Mälama i Ka ‘Aina-Past and Future Guardians
How do different groups of people view land and how do their views shape their leadership and society?
How is the control of land essential/important to people?
How is knowledge of history important for making and guiding future decisions regarding land use?
February 3rd, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Malama I Ka ‘Aina
By Caitlin Bright #6
Our Hawaiians cared for the land, because they knew that that was what they were going to have to live on. Even if the Hawaiians thought that the Hawaiian gods owned the land, they showed respect for the land. They also showed Malama, Lokomaika’i and Aloha. The Hawaiians made sure that nothing was wasted. They wanted to save the natural resources, so that there would be a better future for the islands. This proves that the Hawaiians respected and cared for the ‘aina.
Since that is the way the Hawaiians thought of the ‘aina, how the chiefs lead the Hawaiians is different, (in a good way). The chiefs of Hawaii were not like kings who made all of his people put to slavery, the chiefs in Hawaii made sure that everybody had a good time enjoying their jobs. He had a job for himself too; he made sure that the wai flowed from the mauka to the makai. It may not seem like a big job today, but back then that job was the most important. This was the most significant because the Hawaiians needed to make sure that the wai was fresh. This system was called, the Ahupua’a system. See how much cultures feelings can change the leadership and society!
The control of the ‘aina is very valuable to the Hawaiians. For example, the Hawaiians controlled the ‘aina by having systems to make sure there was enough fresh water to drink from. They had kapu systems to make sure there were enough resources in the future. If anybody didn’t follow the kapu there would be a possibility that they could be put to death because kapu was made to protect the ‘aina, so that was very vital for the Hawaiians.
It is very crucial to know about what our people in the past did to help our ‘aina, because that way, we can learn from what they did to keep the ‘aina protected as it was before. For example, the Hawaiians took care of and protected Pu’uloa and all of the ahupua’as. Earlier I explained, the Hawaiians had the kapu and the ahupua’a systems to protect the ‘aina. That’s how they protected Pu’uloa. Today, (because we didn’t follow what our Hawaiians did) Pu’uloa is called Pearl Harbor now, and it’s so polluted that nobody can touch it. But if we continued the kapu and ahupua’a systems, everything would be fine and just like it used to be. Remember, Malama I Ka ‘Aina!
February 3rd, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if Hawai`i was the as clean as it was before? Some people like to keep our `aina clean and help to preserve Hawai`i by putting opala in the right place. But there are some who don’t care whether or not Hawai`i is clean or not. But those who choose to not help will be sorry when Hawai`i becomes a big dump! It’s like a battle between pollution and cleaning. In the long run, pollution usually wins! When pollution wins somewhere in Hawai`i it gets overflowed with garbage! Some examples of places that are now dumps are, Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor was a beautiful landscape that nourished the people with great resources. Most of which we can’t use anymore because of the war. The war forced us to lose Pu`uloa and now if we even touch the water we can get terribly ill! Just think, at first you could go swimming in it but now you can’t even touch it!
The conrol of land is not only important to the foreners but to us too! As Hawaiian people we pretty much only have part of the land left to ourselves. All around the world land is important. They thought land was power. They thought this because the more powerful you were depended on how much land you had. The Hawaiians should have the right to get their land back. All the land we gave away turned into a dump or is going to turn into a dump.
Now that we know we can be the ones to change the world we can do something about it. Look what we have now and look what we can have later. The future land use of Hawai`i and the way we use it is all up to us!!
February 3rd, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Different groups of people view and use land in different ways. For example, the Westerners, land to them was money. They bought land and sold it. They bought land to cut down trees to make money. They bought land and had other people live on the land with them so those people would have to pay them money. The Westerners never cared for the land they just cared about the money that it would get them. Then there were the Hawaiians, land to them was sacred. No one owned their own individual land. Everybody shared the land. They never thought of land for money, they didn’t even have money. They thought that if they took care of the land then the land would take care of them. Hawaiians thought that the land belonged to the gods. The Native Americans thought the same way like the Hawaiians did.
The control of land is important to people because they want to make money. If they controlled the land they would have plenty of money and natural resources. But if they didn’t control the land then they would not be able to make tons of money. And to people money is everything to them.
It is important to know the history of the land because you can always look back at past decisions to make new ones. Like if you look back at the Hawaiians, the way they used and cared for the land. That would be a good source of examples to make new laws and decisions regarding land. Also, if you look at the Hawaiians kapu system. You see how they had different seasons to hunt for different fish. They were smart to do that because by making it kapu to eat a certain fish so they could multiply and the fish wouldn’t go extinct. But look at what we are doing today. We are over fishing and so many fishes are almost extinct. Also, we are killing all the turtles because they are getting caught in the fishing lines. Now they are endangered because of what we are doing. With all the trash that we are leaving around is killing the poor birds. It so sad to see the affects of our actions. If we followed the way of the Hawaiians then we wouldn’t have all these problems.
If you look at the Westerners they would be the people that didn’t make the best actions regarding land. They didn’t use everything that they had like the Hawaiians and Native Americans did. They wouldn’t have laws at certain seasons so that a certain type of fish would go extinct; they would just keep on fishing and hunting. They would just go out hunting for fun and would only take what they wanted from what they caught. They wouldn’t make use of everything. They would just cut down trees so they could make money. Like now we don’t need to by a Christmas tree. We don’t need to cut down the trees to hang ornaments and put presents under. We don’t need to cut down the trees to sell. But we want a Christmas tree up because that’s what everybody else does. Imagine how many trees we would save by not buying new Christmas trees, or throwing away a paper because we made a mistake. I think that the worst thing of all is the pencils that we have. We break them and use them in the wrong reasons. These are my answers and what I think about land. What do you think?
February 3rd, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Different people view the land differently because that was their paradigm. It shapes their leadership and society because if leaders taught their people how to only take what they needed, their people would probably not waste a lot of resources. Leaders that don’t care and let their people waste and break the laws, their people will probably run out of resources a lot faster then the people that don’t waste. For example, before Captain Cook arrived in the Hawaiian Islands the Hawaiian people only took what they needed and never wasted anything. When Captain Cook came to Hawai’i, he didn’t care about saving resources. All he cared about was money. Another example is that when the Westerners saw the sandalwood trees and realized how much money they could make, they forced the Hawaiian people to cut down all of those type of trees without planting new seedlings.
