Mānoa 'āina momona: Higher Education Models of Transformation and Leadership From the Land Herself

• In Event: 42.071 - Achieving the Promise for Indigenous Peoples: Research on Transforming Systems of Education

Abstract

The University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM) seeks to become a Hawaiian place of learning yet has been informed by western models of education for nearly all of its century-long existence. Further, current models of organizational transformation in higher education are nearly all authored non-Indigenous/Hawaiians, focused on non-Indigenous/Hawaiian institutions, and utilize non-Indigenous/Hawaiian worldviews. To gain a better understanding of what a “Hawaiian place of learning” can look and feel like from a Hawaiian worldview, I – a Native Hawaiian researcher and educator – turned to the original Hawaiian place of learning right before my eyes, under my feet, and around me everyday when I attend work at UHM: the ‘āina (land, that which feeds and sustains) of Mānoa herself. I have read, chanted, sang, danced, spoken, and worked with various Mānoa resources in order to learn from the ‘āina and glean lessons from her. In this process, many things have become to clear to me about Mānoa valley that can be direct models for leadership, teaching, research, and service at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Perhaps most importantly, Mānoa teaches us about the reciprocal nourishing and caring that occurred in the valley when natural resources such as abundant sources of fresh water and rich soil made themselves available to Hawaiians who carefully and lovingly managed and cared for those resources across hundreds of acres and were able to produce kalo (taro, the staple food of the Hawaiian people) to feed the multitudes. Hence, this presentation will detail a process of learning from ‘āina through multiple Hawaiian ancestral knowledge systems, present lessons gleaned and applied to a higher education institution situated on Hawaiian land, and pose ideas and questions for consideration by others who wish to transform their institutions into Indigenous places of learning.

Author

• Kaiwipuni Lipe, University of Hawaii - Manoa