Returning the Conscience to Science through the Rising Voices, Changing Coasts Network
(author’s note: Hawaiian terms are used throughout this account. Rather than interrupt the narrative to define each of them, I invite you to explore this Hawaiian language dictionary as needed so you can fully appreciate the beauty and depth of the Hawaiian language, particularly where nature and values are involved.)
When Hui Aloha Kīholo was invited to join the Rising Voices, Changing Coasts (RVCC) Hawaiʻi Hub last year, it seemed too good to be true. We were offered 3 years of funding - through a National Science Foundation grant managed by Haskell Indian Nations University - to cover the cost of a full-time Education position and once more convene our Hoʻomoana I Kīholo Lawaiʻa Pono camp annually over the next 3 years. I immediately remembered our Cultural Director and co-founder Kuʻulei Keakealani’s dream of an Ahupuaʻa Coordinator position to connect our work focused at Kīholo Bay to all the lands and waters that feed Kīholo State Park, including the mauka lands of Puʻuanahulu and Puʻuwaʻawaʻa Ahupuaʻa. What was the catch, I wondered?
I brought this offer to our Operations Team, and we agreed it seemed too good to be true. Surely there must be some hidden catch. Tentatively, we extended our hands and hearts and were welcomed into this community, but we hesitated to fully commit until we knew more about the catch.
And there was a catch, or so it seemed at the time. We would need to expand our thinking to participate in a network of indigenous coastal community stewards from the Gulf of Alaska, the Louisiana Delta, and the Coral Coast of Puerto Rico. We would need to find new ways to think about and share our work through media and participation in convenings of these new partners, adding our important perspective and experience to the greater effort. We would need to patiently guide scientific researchers toward asking questions and conducting studies that honor ʻike kūpuna, ʻike ʻāina, and ʻike kākou. We would need to learn a new financial system to get reimbursed for our expenses. We would need to travel by air and ground to unfamiliar places and sit in unfamiliar spaces far from the lands and waters that shape us.
Because one of our core organizational values is haʻahaʻa, humbly and quietly caring for and sharing place without being proud or boastful, I wondered how this was going to work. I was concerned about possible workload impacts to our team. I was worried about creating unrealistic expectations.
Fortunately, our partners at the Olohana Foundation held my hand and guided our Hui Aloha into the place at the table they had prepared for us. Olohana, led by Kahu Kalani Souza in Ka ʻOhe ahupuaʻa, encouraged us to be confident in the lessons we have already learned over the past 17 years through our research partnerships, good and bad, was vital ʻike for the RVCC Hui. They reminded us that ʻike kūpuna spans a time scale no modern researcher can match and is a dataset unknown and unconsidered in current scientific inquiry. They showed me how their own experience with community empowerment, food security, and social resilience complemented our approach and introduced new opportunities for us to collaborate to the benefit of both organizations. And they proposed some questions we might be able to answer through RVCC.
Questions like, what if we could ensure that researchers approach community and ʻāina with proper respect, protocol, reverence, and curiosity? What if we could protect multi-generational ʻike kūpuna so that nothing was shared publicly without enthusiastic consent? What if we could ask questions about current and future conditions to drive research that could improve our shared resilience to the severe weather events in our inevitable future without sacrificing our deep connections to place? Could we plan better? Could we improve the quality of research? Could we better accomplish our organizational objectives? Above all, what if we could collaborate to ensure our children were fed, our elders were comfortable, and our community was safe and prepared for the future? What if?
In the spirit of answering some of those questions, in early 2025, our organizations co-hosted four visiting researchers from the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF, NCAR). For a week, we shared food, questions, answers, dreams, challenges, and opportunities freely. Our NCAR guests contributed to hana at Kīholo, gathering pōhaku hakahaka at low tide to strengthen the walls of Ka Loko o Kīholo. Together, we potted native seedlings to outplant in the forest of Puʻuwaʻawaʻa, a vital source of wai for Kīholo Bay. We met with Kīholo’s partners who make our efforts possible and had lively conversations about the future of our ahupuaʻa, moku, moku nui, and pae ʻāina. At the end of the trip, we said an emotional Aloha to the new members of our ʻohana who travelled back to Boulder, Colorado to ruminate on the lessons Hawaiʻi had taught.