The control of the land is important because whoever controls it can do whatever they want with it. For example, the Hawaiian people believed that the land didn’t belong to them but it belonged to the gods. The Hawaiians didn’t own the land but they took very good care of it. They took good care of it because they lived off of the land. On the other had the Western people believed that you could purchase land and do whatever you wished with it. You could dig, remodel, build and even litter on it. I think that because of the Western style, it changed everyone’s paradigm. They changed it in a bad way.
The knowledge of history is important for making future decisions about land use because we can look at the past and see which decisions made the land better and what made the land worse. For example, if people involved with land decisions look at the Hawaiian history of how they used land and how they didn’t waste anything, I think that they might look at using their paradigm now instead of our paradigm of wasting and littering. I really hope that the people involved with the land decisions will do something about this wasting and littering problem that we have. We should change now before it is too late!
February 3rd, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Land was very sacred to the Hawaiians and they felt that the land didn’t belong to them but they took care of it. The Hawaiian people were very conservative people and wasted nothing. They shared with others like food, and were humble and intelligent people. They took care of the land and never did anything to hurt the land.
Others thought differently. Some people seemed to not care for the land. People today do NOT really care for the land like the Ancient Hawaiians did. Everyday people are littering, polluting, and killing our land. Some day this land will die. Without even thinking, people throw many things on the streets, in oceans, lakes, and ponds which causes global warming. We even see rubbish in our school, but people don’t pick it up. Around this island you can just see tall buildings and streets. Our land cannot stand this kind of pressure and pretty soon it will die!!!
The control of land is important because the land provides us oxygen, food, water, a place to live, and many more needs. People don’t see that the land gives us everything we need to survive. People also don’t seem to care that when we do something to the land like cut down trees, we don’t plant another so that part of the forest will grow back. Most of the time people don’t think about what they are doing and end up killing and cutting down thousands of trees just to get money. People are greedy about money and will kill practically all our trees just to make money and forget to plant more trees. We need to do something about this and start to help our environment.
Knowledge is the world. Without knowledge we couldn’t function at all. Knowledge of history is important because it tells what happened and explains events. It will help guide us in the future because our decisions could make global warming stop forever. If we start cleaning our environment we can save it. We can do this by using Hybrid cars, picking up trash, not polluting, cleaning our oceans, and much more. If we start doing this, Global Warming could stop.
February 3rd, 2008 at 8:33 pm
People can view vacant land in different ways. Some people may see the land as a waste of land and they might want to cover up the land for commercial buildings, houses, and parks but we can’t afford the loss of our land and aina. For example, Pearl Harbor was once a giant wetland, but when Captain Cook came, everything changed for the Hawaiians. After a couple of years they sold Pu’uloa (Pearl Harbor), they blew up Pearl Harbor and then they made a naval base. Now, we can’t touch the water. Before, the Hawaiians could surf, plant taro, and could swim in the water. When the Hawaiians had no use for things, they didn’t throw away their waste. The Hawaiians went over to another person’s house and asked them if they wanted the item. Hawaiians were never wasteful. If we were resourceful and never wasted an inch of anything, we could save money and we could probably stop Global Warming. Some people could view the land as a giant trash bag and they could start to litter and the police can’t fine them for littering.
Land was very sacred to the Hawaiians and they believed that the land was owned by keakua and family aumakua. When the colonialist came to the Hawaiian islands, people started to own the lands and their paradigms changed when they believed that the gods owned the land. The land was important to the people because the land provided food, water, shelter, and natural resources. Land is a big part of the Hawaiian people because they took care of the land, never littered, and they were never wasteful. The Hawaiian people believed that if you malama the aina, the aina would malama you back.
The reason why we should have knowledge of history for making future decisions is because if we didn’t know what happened to Pearl Harbor or what was there before the naval base, we wouldn’t have known that there was a big fishpond and the colonialist blew up Pu’uloa. If we didn’t know about the fishponds that were wiped out and impacted, all of the fishponds that are in Hawaii would be demolished and we would waste our resources. We would see the world as a big trash bag and we would start littering and our islands would be one big landfill. It could be a big compost heap in the future and that is why we should start fining people for littering. We can start helping by picking up trash where there is a lot of litter and by telling people what would happen if we keep on littering instead of helping the aina.
February 3rd, 2008 at 8:51 pm
People view things differently. That’s one of the many things that make us different from each other. Different people have different beliefs or paradigms. An example of two different paradigms is the Hawaiians and the English’s paradigm on the land.
The Hawaiians believed that the land didn’t belong to anyone. They believed that no one could own the land. The People were created to care for the land, the ali’i were meant to govern the land and make sure everything was in harmony. The Hawaiians knew that the land they were living on was the only land they had and that if they didn’t care for it, they would loose all of its precious resources.
The English paradigm of land was that they were the more important things and that they should run the land and own land. They believed that whatever land they happened to dock on was their land. Even though they owned the land, they did not care for it like the Hawaiians did. They wasted the natural resources and took away the lands treasures for their own selfish needs.
To the Europeans back then, everything was about power and money. If there were a land that was already founded by a less powerful group of people, they would take advantage of that and overpower their land. Owning land and ruling the land was very powerful. There were two types of ruling land. The European way that involved kings and Queens that made all the decisions, owned the land, and the people, and there was the Hawaiian way. The Hawaiians had people like the Konohiki who would enforce the kapu or law. They also had ali’i, which were people of royal blood who would govern the land, but not own it.
By seeing what mistakes we have done in the past, we can learn from them to ensure it doesn’t happen again in the future. This concept can apply to any type of situation. In this case, it’s about the use of our land. We should follow in the footsteps of the old Hawaiians and Malama I Ke Aina. We need to care and cherish our land so everything can be in balance. Everything is connected so if one part doesn’t go smoothly, the whole balance will be thrown off.
