Abstract
Last fall, I taught a place-based, Hawaiian environmental justice course to K-12 classroom teachers and graduate students in the College of Education at the University of Hawaiʻi. As a Kanaka Maoli professor who has witnessed the degradation of our Native lands and waters over time, my aim in teaching the course was to foster within these educators a sense of responsibility to care for and protect our ʻāina (Native lands and waters) so that they, in turn, could pass these values on to their students. I structured the course around a series of defamiliarizing huakaʻi or environmental learning journeys that enabled my students to experience familiar Hawaiian landscapes with fresh eyes and new insights while building pilina (relationships) with our Native lands and people. By speaking with and working alongside Native farmers, activists, water protectors, and cultural practitioners from Kapūkakī to Kalauao, students developed an embodied understanding of the harsh realities of Kānaka Maoli living under U.S. occupation and experienced first-hand how the intertwined forces of militarism and tourism have distorted our Native landscapes and our traditional relationships with our ʻāina. The course inspired students to speak out against the degradation and pollution of Native lands and waters, and the displacement of our Native people and practices. Ultimately, this article serves as an invitation to all readers to embark on huakaʻi of your own ʻāina and learn its stories and environmental challenges so that you might, likewise, be inspired to care for and protect the unique landscapes to which you are connected and responsible.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.