On monthly “All Hands” (aka Olohana) calls, we heard from cousins in Alaska, Louisiana, and Puerto Rico about the struggles and successes there. We heard from elders about how our values must inform our approach to convergence science. We heard from partner researchers about what they were learning and co-developing with community. And we heard about the challenges related to federal funding, language, and the identity of indigenous peoples and ʻāina that operate on rules quite separate from those of the United States government.
We put out the kāhea to our team to see who would be eager to travel to Lawrence, Kansas for the annual RVCC meeting and I heard plenty of hesitation. It is not easy for us to leave home under the best of circumstances, and life events do not adhere to meeting calendars. Ultimately, I was decided that Max Irion from our Hoa ʻĀina team would join me as Hui Aloha scouts to participate, get the lay of the land, and report back to the team.
Maraya Ben-Joseph from Olohana made this easy by working with Haskell’s Financial team to purchase our plane tickets, book our room reservations, and reserve a rental car (which turned out to be a Toyota Sienna hybrid that used less than 6 gallons of gas to drive from Kansas City to Lawrence, from our hotel to campus and town several times, and back to Kansas City). This trip was fully sponsored by Haskell Indian Nations University through the NSF grant, allowing us to keep our own funding for other essential Kīholo travel this year.
As we flew from San Francisco to Kansas City on our connecting flight, I was amazed at the views of snow-capped mountains, distant forests, crystal clear blue lakes, desert valleys, stark cliffs, and deep canyons far below us. Occasionally, another commercial airliner would pass by and the combined speeds of our two vessels moving in opposite directions was amazing to see. I grabbed a nap somewhere over Colorado and woke up in the middle of Kansas. The stark western landscape had transformed. Now, huge square open fields within a grid of grey highways stretched out to the horizon. An occasional small hill created tiny ripples that could only be seen on the roads in that otherwise flat expanse. This foreign landscape was disconcerting until clumps and then forests of trees began to emerge and the fields yielded to green treetops. Then the Missouri River appeared, brown as the bark of a kiawe tree, and we descended to the modern new airport in Kansas City.
With help from Google Maps, we made our way to Lawrence, with a short detour to a chain restaurant from Wisconsin called Culver’s for some pretzel bites, burgers, sourdough melts, and a milkshake. We noted, but did not have the desire to try, the curds on the menu. At our hotel, we were greeted by the other members of the Hawaiʻi Hub. Our fearless lead coordinator, Kainoa Azama; elders Dr. Failatuis Aveglio (Doc Tusi) and Ramsay Taum; Hawaiʻi-based Lomikai media team Chris Shaeffer and Zethan Barrios, and Olohana partner Kapiolani Laronal.
Together we walked to the adjacent Mexican restaurant and met up with Chiefs from Louisiana who were staying in the same hotel. The Alaska contingent was delayed by flights, and would join us the next day while the Puerto Rico folks were meeting elsewhere to prepare for the next 3 days of meetings at Haskell. From the jump, the sharing flowed freely. I learned of an imminent journey of a hand-carved full-size Koholā from the forests of the Pacific Northwest to Hawaiʻi where master carvers from the Pacific would adorn her with images of the plankton that create over 50% of the air we humans breathe and shared that Kīholo is a birthplace, nursery, and gathering place for Koholā during Winter in the northern hemisphere. After a huge meal of fine Mexican chimichangas, I stumbled back to the hotel and fell into a deep sleep.
When my alarm went off at 6:30 AM, I was not excited. After all, it was only 1:30 AM in Hawaiʻi and sleep was fitful on the flight that had departed Keahole, Kona at 11:30 PM the day before. Somehow I struggled down to breakfast at the hotel and immediately, the sharing and the coffee revived me so that I was ready for the day. Upon arrival at Haskell Indian Nations University, we were gathered around a simple fire pit where sage, tobacco, and cedar had been prepared and welcomed by the indigenous elders of the lands upon which the University had been built. I thought this would be a good place to offer the lei laʻi our Hui Administrative Assistant Lauren Kapono had provided as a gift to Kansas ʻāina, so I asked our host and grant Principal Investigator Dr. Daniel Wildcat if that would be appropriate. He informed me that there was a better place for us to offer lei shortly, then stepped to the center of the ring we had formed and welcomed us all.