February 3rd, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Different people view the world and the things in it differently. Ones lifestyle, paradigm, and the way they view land are the outcomes of how they think of the world. For example, the Hawaiian people believed that they didn’t own the land, the ke akua did. On the other hand, the Europeans believed that they should own the land.
The Hawaiians were of and for the land, and the ali’i controlled the land. In addition, they had a set of laws, called the kapu system. The Hawaiians never wasted and only took what was needed. Old Hawaii had a sustainable environment and balanced lifestyles.
The Europeans paradigm was quite different. They felt that land was to be owned and ruled. If they saw a group a people or country that was powerless against them, they would overthrow that country, and call it their land. More land meant more power. Further more, all of the natural resources and minerals were taken for granted, and were wasted.
Both of these groups had control of their land, but it showed in different ways. It is important and essential that people have control of their land because if ones society is not organized or they do not have a set of laws obligating what is right or wrong, another group or country can easily take advantage of them. A paradigm shift in Hawaii has taken place, and we have governor and government, senator, a set of laws called the constitution, own land, and more.
In my opinion it seems that old Hawaii didn’t own the land, but yet the maka’ainana and ali’i respected, and cared for the land. Now that we can own land we seem to be disrespecting our property by littering, polluting, and more. For example, a new television comes out, and we want to buy it. Do you ever think what you are going to do with your old one? No. Where it is going to end up? No. The impact of our wasteful habits, are contributing to the destruction of the Hawaiian Islands.
We can learn form the mistakes that were made in past to ensure that the bad deeds are not to be done in the future. We can continue to malama the land and the goodness and bring back the feeling of old Hawaii. We should take part in our own small way to make an abundant future.
February 4th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Different people view the land in different ways. Some people think of land as something that is just there for them to waste and use. Others think highly of it and use only what they need and use every bit of it. The Europeans were very wasteful and used natural resources like it was nothing. They thought they owned whatever land they landed on. They took what they wanted from the land like gold and got rich. But what do they do with all the other things? They threw it away. The Hawaiians were very resourceful and used every part of what they needed. Hawaiians were rich spiritually. They didn’t need the gold or precious things. They were rich without it.
By controlling land, people became powerful. The Europeans had kings that controlled the land. The Hawaiians had konohikis and ali’i that controlled the land and made sure that everything was in perfect balance. This was why controlling land was so important to people.
By knowing what happened in the past, you can try to improve or fix what happened or went wrong. By doing these things, you can help the future generation learn how to care for and enjoy the world they are living in.
February 4th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Different groups of people view the land differently because some might have more resources than others and they might be able to utilize more things at a time. Some have less resources and will have smaller rations so they will conserve more. Still yet, all of the ancient people had times when they couldn’t hunt a certain fish or animal during breeding season so that the animal coul repopulate and live on.
It is important to control the land because if you don’t control the land, then nature could wipe out the entire population of people from ONE storm. Since we can control nature, we can be prepared for any storms, earthquakes, or tsunamis.
If we know the past then we can look at all the mistakes that we made and not do that. We can also look at the native peoples and look at how they were able to preserve their resources. We can do that to save the world from global warming.
February 4th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Different people view the land differently because that’s just their paradigm. An example of this is the Hawaiians. Back then, if they saw an empty area of land with good dirt, trees etc., they would probably think that this was a perfect opportunity to make a he’au (shrine for a god)! But, on the other hand, a European would probably cut down all of the trees and sell it later for money. Before, every beach was probably “postcard perfect.” Now, almost every beach has some type of rubbish. And why is there trash on the once “postcard perfect” beaches? People just do not care. An example of this is when I’m going to school. Every so often, I see someone throwing some kind of trash out of their car window.
The control of land is important to people because land provides us with many things. It gives us air to breathe, a place to live, and a habitat for animals which we eat. Many people also do not think of the future. For example, each year, millions of trees get cut down each year. Our solution for cutting down so many trees? None. Zero. We do NOT have any solution for cutting down so many trees, so what will happen in the future? Who knows, there might not be any trees later on.
Knowledge of history of the land is important to know because some company might decide to fill a land for buildings, but that place that that company might fill might be a burial place for an Ali’i or some place that holds a lot of old Hawaiian artifacts? We might lose a lot of history there. Knowledge of what we did to the land also helps us learn from mistakes of past so we won’t make that same mistake again.
cake is good..
February 4th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
People, in fact everyone views the `aina in many different ways. Some people care for the `aina, live for it and live of it while others on the other hand just do not care and are making this Earth a dump. Those who do not really care just do whatever they want and whatever they feel like doing. For example, some people waste everything and the Hawaiians were the ones who saved everything that they had and did not waste a bit. The Hawaiians used everything they had, such as natural resources.
Back then getting control of land was very important . With control people get more power and their nation will become stronger. For example, there were kings that controlled an empire. Another way of thinking about the land is that the Hawaiians had Ali`i and Konohiki protecting the `aina. That is why having control over land is and was very important to most people.
I think it is very important to know about history regarding land use. I say this because we will know what mistakes we made in the past. Also because if we know what mistakes we did in the past then it should not happen again. You never know. The Hawaiian traditions and culture might come back. That is what Pauahi believed in. She believed that the Hawaiian culture will come back.
February 4th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
People view the land in different ways. Some people think that land is just a ground cover and that they can do whatever they wish to it. For instance, they might want to just dump their waste such as abandoning cars, scattering glass bottles, and leaving their other household appliances to rot in the mud of the earth. That is what they think of the land, as just another place to dump their waste.
The land is important for us because almost everything on earth depends on natural resources such as oil. We need to take care of the earth because if we keep dumping waste into the rivers, we will probably have no water connections left at all, except the ocean. And if we don’t control the land, the waste will take over the land. Not only is the land important to people, but also to native Hawaiian plants, animals, Hawaiian rain forests and wetlands.
Knowing the history of the land is important because you will know all the important happenings that happened there. If you don’t know that the area you want to build on was once someone’s happy area to play, it’s almost like you are building on their happiness. Same with the land. It was once full of respect and carefully taken care of. But now, since nobody knows about the history of the Hawaiians, they don’t know about what they did to they land. Basically, people are polluting a thousand years of warm embrace and work in keeping the `aina thriving, and dumping ugly pollution on the beautiful Hawaiian Islands.
