EA Field School 2018 Journal #4

EA Field School Journal #4

  What if instead of using all of our time, energy, and resources on developing our personal structures (homes, buildings, shopping centers, etc) and accumulating resources (material goods, entertainment, and excess) and we spent some attention and a little more energy on helping to restore and revive our natural systems on Maui,  strengthen community, and build up future leaders in helping to shape this island towards a more sustainable lifestyle.
  Ahupuaʻa around Maui start to produce highly nutritional food that we could distribute to our Schools, community neighbourhoods, food banks, and feeding the less fortunate.  Members of the community would be able to work alongside each other sharing, communining, and getting to know one another on deeper levels creating a tight mutual network built on authentic relationships.  And future generations would come to know and experience this kind of environment creating a solid foundation deep within, building character, and producing healthy individuals with a sense of kuleana for their ʻĀina.
  What if wholistic natural food systems were put back into place?  What kind of benefits or challenges would that bring?  What would it require?  Is it possible?
  For millions and millions of years the creation of Hawaiʻi was built with certain potentiality in mind.  It would have seen the most poetic songwriter, romantic artist, insightful and wise creator(s) orchestrated every mountain top, valley, kahawai, wai puna, makani, all pieces of this island to work and function together in interdependency.  Each land feature, territory was given a god to cultivate and teach the coming of kanaka to survive and mālama ʻāina.  It was as if each wahi was treated with purity, sacredness, and respect, first by the god guardians that protected it then passed unto the kupuna and aliʻi who held those secrets.
 Modern insights in todayʻs world has given another angle of perspective.  The geographical landscape and natural catastrophes create the foundation and resources for life.  From volcanic explosions to ice glaciers on top of Haleakalā falling and creating rides in the landscape, to massive mudslides and pounding winds building and blowing minerals originated as far as China.  The ahupuaʻa such as Kaupō area are filled with exciting geographical stories to be rediscovered.  With each geographical realization brings deeper validation of the kupuna who lived on these lands and cultivated them.
  With some problems we face today such as importing 80%+ of our food, materialism, excess entertainment, etc.  Reestablishing a sustainable ahupuaʻa system within the community, from the community, by the community I believe would alleviate many of the tensions and pressures that come from a european westernized culture.  To set up the success of that vision it is necessary for the proper research to be done ma mua.  Research experts such as Scott Fischer, Kiana Frank,  and Noah Lincon are provided important groundwork for the vision of restoration and malama ʻĀina.  As we continue into the vision of a sustainable Hawaiʻi once again models such as Aunty Dona provide a visual for us to experience this dream.
  As we continue to look into the past to gain wisdom on how to move forward it would seem the biggest barriers can be the comfortable chains that bind the mind to greed, apathy, and selfish ambition that come from generations after generations of institutionalized brainwashing.  It is not only till we are exposed and experience “Aloha ʻĀina” for ourselves that we can truly dive deep into being truly connected to the values of the Lā Hui Hawaiʻi.  This experience not only requires deep intellectual understanding but also hard work and dedication, and mostly passionate spirit to truly live out Aloha.

EA Field School 2018 Journal Entry #3

“E ui aku ana au īa ʻoe, Aia i hea ka Wai a Kāne?”

Microbes and Lepo
-Connect kanaka to ʻĀina
-EA through oxygen “breath” entering through the flow of fresh water
-Can create favorable Conditions for Kalo in a complex community of Microbes
How are kanaka connected to the ʻĀina?
  Kanaka have inherited the world of microbes into their kino through the foods we eat, people we surround ourselves, and the world around us.  In the most literal sense we are what we eat.  Our body if not only made of these microscopic organisms but we ingest them in everything we eat.
  In the loʻi water is necessary for the growth of the kalo.  Water from the kahawai is diverted into the patches.  As water flows and moves the EA “air/ breath” gets mixed into the water molecules creating a more “mana full” energy source for the microscopic world to gain of of.  The EA of our foods are truly found in the foods found in traditional practices.
  Microbes create resources for plants, animals and environment to thrive.  Like a social community they work together feeding and communing to create a potent atmosphere for life to thrive.

Microbes and Moʻolelo 
Some moʻolelo of kahiko use traditional storytelling to describe the microbe world:
-Moʻolelo to pass down key information about wahi
-Moʻolelo to remember key times and events
-Moʻolelo to teach valuable lessons to generations
Are moʻolelo kahiko unscientific?
  Those not familiar with the concept of kaona would not be able to appreciate the multi dimensional multi purpose of moʻolelo.  Many misconceptions about Indigenous stories come to the conclusion that these kinds of stories are irrelevant to today's world.  In recent studies this could be the farthest idea from the truth.  Many examples found in moʻolelo kahiko of wahi show how many of the “magic, mystical, even mysterious” events and phenomenons can be traced empirically.  Such as the changing of colors in wai, kumu lāʻau, fish disappearing, etc.  Moʻolelo turn interest not only to the valuable lessons and haʻawina the story holds, but is traced to the natural science of what is happening with its respected worldview.

