Hawaiians
survived 1,000 years in the middle of the Pacific. And then they arrived.
There's a place in the middle of
the Pacific Ocean that has more of everything there is on Earth.
Or there was, until Westerners arrived. This place is known as the Hawaiian Islands. Just about any life-form on the planet could find its
"sweet spot" within the Hawaiian Islands.
The Hawaiians' belief system was
the key.
They saw the islands as having different realms.
The day Western civilization landed on Hawaii's shores.
And now the traditional Hawaiian self-reliance is gone.
This story should change our attitude.
In it may be the key to us stepping back from the environmental ledge.
They saw the islands as having different realms.
The day Western civilization landed on Hawaii's shores.
And now the traditional Hawaiian self-reliance is gone.
This story should change our attitude.
In it may be the key to us stepping back from the environmental ledge.
Dr.
Sam Ohu Gon III, speaking as Senior Scientist, and Cultural Advisor to The
Nature Conservancy of Hawaii, explains that there's something really important
to learn about what happened when outsiders came in.
Click here to view Dr. Sam Ohu Gon III video
When Westerners arrived 300
years ago, there were hundreds of thousands of Hawaiians already having lived
on these islands for millennia, on their own, in the middle of the Pacific ocean.
The Hawaiians lived lightly
off the islands whose resources they depended on. They used only about 15% of
its resources, and were still completely self-sufficient, with nothing required
from the outside world.
Wao akua was
the uplands above wao kanaka. It was an intensely sacred place (Kapu) where
humans had no role in the native forests or the waters that flowed out of it.
It's where their ancestor gods, aumakua, lived.
The
Hawaiians believed aumakua could take the form of individual plants and
animals, or kinolau. So all life in waoakua were not just plants and animals. It was literally Ohana (Family).
“When your gods are also your family
and the elements of nature are their physical presence, your relationship with
nature is transformed." — Sam Ohu Gon III
Hawaiians believed in aloha, which is not a simple
“hello" or “goodbye," as it often seems.
One of its
many meanings is empathetic compassion, and it extends beyond the people you
care about. It extends to the āina,
or land that they lived in. Together, aloha
āina is a deep
appreciation of and love for the features of your land.
To take
from the land without thinking of what you're doing to it would be, as Gon
says, “a direct and conscious prostitution of not
only a family member, but an elder. And what right-thinking person would do
that?"
When Western civilization landed on Hawaii's shores a different ideal came along with them.
Nature to them was a set
of resources to be exploited by property owners and purchased by human
consumers. The human footprint on Hawaii expanded to 85%, and many of the
islands' natural resources were destroyed or used-up.
This shows how things
changed.
Modern Hawaiians are now so dependent on imports that if they
stopped, it's estimated there'd be famine in just
three weeks.
Our global climate challenges come from losing sight of our
relationship to the ground we stand on, the air we breathe, and seas we sail.
"Aloha
āina" is not just a saying, but instead a practical formula for how we
survive on our own little island out in the middle of the ocean of space.
Mahalo to Sam 'Ohu Gon III for sharing your words of wisdom with us all.
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