February 4th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Many different people view the land differently in different societies because some cultures think it is right to waste resources and use it unwisely, but the Hawaiians never wasted a thing and thought the land could not be owned. The land was owned by the gods or akua. We can control the land by recycling and reusing materials. When doing this, we can save the environment and keep it like the Hawaiians did in the old days. We can learn from them because they were a striving nation and were ennvironmentally safe. If we can follow their footsteps, we can save the world and live like our kupuna. If everybody lived like the Hawaiians, the world would be a nice clean place with joy and mess-free. The Hawaiians were great at preserving the land.
MALAMA I KA ‘ AINA!!!!!!!!!!
February 5th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Certain people use the land in a way that isn’t helping the world survive unlike the Early Hawaiians and Native Americans who use every bit of the land. This is important, because it helps our land flourish and helps us survive throughout our lives. Without plants and other native qualities, there would be too much carbon dioxide in the air.
Learning about history will benefit future decisions because we can learn from the mistakes we made in the past and we can correct those mistakes by making better choices.
February 5th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Some people care for the land like it is their own child. Some of these people were the Hawaiians. The Hawaiians treated the land well by not dumping all the trash on the land and littering. They used the land to farm goods for the family to eat. Some people cared for the land as if it is a dumpsite. Some of these people were the Europeans. The Europeans used the natural resources like it was a napkin. They just stepped on land, wasted the resources and then stepped off the land – leaving it like a dump. I think that the Hawaiians lived better then us right now because they cared for the land.
The control of land is important to people because if you don’t own any of the land you may feel homeless. But back then, if you did not own the land it would be normal because the gods owned the land not you.
If we learned about the past we can learn what we did well and what we did ok. In the future we can do what we did well again and we can change for the better. An example is we know that the Hawaiians had a sustainable lifestyle with the land and they took care of it. It is difficult to change things back to the way they were because our paradigm has changed. It changed to wanting more and more money and it is taking over our values.
February 6th, 2008 at 7:30 am
I think that if our society wasn’t so wasteful, then we would have a better community. If people knew that global warming affected them they would make a change. Buisness people don’t want to make a change because they make disposible things or things that don’t last long so people will buy that product over and over. Some buisness people are smart and starting to make bags that will hold all of the items that you purchase.
February 6th, 2008 at 7:40 am
Malama I ka `Aina
By Isaiah Lee #15
Malama I ka ‘Aina is something that all of us Hawaiians need to do. Malama I ka ‘Aina means to take care of the land. I think taking care of the land is very important because if we don’t we will start losing our valuable resources. Resources that are essential to the way we live. For example, we will lose things like trees and our land.
I think that different people’s view of land really makes a difference. I think this because that’s how all of our island’s trouble started. It started when someone said “I think that should be changed into a dumping place” because one person’s decision can make a difference. Of course, one person can also make a positive difference and that’s what we need to do.
Control of the land is very important also for many reasons. I think the most important reason control of the land is important is because the people who control the land can either help or destroy the environment for Hawaii. So, it depends who has control of the land.
But we can’t always rely on the people in charge. We have to take a stand and do something about the problem.
I think knowledge of what we have done in the past and the affects it has had on the land is very important because it can teach us about our mistakes and what we can do to prevent it. If we do learn about our past mistakes, I am sure we could make our future better. All we have to do is make better decisions.
I think another way that could help our ‘aina is to revert back to some of our previous traditional ways. Instead of wasting things and disrespecting the ‘aina, we can preserve and reuse things and start to treat the ‘aina properly.
To sum this writing up, I would have to agree with the movie watched that Hawaiians were people of and for the land. They didn’t waste anything. And I think we could use our Hawaiian ancestors as examples.
February 6th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Long ago when we had all the Hawaiians, the aina was clean and everyone cared for the aina. They also didn’t waste anything. The Hawaiians belonged to the land. They respected it and made sure everthing was cared for. Now people are just dumping rubbish all over the place and it’s starting to make our land look like a big dump. If the people of Hawaii continue to do this, then we might not see the beauty of Hawaii anymore. It’s our job to pick up trash on the side of roads and rivers. We also have to make sure that we try to prevent it. If you see someone one droping trash, then tell them that it’s not right. Then hopefully we can see the beauty of the Hawaiian Islands.
February 6th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Different people view their lands in different ways and I can prove that. For example, the Hawaiians thought land was sacred and was for everyone to use. There was no land ownership. The Hawaiians wasted nothing. The Hawaiians were very resourceful. The Hawaiians also shared things like food or clothing. On the other hand, there are people who are the exact opposite of the old Hawaiians. And that’s us! The people of today are very wasteful. People don’t care about their land, they just buy and live on it. Nowadays people just throw things on the ground and don’t even care. Even now people are throw rubbish in our ocean hurting our marine life and once again, people don’t care and nobody takes action. Could you imagine if we were like the Hawaiians back then? Could you imagine how much better the world would be?
The control of land is important because the land provides us with all the things we need to survive in life. People don’t see that the land gives us everything we need to survive. People don’t care if they cut down a whole rainforest for paper for their business because all people want to do is have money, money, and more money. They only care about themselves and not about the land that lets them survive.
We can learn from our mistakes and we can better assure that it doesn’t happen again.
February 6th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
The ways different people view land have a big impact on their lives. For example, the Hawaiians thought the land belonged to the gods. They took care of it so the gods would bless them with food. Indians would pray for animals after they killed them. Both groups ran successful lives.
The control of land is very important to many. Hawaiian leaders made sure people took care of the land, whereas European leaders let people cut down trees and destroy their natural resources.
History is very important for leaders because they can learn how to be good leaders. Many past leaders, like Kamehameha the Great, would be great role models for everyone.