I stood beneath a cedar tree, full of thoughts and anxiety about what was to come and whether I was prepared to adequately represent Hui Aloha Kīholo in this far off place. As the elders chanted and sang to welcome us and to invite our ancestors to join our gathering, a raptor circled lazily overhead then headed off on their path to parts unknown. Leaders from each hub stepped forward to offer songs and chants and I was grateful to Kumu Ramsay for leading the Hawaiʻi ʻoli kāhea and to Kainoa for blowing the ʻohe in the 4 cardinal directions to announce our arrival. After each place had the opportunity to greet this ʻāina, a graduating student who had been involved in RVCC since the beginning shared his insight about the important journey we were all on. Before the circle closed, all were invited to enter the circle and be smudged by Dr. Dan with the smoke of the small fire wafted by the wing of an eagle he had been gifted. I thought about those not present, and considered the recent passing of my father and namesake, Charles Wiggins, Sr. A steady smoker throughout our childhood and admirer of the indigenous culture alive today in Alabama, I thought he would have appreciated the opportunity to be smudged with tobacco smoke, so I joined the line and, when my time came, patiently made my way to the fire fed with sage and cedar. Dr. Dan greeted me with a bear hug and I relaxed into his arms then stood in the smoke and felt at peace.
After all who wanted to had been smudged, we closed the circle and walked the short distance to our meeting space in one of the open University Halls. Dr. Dan informed me that a place of honor was ready for Kīholo’s lei. It would be draped on the chair of those not present. I learned that this ceremonial empty chair was a fixture at all in-person RVCC convenings, and would provide a seat at the table for the elders and ancestors who made our gathering possible by enduring through the challenges of the past. At the first opportunity, Max and I quietly offered our own ʻoli kāhea and the Kīholo mele composed by Kuʻulei Keakealani before reverently draping the lei Lauren made on the back of the chair.
Returning the Conscience to Science through the Rising Voices, Changing Coasts Network
(author’s note: Hawaiian terms are used throughout this account. Rather than interrupt the narrative to define each of them, I invite you to explore this Hawaiian language dictionary as needed so you can fully appreciate the beauty and depth of the Hawaiian language, particularly where nature and values are involved.)
Dear reader, thank you for your dedication and attention. I know this is a lot, and it would be impossible for me to relate all of the insight, wisdom, curiosity, potential, and struggle shared over all 3 days of this gathering. Even if I had the time to write it, and you to read it, I could not capture the essence of being present with people of place to do righteous work with my limited vocabulary. Instead, I will share some key ideas, quotes, insights, and photos to help you catch a glimpse into the world of RVCC and how this collaboration will advance our Mission at Kīholo.
Our collective goal is Convergence Science – this is what we are doing together with Haskell, NCAR, and the other Hub communities. One way of thinking of this is honoring the knowledge of multi-generational placeholders and modern scientific inquiry and learning from both. I think of this as putting the Conscience back in Science. Con- is latin for together, complete, inclusive. Conscience is a term English speakers use to describe intuition and right relations, similar to the Hawaiian concept of pono. As Jiminy Cricket reminded Pinocchio, real people “let [our] conscience be [our] guide.”
Big Picture
Science with a Conscience advances our Mission at Kīholo by informing our actions, improving our collaborative efficiency, and measuring our success along our voyage. Intuition is vital to traditional navigation and our Palapala ʻāina is our starchart mapping our path to success. Where we are on track, our conscience inspires us to continue through rough seas. When we fall off course, our conscience helps us adapt and make corrections so that we can reach our destination.
Kīholo is an important part of the Convergence Science movement. I think of the broader movement as akin to what we do, but at a global scale. This is analogous to the African proverb, If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. We are Hui Aloha Kīholo, the RVCC Hub and partners are manifesting Hui Mālama Hōnua.
Opportunities Abound
Remaining Grant Funding - $6.5M remains in the 5-year NSF grant to Haskell to support all 4 hub communities over the next 2 years. Since Kīholo joined in year three, we wonder if we can advocate for equitable fund distribution to the Hawaiʻi Hub, and are grateful for the support we are already receiving for our Education and Stewardship efforts. This grant is funding our Hoʻomoana i Kīholo Lawaiʻa ʻOhana camp in July, the Mālama ʻĀina certificate program we are developing for students, and the Ahupuaʻa Coordinator Position. We are looking to create a learning exchange for local student leaders from all of the hubs, starting with the camp at Kīholo in July.
