Nature and culture in Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary

[Native Hawaiian chant] E ala e, ka lā i ka hikina I ka moana, ka moana hohonu Pi‘i ka lewa, ka lewa nu‘u I ka hikina, aia ka lā E ala e! [chant continues] [Kimokeo Kapāhulehua] It’s very significant that science with Hawaiian Island Humpback Whale Sanctuary plays a big big role with culture and science partnerships. For preservation, perpetuation, education we can find out the wrongful thing and make the correct thing. [Sol Kaho‘ohalahala] These are all our sanctuary waters that surround the island of Lāna‘i so within the sanctuary are many many storied places that are tied to the culture of the people that are living here. We must care for this place and the stories must be cared for, the resources must be cared for, and now we have a responsibility as the sanctuary to look at these waters. [Bob Leinau] I’ve been in the water here since 1965 a lot and when I first got here, it was live off the land kind of thing and I’ll throw my spear every day] and I’m watching stuff go downhill and downhill and downhill and at some point in time, you say, it’s more fun to see a fish than to go kill it.

01:14 - [Hanohano Na‘ehu] This is the one place in the whole galaxy that has become our home and it seems like we’re just trashing it. For me as a native, native stories only go so far, and with scientists, they speak the language that can go around the world. Science can make us smarter, but we believe native intelligence can make science smarter also. [Native Hawaiian chant performed by Jolynn Paman] Mālie ‘o Maui i ke aheahe makani ‘o Haleakalā, He makani onaona i ke ‘ala līpoa ‘O Ka‘ono‘ulu lā i ka ‘āina ‘o Kula la‘i ē, iē, iē He kai malino, kai ‘olu‘olu, kai mē’oki‘oki lā He kai kapu a Kanaloa [chant continues] [Sol Kaho‘ohalahala] The manner in which we care for our land is going to be the manner in which the ocean is going to reflect that. But if we fail to do that, then we can be assured that the result of no care of land, and it will be losing those environments that are important to us culturally as part of our sustenance and our way of life.

02:37 - [Bob Leinau] There needs to be a way to have protected areas where people can learn and educate not even so much for today, as for where we’re going to be 50 years from now. [Hanohano Na‘ehu] That’s the future, yeah, it’s a collective. It’s not, oh, natives and scientists separate, natives, scientists, and government separate. We all gotta be on the same team, on the same page. We in this together. We want the same thing. We want to save our planet. We want to take care of our resources. We value nature and that for me is golden. .