February 6th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
I think that one of the main reasons for different views of the land is race or culture. Also the Hawaiians are the best examples I can think of because they respect the land. They lived by the idea of if you malama the land, the land will malama you. Also the Hawaiians respected each other like everyone was family and that came naturally. People who don’t respect the land were the Europeans. Natural resources are basically powerful tools. You can use them for good or you could use them for bad, it’s up to you.
The use of land is so important because we could kill the whole earth which is amazing or we could save an earth that’s on its way to die. That’s how huge of an impact the land could make. I think that the land is a big part of it but the biggest part of this is us, the people. I feel that we got all the land, water, animals who were innocent into this, so we have to get them out of it.
History is huge because back then there was a perfect balance and the people treated the land like it was their last piece of family they had. We are going to need history to teach how to be great contributors to the concept of saving the world. It could also show us what not to do so we can survive this bumpy road.
February 6th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Different groups of people veiwed the land in different ways. For example, the Westerners believed in buying and selling the land. They only cared about the money that they would get off of the land. On the other hand, there were the Hawaiians. They believed that the land was scarce. They also believed that if they took care of the land, the land would take care of them by giving them the essential needs. There were even Kapu seasons so that the resources had time to multiply and grow. As I said before, the Westerners believed in buying and selling the land but, the Hawaiians were different. They believed that the land was owned by the Gods and no one else owned it. But, it was their duty to take care of the land in any way that they could. (oh yeah I forgot, the Native Americans were like this too) In our time today, we buy and sell the land. If you really think about it some of us are really like the Westerners. A lot of us are only trying to make money. Big companys think of ways to sell a lot and still make a lot of money. Today we watched a movie and, I learned a lot. I realized that the reason why we don’t see great effort in our chairs and desks is because the companys want to make the furniture good enough that we buy it but, in a couple of years it will break and we will have to buy more.(which means more money)
The control of the land was very important to all groups of people. Some only wanted to control the land so that they could get money and have a lot of power. Others really wanted to do some thing to help the aina and give back. They thought that they could really make a difference in the world. Today, our chiefs are like the presidents. We the people get to choose our chief/president based on who can do the most good for our state.
It is important to know about what the people in the past have done with the land so that we can make better decisions and learn from their mistakes. The ahupua’a system and Kapu systems were not a mistake. These systems protected the land. We can learn from the Hawaiians because they really took care of the land. If we really malama the aina like the Hawaiians did, i’m sure that we can bring back places like Pu’uloa. (with a lot of help of course) I was going to get into better detail about Pu’uloa but, since everyone already wrote about it i’ll make this short. Pu’uloa use to be beauitiful. Now we can’t even go fishing or swim in the water. Whats done is done. But,kids are the future, we can make a huge effect on the world like what Martin L. King Jr did. Picking up litter, using less electricity, and using less water can be a start. MALAMA I KA ‘AINA !!
February 6th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Our Hawaiian ancestors viewed the land as a gift from the gods and treasured the aina. They felt it was a working gold mine. The Hawaiians viewed their land from how much resources it had, like how pu’uloa had so many places running into it and all of them start with wai. The people could have even viewed the land by who lived there. All of the people back then knew what we should know now, and that is we should save the natural resources.
The control of land was important to people because the person who owned land can have a lot of things, like if you find gold you can claim it all and have lots of money. It is your property so nobody can steal it and you will have a lot of space to plant things.
History can help us by teaching us the bad choices and the good choices, like it was bad that we welcomed captain Cook into our islands without thinking about the aftereffects.
February 6th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
QUESTIONS:
How do different groups of people view land and how do their views shape their leadership and society?
How is the control of land essential/important to people?
How is knowledge of history important for making and guiding future decisions regarding land use?
I think that different groups of people shouldn’t judge other groups of people just because of the clothes they wear or the songs they sing. People from other states that don’t know or haven’t studied our culture really don’t care about it. They just think that when they come and there is open land that is just sitting there with nothing built on top of it, it is a big piece of something we reserved for them to build on when they arrive here. I have proof of this because whenever a big company from the mainland or any other place comes, a couple of days later you hear about them making a big resort in Waikiki. This will affect both our society and theirs. Our society will keeping losing the land that was connected back to our ancestors and pretty soon our island will get way overpopulated and no one could even live here anymore because the people that come here to build big buildings will attract a lot of tourists and they will start to dispose all of their debris and trash around the roads. They will waste more resources and our islands will start to disappear because of GLOBAL WARMING!!! The other society will be affected because if one person starts to do something different in their society, then eventually everybody will start to do the same thing and then that will be their paradigm. They too will start to dispose of all of their rubbish where everyone can see it. Just like Kealani said, the Hawaiian people were already rich with all the things that they originally had with them and they always used up everything. They never wasted any part of it.
The control of land is important to some people because they would like to be connected to their ancestors and also because they would like our aina to be clean so that we can have a decent place to live and we don’t have to look at a big dump everywhere around our islands. I think that the program they started a couple years ago is a good thing because they go around once a year and spend hours at the beaches, public roads and a bunch of other places picking up rubbish to clean all those areas they went to so that the people that go there can have a good time and they won’t step on anything dangerous. Also they want to clean up the roads so that it will be safe for the drivers riding on the road.
I think that the people need to have knowledge because of the past. If they don’t, they could mess up the way that our kupuna used to do things back then. They also need knowledge because if they want to build something in the future they might want to remember about the past so that they can build things
more cultural that would have been part of the Hawaiian culture back in the 1800’s.
February 6th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Different groups of people viewed the lands in many ways. The Hawaiians thought of land as sacred and they didn’t litter. They used their natural resources resourcefully and they never wasted and always re-used what they had. The Hawaiians belonged to the land, the land did not belong to the Hawaiians. On the other hand other people like the westerners are throwing their trash any place and are not respecting the land. They believe that they own the land and they waste a lot of natural resources just for money.
The control of land is so important to people. If we keep wasting our natural resources like oil and there are no more oil left in the future, we can’t run our cars until we find another resource that we can use to start our cars. The Hawaiians were very smart in controlling their aina because they had the mauka to makai system. Everybody who lived in their ahupua`a had all the resources they needed because since the ahupua`a went from mauka to makai, they could get things from the mountains and the sea. If we continue to throw our trash anywhere and waste items, People might not be able to see the beauty of the land that we live on.
