Reawakening Hawaiian Heritage Through Place-Based Environmental Justice Weaving: Reviving Culture With Repurposed Agricultural Plastics

• In Event: A Radical, Rooted Curriculum for Climate Catastrophe: Resourcefulness, Regeneration, Connection, and Community

Abstract

Objective: This research engages an assessment of environmental quality, environmental justice, and environmental racism issues stemming from the use of agricultural plastics in primarily immigrant communities of color along the Central Coast of California. The researcher participated in the removal of agricultural plastics and restoration of a former farm property on a federally protected nursery habitat. The site has complex and multifaceted uses likened to an ahupua’a, or watershed determined by its natural gifts, human and nonhuman, and their relation to society.

Perspectives: Ecofeminism, environmental justice and environmental justice education, environmental racism, just sustainabilities, place pedagogy, arts-based educational research, and socially conscious and socially engaged art inform this work.

Methods & Evidence/Artifacts: The researcher used Arts-Based Education Research methods, creating weaves alone and curating collaborative weaves with adult environmental educator research participants. Her research included pre- and post-activity surveys, group interviews, personal research memoing, and first and second cycle qualitative coding. The modern-day lauhala-inspired weaves in Figures 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, and 4.5 are from reclaimed refuse agricultural plastic.

Results - Heritage Process Model: Hawaiian lauhala weaving is a cultural practice and art form at the piko (center/naval) of the traditional Hawaiian community. It is the fabric of everyday living, representing both utility and beauty. Hawaiians weave lau (leaf) from the hala tree into hats, bedding, clothing, signage, ship sails, and other textiles. The number of Hawaiian lauhala practitioners is decreasing due to several factors, including the proliferation of synthetic materials and systemic issues (e.g., land access, hala tree scarcity, and connection to kumu (teacher) master weavers to pass along cultural knowledge). While facilitating place-based research on desecrated agricultural land, the researcher explored environmental justice issues pertaining to farmers and immigrant communities. Harvesting discarded plastics, the researcher-turned-weaver shifted perspectives to include traditional knowledge to inform her regenerative practices. Her weavings connected past and present considerations of connection to land and heritage, environmental quality, and environmental justice, birthing a Heritage Process Model (Figure 4.6). The model is the culmination of her personal academic experience combined with restoration efforts and place based perspectives.

Significance: This research elucidated lessons from land about the importance of place in research and extracting rejected material from the land system. Plastic agricultural dripline takes a new life in artworking and teaching. The researcher interpreted the significance of unearthing the refuse, acting on behalf of land and the land’s sovereignty and freedom from the material. The act of weaving connects it back to traditional practices using natural material. This connecting of plastics and natural materials art reconnected the researcher with ahupua’a (watershed/jurisdiction, inclusive) and malama ‘aina (care for the land). Ongoing educational work with students in Pajaro and Salinas Valley incorporates agricultural plastics and weaving as a learning model. The materials and the process of weaving provide conversational openings to explore issues of colonialism, environmental justice, environmental racism, the varied traditional forms of weaving across cultures (e.g., Hawaiian and Oaxacan), and the creation of regenerative collaborative artwork and writing.

Author

• Amanda Rachel Kippen, Prescott College