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Ma keia aina pulama mai i loko o kuu naau. 

The land that has nurtured me in its depths fills my heart.

Aloha aina, or the love and care of land, is the center of Hawaiian intelligence and continuity. Loving land, ocean and waterways is a real thing. It is the iini or anima mundi of my life and the life of my ohana. We are neither sentimental nor nostalgic about its central role in our thinking, singing, creating or actions.

Aloha aina is also the practice of serving people because people and place are synonyms for each other. Here is the Hawaii that fills my heart!

Here is why we turned our older way to describe land — kuu aina aloha, beloved lands that have always loved us — into the now-famous mantra “Aloha aina!” that inspired the Protect Kahoolawe Ohana, Maunakea and all other sites of clashing cosmologies.

We re-learned the essence of our indigenous selves: that love of land is the operating principle of our science, culture, arts and heritage.

How then does aloha aina/aina aloha play out in our modern lives?

A more specific question has been posed: How can aloha aina inspire and instruct the housing conundrum we now find ourselves in?

The real question is: What does housing look like with aloha aina at the center?

Native knowledge holds the potential to transform policy deserts into aina momona, into ideas that flourish with the beauty that gives meaning to life.

Placing Hawaiian cultural values at the center of our thinking draws those values into existence, makes them live. When actions spring from principles, those actions have the force and goodness of those principles. This is not soft science or an impossible pipe dream, it is a rigorous and definitive component of continuity.

And so, here are seven principles that, if honored, promise to completely transform the modern story of housing in Hawaii.

Hoopono: Truth-Telling Practices

Truth-telling includes active and empathic listening, responding and self-understanding. It is the creating of goodness through actions, thoughts and words. It is the kumupaa (foundation) of hooponopono – when families seek healing from difficulties and strained relationships through ritualized and deep truth-telling.  Aina and beloved kupuna have always taught and nourished us to behave in this way: Goodness. Pono. Truth.

When love of land is at the center of knowing, hoopono is basic, and when people meet with this shared capacity, obstacles become talking points for collaboration and impossibilities dissolve with collective intention. I have seen it. You have seen it. Why then do we not ritualize this in our housing discussions?

Nohona Hawaii: Living A Hawaiian Way

Living a Hawaiian way still exists because we do. When aloha aina is at the center, and housing is the issue, we respect our vibrant and vital sharing economy. We honor the differences between Waimanalo and Waianae, and give thanks when Kauai and Maui are in the room because we know their knowledge is ono and shaped by different winds and dispositions.

We begin meetings by acknowledging hidden wisdom, and bring forth the aina within our names. Living a Hawaiian way helps us maintain aloha, speak pono, bring food and enjoy the company of others. We seek harmony with the world and know that when we can share in this way, we strengthen our own commitment to the issues at hand.

Living a Hawaiian way is the essence of our uniqueness as island people and it can creatively address a wide range of housing issues if we allow it to flourish.

Kokua Mai, Kokua Aku: Help And Be Helped

Help and be helped does not mean: “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” It is a Hawaiian way that knows the gift is in the giving. When this knowing is shared, relationships grow and friendships deepen. We depend on each other, and this understanding brings joy and awareness into obligation.

When we gave help, we did not barter, we shared. Therein lies the difference between our Hawaiian sense of gifting and the accumulative and competitive nature of capitalism. In housing, it means we can be more creative about who can plan, build and plant around our homes. The skills of our lahui (nation) are immense, deep and wide, and the sharing economy lives. Conflict of interest will then turn into a statement of relationship so community no longer withers behind a false sense of integrity. If I don’t know you, there’s a reason for that. We are island people, and pono is recognized.

Auamo Kuleana: Collective Transformation Through Individual Excellence

Collective transformation through individual excellence is the noa huna (esoteric) interpretation of “carry your responsibility.” It is kin to the Buddhist idea of Paticca Samuppada or dependent co-arising. Your excellence becomes my own. We mutually evolve, or don’t, simultaneously.

I love this idea. It is summed up by my friend Dr. Ku Kahakalau who calls it the Luau Model. One doesn’t tell uncle how to heat the stones for his imu or tell aunty how to make squid luau. They know what they’re doing. Watch and learn from their excellence.

I have learned that when you allow people to activate their own excellence, things get done and miracles happen. It’s a form of energy that links into expansive channels of procreative potential. It is an old way to recognize the pono in each person and to ask: What can you do? How can you kokua this project? Objectives are transactional. Auamo kuleana is tranformational.

Ike Aina: Cultural Agroforestry And Food Security

Cultural agroforestry and food security are key components to our housing movement when aloha aina is at the center.

We plant tropical island foods that have flourished here for thousands of years. We kanu niu, ulu, maia, uala, kalo – coconut, breadfruit, banana, sweet potato, kalo. We plant hala, ti, puakenikeni, plumeria, mango, avocado, uhaloa and mamaki. We plant foods and teas we love and plants that we can fashion leis, mats and life with. We grow our relationality with the plants we surround ourselves with.

My friend Bobby Camara calls this cultural landscaping. Have you ever been in lands with rejuvenated soil and running water? If you have, there is no longer any doubt why waiwai – water/water – became our word for wealth. We could produce food and then we shared.

Our future can be this. Why are we not actively looking at cultural ways to conserve water? Why canʻt we bring ways to capture water from our roofs during winter months? Ike aina is a kanaka way to learn from land, moons, seasons, winds, rains and from our responses to it all. Why not awaken to the wisdom of aina?

Ike Kupuna: Enduring Knowledge Practices

Enduring knowledge is a gift our elders give us, over and over and over.  We are simply links in a long chain of life, and just because many of us do not see this does not make it any less real. This kind of knowing inevitably links to land and water and all the things that come with an awareness that goes beyond self-interest and the commodification of land and time.

Knowledge from those more experienced about how to care for land and people will be part of this housing movement because that is the strength of culture and the purpose of intergenerational transfer. When we do this well, everyone heals. Bring in wisdom and let us practice hoolono (listening deeply).

Kauhale: Housing With Shared Purpose

Housing with shared purpose is not a new idea, itʻs old. To gravitate to those interested in living in different configurations will most likely be unusual to almost everyone.

A kauhale is a small village, a community, a visionary group living in ways that harness skill, creativity and principles. Aloha aina can be a powerful source in which to gather those interested in a different way, a hoopono process, a cultural medium in which to actualize ohana and heal ourselves.  When purpose is shared, there is a larger sense of production and capacity.

Living collectively is an idea whose time has returned. Allow us to create meaning with others and watch what will happen.

Haina mai ka puana. Thus ends my song of the beauty of kuu aina aloha and her role in housing.

Land loves. She is our mother and divine spark drawing us into qualities we honor and affirm. Now comes the specifics, the policies, the collaborations.

Trusting and consciousness that creates meaning with others is one game plan. There are many, many others. What is clear from this exercise is the potential we all have when we pay attention to how aina instructs.

Be clear, be moist, grow. But first, let us rejuvenate the soil of our own understanding of aloha aina/aina aloha and respect its role in worldwide awakening. We begin here. We return there. We heal here. Mau ke aloha no Hawaii.