Partner Philanthropy - Many private individuals and foundations, including that of Prince Albert of Monaco, are excited about the approach to research the RVCC Hubs are taking. There is a strong opportunity for private support to continue and expand this work that can help accelerate some of Kīholo’s Palapala ʻĀina priorities that need additional capacity to implement such as a visitor greeting and community gathering place and an equipment baseyard.
Hui Aloha Kīholo’s prior experience in convergence science to bring interdisciplinary researchers together in place can help inform and support outreach tools developed by researchers.
National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR) staff are supporting community weather stations and low cost air quality monitors that can be used at Kīholo to collect weather data and understand vog and airborne particulates at little or no cost. We have inquiries out about sensors for Hale Hoa ʻĀina.
Many smart, dedicated, humble, kind, talented, articulate, innovative, collaborative people have been working on convergence science for over a decade and have established a solid foundation upon which we can build. There are lessons learned from Alaska, tools from Puerto Rico, and approaches from Louisiana that can help us at Kīholo.
Challenges
Federal funding uncertainty affects not only the Haskell NSF grant, but partners at SeaGrant, NOAA, Haskell Indian Nations University, the University of Hawaiʻi, and more. This situation is creating stress for many. It is difficult to plan ahead with so much uncertainty, yet it is vital that we focus on our shared vision and destination to navigate uncertain and challenging times.
Some may interpret this effort as non-rigorous or anti-science. It is not. Rather, it is an acknowledgement that helicopter science is less impactful than science inclusive of ALL knowledge sources that is designed from the beginning to be useful in informing management action.
Rough waters are expected. Just as the convergent currents at Keāhole Point create ʻaleʻale (choppy/rough) seas that we can predict and prepare for and adjust speed and course to navigate, shifting the status quo of science will require navigating turbulent stormy seas. If we do not expect rough waters, we can become overwhelmed. When we know they are on the horizon, that we are in them, or that there is clear water beyond, we can persevere.
Wisdom Shared
On convergence: “Big discoveries happen at the intersection of different disciplines. At the intersection of different knowledge systems.” – Dr. Olga Wilhelmi, NSF NCAR Hawaiʻi Hub
On intuition: “We [Polynesians] navigated over 60 million square miles of ocean. How did we do that? Through intuition and our connection to the universe.” - Dr. Failatusi Aveglio, Hawaiʻi Hub (Doc Tusi)
On kilo: “Ad hoc, in situ observations [are] community observations.” – Dr. Kyle Mandli, NSF NCAR
On reframing research: “It takes a lot of time and effort to deconstruct the old, extractive model of western science.” Zethan Barrios, Lomikai Media and Olohana Foundation
On virtual community engagement: [Working with Hui Aloha Kīholo to co-develop research using the Miro-Board tool has been] “a roadmap for how we are going to do research.” – Dr. Meredith Leung, NSF NCAR Hawaiʻi Hub
On knowledge: [The Samoan concept of Iʻike is the spiritual knowing that guides our path and purpose. In ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi it is ʻike. Iʻike is akin to intuition, it is a guide for the navigator at sea, the convergence of observation, experience, values, teachings, and individual instinct.] – Doc Tusi, Hawaiʻi Hub
On filmmaking: “My family members are my heroes... and my first aspiration was to tell stories like my family tells stories.” Brendan McInerny, Haskell RVCC Coordinator
On Resilience: “When you grow up in kayaks, you learn how to roll.” – Dr. Patricia Cochran, Alaska Hub
On Resilience: “Educators come and go, community [remains].” – Dr. Elena Sparrow, Alaska Hub
The Power of Nature: “Artificial economic externalities are antithetical to natural processes. Are we acting as partners, or anchors on this voyage.” – Anon
On Presence: “Though some may disagree, it is not possible to be physically present in place and not interact with her. Our breath, lungs, and skin are entwined with the microbial life of place. Our feet treat upon her bones. Our mood affects the spirit of place. When we weep, place cries. When we laugh, place smiles.” – Anon
On Service: “Our jobs are done well when community thinks they have done it for themselves.” – Kainoa Azama, Hawaiʻi Hub
Capacity and Priorities: “We are part of something bigger than the problem.” [There is a difference between healing and curing]. “Money cures. Aloha heals.” – Ramsay Taum, Hawaiʻi Hub
On Inspiration: “We are truly surrounded by gifts. Grateful for these Gifts, we inhabit Gratitude.” – Dr. Daniel Wildcat, Haskell, RVCC Principal Investigator
On Adaptation: “You don’t pull people out of a space they don’t want to leave, you create a space they want to go to.” – Kumu Ramsay Taum, Hawaiʻi Hub
On Behavior: “How people behave at the convergence point is the real discovery.” Kahu Kalani Souza, Olohana Foundation
On the Future: “The convergence is in the children.” – Kainoa Azama, RVCC Hawaiʻi Hub
The Hawaiʻi Hub
The Hawaiʻi Hub is the coordinating entity for Hui Aloha Kīholo, Olohana Foundation, and Lomikai Media efforts to collaborate and move forward together. Kainoa Azama and Ramsay Taum are leading our efforts to plan for future years and help us develop our shared vision. Our visioning coming out of this gathering posits questions we strive to answer:
· Hulihia (e.g. lava flow, tsunami, hurricane, fire) is inevitable. It is a matter of when, not if. When things go upside down, can the community feed itself?