Microbes and Networks 
Microbes Communicate with each other like as in a network
Microbes create atmospheres for multi cultural environments for diversity of species
Microbes interact in peculiar ways not yet fully understood by science world

“Aia i ke kuahiwi, I ke kualono, i ke awaawa, i ke kahawai; Aia i laila ka Wai a Kāne.”

KUMULIPO

Sam Peralta

Kumulipo

Did The Universe Have a Beginning?

 The question “Why is there something rather than nothing?” has been one of the deepest philosophical questions of mankind which all worldviews must answer.  In the Hawaiian world view the creation of time, space, and matter is infused with the culture, traditions, and history of the Hawaiian people.  The Kumulipo is interested in allowing the listener to be connected and somewhat involved in the process and ongoing of the creation of the universe in contrast to most 16th century philosophy where the individual remains detached and “objective” in his own sense from the universe.  Here from the start we see the Hawaiian worldview interested in calling mankind into history, inviting him to take part in the development of the unknown to the known.  Rather than the question “why is there something rather than nothing?” The question seems more like “what part does humanity have in the history of the universe?”

From the Unknown to Known

 The Kumulipo starts off the first section with the idea of “Po”.  Po can mean a variety of things in the Hawaiian language, and in context of the Kumulipo and various interpretations the definition can include darkness, obscurity, mystery, realm of the gods, and or chaos.  It is interesting to note that the idea of the formation of order of the universe has always come from disorder, this idea has been throughout all creation stories and legends of the major ancient world religions (Mesopotamians, Babylonians, Persians, Egyptian, Judeo Christian, etc).  With the evolution of consciousness creation chants, stories, and legend were effective ways to make sense of the dangers and unknown mysteries of the world.  And as man could articulate more and more of the mysteries and sacred it seemed he could now organize beauty out of the chaos.  And even start to make sense of his surroundings by the world around him.  

Biological Evolution

 Charles Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection gave science and philosophy new ways of seeing the human body development within the context of creation.  In the Kumulipo the stages of the development and process of creation appearances give me the sense of the same kind of idea.  It seems that the evolution of the human body came from stages of animal development, selection, and adaptation.  Each stage of creature development allowed and paved a way for more complex creatures to appear until the first functional human appears. 

Consciousness of the Sacred Realm

 For the first seven or so Wa (epoch/ time span), the Kumulipo finishes with the saying “O ke Akua ke Komo, ‘a’oe komo kanaka”.  Here we are given insight to the awareness of not only the deep understanding of the biological evolution of the human body, but also of the awareness to the realm of the unknown “the spiritual”.  Hawaiians were intune with creation and the force(s) in which sparked life.  They were not naive or ignorant of the fabric layer of the immaterial.  In the Kumulipo we see that this immaterial world is actually the foundation on which the first humans, even gods, could live in.

Consciousness of Creation

 The land and all of creation were in perfect harmony long before humanity became consciousness.  Here in the Kumulipo it is expressed at the end of the first 7 Wa as “Po No”.  “Po No” in the context of the Kumulipo has two possible meanings.  One meaning “darkness indeed”, implying the great mystery that none can fathom in the creation process.  And the other meaning “Pono” the Hawaiian word that cannot be fully expressed in a single English articulation, but is seen or known to mean balanced or in perfect harmony.  Here in the consciousness of creation the Kumulipo is expressing the idea of complete self sustainability as a functional interdependent organism system. 

 One of the hints Hawaiians had the idea of creation being a self sustaining organism is their idea that before the first humans were conscious everything was “Pono”.  

 Other Thoughts:

 Some other thoughts while pondering the Kumulipo is the understanding of the Consciousness of Self, understanding of Social Consciousness, and the Ethical and Moral Implications implied.  Those discoveries are made in the second section of the Kumulipo called “Ao”. 

 The Kumulipo is a very advanced complex narrative of the creation of the universe while weaving in social, moral, and sacred codes to help guide a society of pioneers, adventurers, and warriors.  What made the Kumulipo even more impressive was the writer’s ability to use the Hawaiian language in its most raw original form through melody and rhythm. 

Sources:

Kalekoa Ka’eo HWN Culture 231

Kiope Raymond HWN 107

“Reading Kumulipo” by Peter 5/07/97

Kumulipo “Wikipedia”

Kumulipo Translated by Martha Warren Beckwith