I think it’s very important to learn from history about land use because if we did something terribly wrong in the past to harm the aina, we can learn from our mistakes and not do the same thing again. If we did something great in the past to help and protect the aina, we can do the same thing in the present.
February 6th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Some people like Captain Cook think you can just own land but land is a very precious item in our culture. Our ancestors thought when their gods took form, they said if we never took care of the land, they would take away the land. They also thought that if you take care of the land, the land will take care of you or if you water kalo the land will provide food for you just like how we need plants to live. We can care for the land anytime like growing a tree, picking up trash, and most importantly recycling. I like taking care of the land by recycling, growing, and making sure trash goes in the right spot. I also use 3 garbage cans: one is for my trash, another for extra paper, and another for any natural thing like leaves.
The control of the land is a very important factor because nowadays people litter or do not reuse, reduce, and recycle because people just either do not care for the ‘aina or are just to lazy to throw it away. Our Hawaiian ancestors were the exact opposite of the present. They used everything for something even though they never recycled. They did not waste anything. For that, they were a perfect society until the downfall of their and our country. It feels like all marks or proof of us was erased and we were erased from history.
Knowledge of history is a very important factor in guiding our future and our aina because if we can prove a different kind of people was here before the Americans came, we might be able to restore our Hawaiian country. We can then change the paradigm of other countries before the tipping point leading to the end of the human race, and then maybe the death of earth and the destinies of any known species.
MALAMA I KA ’ANIA!!!!
February 6th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
The ancient Hawaiians thought that the aina was very special. They didn’t own the aina they thought the gods owned it. They took care of the land and never over used it. They would malama the aina. This was by placing kapu on things like on fishing, farming, and many other things. In kapu time you wouldn’t be able to harvest or catch things kapu time was when the plant and animals could grow and multiply.
The way of the Hawaiian had changed when caption James Cook arrived on the island. The Hawaiians wanted to wear cloths instead of kapa. This is were the Hawaiians learned the westerner’s way to own land. The westerner way to own land was to buy the land and sell it. When the westerners came it was about making money when the Hawaiians was to share. The Hawaiians were so interested about the westerner they would trade many resources for very little. (Like the sandal wood)
February 7th, 2008 at 7:22 am
I think that if we malama the aina, then the aina will malama back. If we would think before throwing things in the trash, then we wouldn’t have a disposable society. If we were to start throwing opala in its place, then our society would be able to be more like the ancient Hawaiians, not wasting anything or doing things wrong.
February 7th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Mr. Chung,
I am very impressed by the critical thinking that is taking place here on your blog. Since our third graders are learning about ahupua‘as would it be possible for some our your students to come and present to my class. I have explained to them some of the issues presented here however, it would be much more powerful and lasting.
Please consider this.
Mahalo
February 7th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Some people don’t care about Hawaiians and their land so they make buildings wherever they want just to make money. Some people see the land as a useless thing and they waste whatever they want and wherever they want. Some people think that it is okay to waste things but it is NOT okay. Because if we don’t take care of our `aina we could lose our land, lose our resources and eventually die out.
History is important because if people discovered the beliefs of Hawaiians and if they saw what they obtained from the land, people would probably change their paradigms. The Hawaiians saw the land as if it was an elderly person and they had to take care of him/her. In return the elderly man/woman would give them resources and all the things that they needed to survive. We should veiw the `aina like how the old Hawaiians did.
February 7th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Tiyana Hallums #10
Many people look at the Hawaiian Aina differently. For example, did you know that before the European men came to Hawaii, the Hawaiian people malama and took good care of the Aina? They never overfished. They did this to preserve the fish so everyone would have a share when the fish multiplied and was ready for everyone to feed on. But the Europeans had the exact opposite thought towards the land and the resources. They thought that you had to own the land. On the other hand, the Hawaiians thought that the akua, or god owned the land and the Hawaiians thought that to please the gods, they had to take care of the gods’ Aina. In addition they wanted the gods to let them keep their Aina and more importantly their lifeline. But when the Europeans came, they weren’t there just because they wanted a vacation or they wanted to see the sights. The real reason was that they wanted the Hawaiian’s natural resources. But in exchange for the Hawaiians goods, they taught the Hawaiians to be Christians. They said that, “if you want to go up to heaven, then you have to believe in god.” So the Hawaiians followed their sayings.
When native Hawaiians preserved their resources and didn’t waste anything, they were able to live in a sustainable community. They took care of the Aina. Unlike our generation, Hawaiians reduced, reused and then recycled. We just take things for granted. When we go to a store and buy a new T.V., it’s good for a couple of years, but then a new T.V. comes out. You don’t want your old T.V., you want a new one. So you throw away the other T.V. that still works, but you just want a new one. That’s a waste. We don’t care. That’s just our paradigm. A paradigm means something we or someone else thinks is so right we believe it to be always true. Yes, we think it’s normal, but is it right?
Personally, I see people picking up trash all over the place. Those people don’t do this because they are supposed to or forced to do it. They do it because they care about the future generations of Hawaii. We should all have that type of spirit too, to be grateful for all that we have today. But some people are greedy, like some of the business people. They sometimes use planned obsolescence. That means that they build things that only last 5 years on purpose. It’s all because they want money. They love of MONEY. That’s all we mostly care about, too.
Just look at Pearl Harbor, it’s a GIANT waste dump. Pu’uloa (Pearl Harbor) used to be the Hawaiians’ lifeline, where they planted food and had baths. Now look at it. All because of the U.S. army and us. We can’t even let it touch our skin.
I bet that if Captain Hook hadn’t come, we would still have a healthy life like our ancestors did. In addition, we might not be that close to Global Warming. So please, we need to pick up trash around school, around our communities, or anywhere. It might be an easy task, but it will make a difference. I’ll start now. Will you?
February 7th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Malama I Ka ‘Aina
By: Mahealani Pescaia
Did you know that my ancestors did not waste anything? In early Hawaii people felt that no one owned the land, but they had to respect and malama the land. Many days they would pray to the gods thanking them for the land because Hawaiians lived off the land. The Hawaiian people viewed the land as a big part of their life. Without the land the Hawaiians would have a hard time living.