· Is every child fed?
· Are the elders comfortable?
· Are the women unafraid?
· How does our perspective differ when we start with collective action then move into planning rather than trying to conform planning to inspire collective action?
· If our vision is our destination, do we focus on our problems, or our dreams?
· How are we all living into our values?
· Can we expand the academic definition of science to embrace ʻāina as teacher and geneaology as guide?
My vision for Hui Aloha Kīholo’s involvement is to answer some of these questions and move toward the future we want to see in Hawaiʻi. I want us to extend a helping hand to the research community, as we do to all communities who seek a Kīholo connection, so scientists can appreciate the full significance of research “subjects” and place can come to know scientists, enriching both through a reciprocal relationship that will not end when grants conclude.
Last, but maybe not least, during the gathering, I composed some poems to help capture the RVCC and Hawaiʻi relationship in a way that may speak to some less inclined to prose:
RVCC Inspired Poetry (possible to link to each by title?)
A Way, With Words
When we reach the island we see in our dreams
Signs of the times
The Lesson of Pāʻiea
A Way, With Words
Consider a framework for how we relate,
We’ve been guided, and gathered, and smudged,
Through the smoke that, once cleared, carries darkness away,
Now as kin, as ourselves, we advance, listen, pray.
A Hui’s a club, or a group, like a gang,
Yet it’s open, inclusive to all,
Just “y’all” it means everyone present in place,
Not just humans!
Divided we fall.
United we stand.
We stand tall!
Aloha’s an action, a value that fills
Up our souls, and a greeting, and Love!
It’s affirmative, powerful, vast as the sky,
When it’s heavy, Love rises above.
Hōnua is Earth, this big planet entire,
She’s our Mama, our Island in Space,
And her care is our purpose, our wishes fulfilled,
Food we eat, air we breathe, life herself, water, fire.
In these three simple words lives a righteous, just cause,
That connects us, the me AND the you(a),
And so, I propose that we’ve formed, root, and grow,
As one Hui Aloha Hōnua!
When we reach the island we see in our dreams
When all children are fed,
And our elders are happy,
And the women are safe and admired,
Then we will have advanced,
The plan we are part of,
The blueprint this planet inspired.
And we don’t need to wait,
Or ask for permission,
To care for and cultivate life,
For the day’s never far,
When the world will remind us,
Every empire will fall,
But the people abide.
Signs of the times
Americaʻs Morning. The 2nd of May.
Historical times for us all.
More record tornadoes,
Than the state we call Florida,
Has had since square-shipped masts stood tall.
More storms than weʻve known,
Since the time long before,
The old growth, to make planks, family planed.
We know storms are coming,
We cannot afford to bail out,
The whole planet untamed.
This beautiful globe,
Where each breath arises,
From plankton, and seafloors, and trees,
Has one simple lesson,
If the hands do good work,
Then the mouth will have good food to eat.
The Lesson of Pāʻaiea
Where currents converge, the waters are rough,
So we have to slow down, and observe.
If we want to pass calmly, in storms, let’s construct,
Inland fishponds that shorten the curve.