interactions have become the norm since COVID-19 where engagement is sometimes seen as a one-way interface rather than true exchange. Genuine community and family engagement must center ʻāina (land, place-based), people and activation. Community schools that are culturally and historically grounded have the opportunity to transform communities as a living, breathing modern-day ahupuaʻa (land-based management system) weaving together a lei of co-creation, support and activation.
Ahupuaʻa Framework: Drawing from scholarship on community schools, place-based learning and ʻike kūpuna (ancestral knowledge) of Hawaiʻi, this paper provides a conceptual framework that braids together and form the foundation from which we center community, school and ʻohana (family) voice through the foundation of pilina (reciprocal and sustained relationships) and aloha (love, accountability). By uplifting the practice of ahupuaʻa, historical land divisions, from the ocean to the mountain, stewards intentional resource management that allowed societies to connect, utilize resources and thrive.
The paper presents three major concepts and insights following the imagery of lei (garland made of flower, leaves, shells or other materials):
Community schools in Hawaiʻi believe in the gifts and superpowers of all to contribute and co-create the lei of support,
Center the work on pilina (reciprocal relationships) and aloha (love, accountability) to honor the importance of centering relationships and genuine connections to wrap a lei of support around the students, families and community,
Uplift ancestral abundance and traditional resource management model of ahupuaʻa to recognize interconnectedness between ʻāina (land), community and each other,
To receive a gift of a lei is to honor the story and journey taken. It recognizes individual and collective contributions in creating a culturally-centered network of support who actively contributes to the vision and action of a community.
Scholarly Significance: He lei poina ʻole ke keiki: Weaving pilina, connections and aloha seeks to center Native Hawaiian values and lifeways to weave a lei of support around schools, families and students. It will center time-honored practice of ahuapuaʻa, resource and community-based management to center the interconnectedness and interdependence between us all. It is shifting colonial systems of survival to mutually-beneficial, relationship exchanges where community is connected, resourced and responsive. It honors the gifts and superpowers within all of us and provides the space and opportunity to co-create an equitable, liberated and ea-filled (sovereign) future for students, families, schools and communities filled with pilina, abundance and aloha.

Author

• Dawn Rego-Yee, Ceeds of Peace