Wisdom Maps: Metaphors as Maps

• In Event: Indigenous Language and Cultural Revitalization in Diverse Democracies

Abstract

Kānaka (Native Hawaiians), like other indigenous peoples who have resided on the same kulāiwi (ancestral lands) for thousands of years, have developed strong connections to and understandings of our places. Through environmental kinship practices, we “map” our places on the landscape and the oceanscape via “wisdom maps” in the form of dances, songs, riddles, spoken words, salutations, and other cultural practices.
This paper reveals the undeniable tension between Kanaka practices and western maps and focuses on the Kanaka experience of locating ourselves relative to our place on the landscape via Hawaiian language with a particular emphasis on figurative language. It also demonstrates how the language may be used to frame Kanaka worldviews and inscribe places with meaning.

Author

• Katrina-Ann R. Kapā‘anaokalāokeola Oliveira, University of Hawaii - Manoa