'ŌIWI RESOURCES & STEWARDSHIP
ʻŌiwi can be translated as Native or that which is the substantial makeup of something. It is what gives character or ornament. Our ʻŌiwi Resources & Stewardship team is just that; those whose character and personal appearance reflect this place. These are the skilled and strong hands that protect and nurture Makena's natural cycles and cultural resources. Honuaʻula kua laʻolaʻo is an ʻōlelo noʻeau (wise proverb) used to describe the hard-working ʻōiwi of Honuaʻula, those with calloused backs, supporting life in this drier, leeward landscape.
The foundation of ORS' work is based on a Hawaiian worldview, more specifically a Makena and Honuaʻula worldview, of knowing how Life expresses itself in this place.
ʻIke kūpuna (ancestral wisdom) within Makena and Honuaʻula is the core of our cultural vitality. ORS knows Makena's lifecycles and seasons, the movement of the celestials in this skyscape, the different wind and ocean currents, the timing of this ecosystem, when the wiliwili will bloom, when the first 'iwa (frigate bird) and koholā (humpback whale) will return.
Our worldview doesnʻt work in isolation of practice, of daily commitment to the resources of this place. ORS carries with them the teaching of families who have long belonged to Makena, of today's natural and cultural resource subject matter experts, and apply all this knowledge in their work to care for our natural and cultural resources today. ORS strengthens the symbiotic relationships between ʻāina (land, that which feeds) and kānaka (humans) towards a vibrant and fertile leeward lowland Honuaʻula ecosystem.
NĀULU FARM
Nāulu Farm was designed to reflect and echo the movement of the largest and most life-giving elements in Makena: the seasonal and daily sun angles, and the wind current and cloud (thus rain potential) both called Nāulu.
A former golf hole and tee box, Nāulu Farm is a testament to the absolute genius in applying traditional place-based knowledge for a vital future.
MEET THE MĀKENA FAMILY
There is nothing more authentic to Hawaiʻi than celebrating the natural environment as kin, and nothing more unique than our endemic flora and fauna family.
Honua, all of natureʻs creatures, features and elemental phenomena, are not only the foundation of life in Hawaiʻi but also considered elder family members. Through the place-based leadership of our ʻŌiwi Resources & Stewardship department guided by CJ Elizares, we tune in to the dream of Honua in Honuaʻula, we are actively working towards reestablishing a leeward, low, dryland forest with a soundscape animated by a chorus of native birds and a dynamic ocean scape pulsing with the ebb and flow of a robust underwater ecosystem.
We depend on this intimacy with our Honua family to sustain us in Honuaʻula. We are grateful for the opportunity to invite you to deepen your relationship with some of our most precious natural resource kin in our "Meet the Mākena Family" series.
HANA KAULIKE AT
MAKENA
Are you a school or community non-profit that would like to visit us? Is your group interested in participating in a little Hana Kaulike, or justified physical labor with our ORS Team? Hana Kaulike is a necessary part of learning about a place - of touching, tasting, feeling, smelling and sweating. As noted by the Cultural Use Plan for Kahoʻolawe, Hana Kaulike is the Hawaiianʻs obligation to the environment - to the natural cycles and elementals as gods, as well as to the family. If this sounds like something your group is interested in committing to, please fill out the form below.
