Huakaʻi nui, huakaʻi ʻiki: Transformative journeys on ʻāina and in ourselves

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

Abstract

In Hawaiʻi, health and wellbeing are intimately intertwined with the health and wellbeing of ʻāina (land). When ʻāina thrives, kānaka (humans) thrive. Colonization, displacement, historical and cultural trauma has temporarily separated this connection. The process of re-connecting to Hawaiʻi lifeways, ʻāina, history, culture and practices are vital to community and individual learning and wellbeing. The huakaʻi (journey) process, creates opportunities for deep inquisitions, connections, pilina (reciprocal relationships), transformation, shifting narratives and values. As we ask students to embark on their educational journey, we must center the opportunity for our own huakaʻi nui (big journeys) and huakaʻi ʻiki (small journeys) to a more aloha-centered, liberated and ea-filled (sovereign) schools, learning environments, homes and communities.

Authors

• Dawn Rego-Yee, Ceeds of Peace

• Kekoa Rosehill, Hālau ʻŌhiʻa