Tahiti Lecture | Part 1
Welcome to Ancestral Visions of ʻĀina Kamakakūokaʻāina, the name for our organization, literally means "a vision of the land." We have also adopted the name "AVA: Ancestral Visions of ʻĀina." ʻĀina means "land that one eats from." Our long term goal is to be food sustainable, especially on the island of Oʻahu, which is so heavily urbanized.
Our grant from the Administration for Native Americans (ANA) focuses on two different kinds of work that help us to achieve our goal. First, we teach young Native Hawaiians at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, from both the graduate and undergraduate level, how to harvest, transcribe, and upload handwritten Kingdom of Hawaiʻi land documents and maps from the Hawaiʻi State Archives. Our focus is on documents that were written and produced in the 1840s and 1850s, when lands in Hawaiʻi first went into private ownership. These land records, written by our ancestors, include detailed descriptions of land management practices. The great amount of work done to make these documents digital is our ho'okupu, or gift, to the Hawaiian people of today who eagerly seek this information. |
Secondly, we provide specific university classes in Hawaiian culture, language, history, land studies, geographic maps, and current practices, to enhance Native Hawaiian student knowledge of ancestral wisdom. In order to intensify student ancestral experience, we work with the Edith Kanakaʻole Foundation (EKF) to hold in-depth cultural retreats to study ancient chants and rituals having to do with the elements of nature and land. The union of academic training and cultural experiences with learned Native Hawaiian elders is powerful and is guided by our ancestors. Watch our AVA video to learn more...
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Our Goal To train young Native Hawaiians to be Konohiki, or traditional Hawaiian Land Stewards, who manage the water, land, agricultural and fishing resources of 1,300 ahupuaʻa, in order to provide food for a population of 1 million people. In 1848, we had 252 Konohiki; in 2012 we have 12. Today, we need that ancestral knowledge more than ever as 95% of Hawaiʻi's food is imported from California. Additionally, since Peak Oil has come and gone, the food that sustains our people becomes more expensive and more scarce.
Videos Produced by our AVA Konohiki
Keahiahi Long & No'eau Peralto |
AVA Website Introduction & Tutorial Video
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