Today people see the land as a trash can. They don’t care where they put their opala. It is against the law to litter, but police officers don’t give people tickets because they are too busy stopping other crimes. The actions of many people today does not show respect for the ‘aina. Those people are not good leaders.
As a Hawaiian I have seen the ways of living change in many ways. The first thing that changed was the paradigm of owning land. In early Hawaii our people did not own the land, but they respected it and kept it clean. The second thing I saw was that people do not malama the land. My ancestors thanked the gods for giving them the land because that is what they lived off. Today people do not respect the land and malama it because of all the grocery stores and fast food places. I actually learned that because of all the grocery stores and fast food places we have a lot of litter. Most of the rubbish on the ground is from McDonalds, Burger King, Safeway, and more. People don’t care if there’s litter as long as it’s not on his or her” property”
My ancestors and many others ancestors have always malama the ‘aina. They showed me that it is important not to litter. This will help a lot for the future because if we stop littering it may help people realize that they don’t own the land just like my ancestors. People may think that it is impossible to get this world litter free, but if they can get the litter on the ground than they can get it off too. Malama I ka ‘aina, for a better future.
February 7th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Malama i Ka`Aina
By: Keao Sproat-Hum
#23
I think that many people view the land in many different ways and respect it in many different ways. When the foreigners came they used the land to make money and they wanted own as much land possible they wanted to hunt things and they took all of the sandal wood that we had in Hawaii. Before the foreigners arrived in Hawaii the Hawaiians used the land to plant crops and harvest food and were successful by using many loko`ia and lo`i kalo. The foreigners were making it harder for the Hawaiians to do what they do in their every day lives by making plantations and filling in wetlands and loi kalo to build places like Waikiki.
The control of land is important to the foreigners so that they could build and invest on the land to make money. They also thought that the way that the Hawaiians viewed the land was strange and different. To the Hawaiians the land belonged to no one but Ke Akua, they didn’t think that it was important to own land and it was kapu. The Hawaiians respected the land and thought that if you malama the `aina the `aina would malama you meaning that if you respect the land you will get food and goods and prosperity from the land.
It is important to know how the Hawaiians used the land in past so that we can make better decisions on how we use the land in the future and follow the Hawaiians. The Hawaiians never wasted anything they used everything and they reduced, reused, and recycled. In the past 100 years or so we have made so many bad decisions that we have created 3 of the all the super fund sites in the the country here on Oahu. One of the sites is Pearl Harbor or Pu`uloa. Pu`uloa used to be full of fertility and people could swim, canoe, and surf in the water, now we can’t even touch the water. If we can make better decisions for the future, we may be able to make the `aina a cleaner, safer, and more sustainable environment to live in!
Finally I want to say that we need to malama the `aina and be like the native Hawaiians and don’t waste any thing and recycle. We shouldn’t use plastic bags or any kind of foods with plastic wrappings and we should Put opala in it’s place!
February 10th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
People view land in different ways. For example, the Europeans thought that land was to be owned and a tool to make money of. On the other hand, the Hawaiians and the Native Americans thought land was a gift that was given to them by the gods. For them it was sacred and had to taken care of.
Whoever controls the land will decide what to do with it whether or not it is good or bad. If there is someone in charge who will malama the aina then that is what will happen. But if there isn’t someone who will malama the aina and is just interested in making money and is willing to pollute to do so, then our islands will be polluted.
Knowing about your history is important because you can learn from your past mistakes. You could also learn from what our ancester did and how they lived. If you don’t know your history you could be blinded. What I mean by blinded is somebody or something did something to your people and you don’t know it. For example, all the land and rights of the Hawaiian people were taken away because some of the White men forced King Kalakaua to pass a law that said only rich people could vote. If you did not know that, how could you fight for your land back if you did not know it was taken away?
February 10th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
It really is a big difference from now and back then. Our ancient Hawaiians cared about and lived off the land. They thought that you didn’t own land, you just lived off land and survived off of it. Now in the modern times, they don’t know what land really means to them. They just litter and dump wherever they feel like it. That is not right at all. Don’t you think that we should take control of all of this littering?
Can you just imagine how it was back then? For example, look at Pu’uloa. Back then you used to be able to surf, fish and just hang out there. Now you can’t even let the water in there touch you because it is so polluted. Don’t you think we have to do something about that? We really need a change in Hawai’i.
It is not really fair that no matter how much we care about the land, they keep on dumping and dumping on the most important land parts. They have dumpsites where Hawaiians live like Waianae or Waimanalo. We have to fix all this stuff to quit it from happening.
Think about it, why should we have to just let this go when we could be out there making a huge difference to people and it just might click in other people’s brains that this really matters. The Native people used the system of reduce, reuse, and recycle. They were resourceful and they cared for the land. The only reason why the land is so polluted is because in modern times they don’t really care about the land.
It will really make a change if people knew what our past was like and how it’s nothing like it now. I would say that if the Ali’i were alive right now they would be really upset.
If we were to have total cleanness on the land, we would have a lot more advantages. We would have more fish, and would have a place to surf and swim. Now it is a site for military and tourists.
Pu’uloa really means a lot to us so please just try to help and do your part on how you can take care of the land. I am also pretty sure that nobody would want to see our land die of dump and waste.
February 14th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Many people view the land differently. For example, the westerners and Europeans think that land could be owned and you could sell it for money, but the Hawaiians believe that if you take care of the land, the land will take care of you.
The land was real important to the Hawaiians. It gave them food, shelter, clothing and wai (freshwater). If they didn’t have their land, they wouldn’t be able to survive. The Hawaiians were real smart and healthy. For example, they made all tools by hand and they were healthy because the only foods that were provided were fruits and a lot of starch.
The choices that we make today is real important. It could lead to a good community or a real bad one. If we make the choice to stop pollution and care for the ‘aina, it will be clean and healthy in the futur. But, if we keep up the pollution, there probably will be no more pu’uloa in the future.
February 18th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Future Guardians of Pu’uloa
Pu’uloa is in trouble! It has been polluted over a period of 60 years to the point of no return. It has become one of the three Super Fund sights in Honolulu. It is polluted with oil and diesel fuel, and turned into murky water. This would not have happened if Captain Cook did not find Hawaii. If Captain Cook did not find Hawaii, then Hawaii would be the way it was before. Before in Hawaii, everyone was living the good life. They had a sustainable lifestyle and a clean environment. They knew that if they did not take care of the land, the land would not provide for them. They used everything and wasted nothing. The Hawaiians used systems to help them regulate all the resources so all the resources wouldn’t run out. They were thinking this so that they can always have resources in the future.
Right now Pu’uloa is a big ship dump. We just trash our huge battleships in Pu’uloa not thinking about the environment. If we think about what we are doing then we will catch our mistakes. We could start saving Pu’uloa. We can start saving Pu’uloa by removing all the ships from the water because those ships give off bad things into the water like minerals and oil. We can also save Pu’uloa by stopping the pollution from spreading by finding a chemical that takes out all the bad things in the water and not hurting the marine animals. We should start donating to companies that are making chemicals that help do these jobs, or we should start a company that makes chemicals that help anti-pollution in waters on Superfund sites. These are big ideas for you. But what you can do to help around the island is to pick up trash on the ground and think about what you are doing to the environment because you can always hurt the environment. Do what you can to help Pu’uloa and malama I ka ‘aina.
February 20th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Well, there are basically two different types of people we are dealing with right now. The two groups are the Americans and the Hawaiians. The American view of land is that you can own land. Once you own the land you can do whatever you please with the land. The Hawaiian view of land is that you do not own the land. The akua or gods sent you down from the heavens to watch over and take care of the land (malama). All this effects how our land is today!!!!!!!
Controlling land is important because when you control land you can do whatever you please. People also use land nowadays to show how much money they have. That is not very good nowadays because we need to malama our land!
If we learn from history we can hopefully learn a lot. We can learn about how the ancient Hawaiians viewed land. If we can learn all of this then maybe we can help the land in its time of need because the land helped us. It’s only fair!!!!
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:19 am
People view the land differently. For example, the Westerners thought they could buy the land and things on it but by doing that, the land became unsustainable. The Hawaiians believed that the land belonged to nobody except the Gods and that the land was sacred. Before the westerners came to Hawaii, the land was so clean and beautiful with NO LANDFILLS.
Controlling the land is important because if you don’t control the land it will become very messy and not sustainable. It won’t look beautiful and neat like how it was to when the Hawaiians lived here.
If we learn about history and how the Hawaiians viewed land then we can try and be more like the Hawaiians and make everything neat and organized.
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:29 pm
I think that different groups of people shouldn’t judge other people by what they wear, what their religion is or how they take care of things that actually mean something to them. For example, a lot of people from the Mainland love to come to Hawaii and go to the beach because some people are in the middle of awhole land mass. They come here and have fun in their own ways, not like we do, but we don’t tell them that they cannot come here. Just because they act different doesn’t mean that we just tell them that they can’t be here. Just like land to the Hawaiians and Westerners. Land to the Hawaiians is sacred and the provider of food, water, energy and exercise. The land helps them to live their lives. If they didn’t have the land to provide them with all that they need to live, they would be very miserable because they can’t live their lives to nurture their kids and family. The old saying that was carried down from our Hawaiian ancestors was if we Malama the aina, the aina will Malama us.
That is exactly what they lived by and it was true. The Westerners didn’t even think of the land. All they thought about, 24/7, was MONEY! I think that Westerners are very greedy and envious people.
They only think about themselves. They only do things that will make them have more and not care about anyone else.
The control of land is extremely important to the Hawaiians because it is their food supply that keeps them alive. Without land, not many Hawaiians would be alive. If they didn’t have their food and watersupply they might not be able to live. We need food and water in our bodies to live. Land is not only important to the Hawaiians, land is also important to Westerners. Westerners love land but not because it gives them life. Westerners love land because if you own land that means that you have power.
I think that knowledge is very important in the world. If we didn’t have knowledge we could not be able to function in the world. To know and understand your history is very important because it explains what important events in history happened that changed the paradigm of somebody or something. Learning about our history is good for us. We should learn about our history so that we can make the right choices in the future.
February 25th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Different people view land different because that is their paradigm. Like the Indians, their paradigm was to never waste anything they used. For example, when they are hunting animals, they use its skin and bones and eat the rest. If they waste, that is irresponsible. Americans view the lands as buildings, business, and money. Hawaiians view land as paradise with luau, hula dancing, and fun.
A person’s views shapes his leadership by what he sees. If he sees paradise, he probably will be a good leader because if you see something that is going on like more pollution, you will be able to fix what it is suppose to look like because you have a picture in your mind of what it is suppose to look like. If you see an old polluted land, that person will be a bad leader because he will never end up having the good picture so it will always end up like the same thing, old and polluted.
Owning land is important to people because now if you own land, the people that live there pay rent to the people that own the land.
If you know the past in old Hawaii, you will know how to change the world back to how it was before. If I could save us from global warming, I would not mind living by recycling everything.
February 26th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Land is impotant because it was here for a reason. Don’t just throw garbage on the beach, you could be killing a bird and also destroying the land. One reason that Pearl Harbor is dirty is because of the Ala Wai. Some of it got into the Harbor and made it really dirty. Another reason is that we litter too much which is making Global warming worst. The less we litter the better our ‘aina. Anybody can make a difference.
May 16th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Malama i ka aina is a very powerful saying that the Hawaiians used. It means that you have to take care of the aina and don’t pollute it or trash it. The land to the Hawaiians was more important to them as gold or money. Did you know that aina also means life? Well it is life. Land is like a human being. She has gotten very sick because people do not take good care of her. When hurricanes come thats when she is sneezing. When there is rain she is crying. But she has been out of control lately . Thats because nobody has been taking care of her so she might die. So we humans have to help her get well so we can have a better future. We have to malama i ka aina so we won’t die. Beacause if the earth dies, we die too.