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MY MANA‘O ~ ~ ~ If you are new to MWAC, Sunday Mālama is when we mix it up here. I may offer an extreme tangent to our current value of the month (for April: Mellow Maintenance Mālama), or write about something completely different. My very first Sunday Mālama was this one: A Beginning and this click gives you the full index to page through. I call Sunday Mālama my mana‘o meaning that it shares a deeper view of my thoughts, beliefs, and convictions with you, my Ho‘ohana Community. Thus, Sunday Mālama is also an invitation to share your mana‘o if you wish to. |
A question arrived in my email yesterday morning, for which a short answer just wasn’t possible, for it is a question of Nānā i ke kumu, itself a value, meaning “look to the source.”
I am also very aware that I do not have a great answer for this question, and certainly not a complete one. Yet I am going to try my best here, for I think the query makes for good Sunday Mālama reflection for us, and I could use your help!
The question sent also could not have been asked of me at a better time, for as I am reminded of by this month’s value, Ha‘aha‘a, it is a question I must be very humble about answering. It is a question which makes me feel somewhat small and unworthy, and presumptuous even in my trying. The answer is one I can easily think about, and there are answers I believe to be true, but I cannot say they are answers I would claim to know.
The question was from a gentleman who does not live in Hawai‘i, who is making his way through the reading of my book, Managing with Aloha. Michael wrote,
“Rosa, can you tell me anything about the history of how Hawaiian values developed?”
Oh my. Could there be a bigger question?
I was born and raised in Hawai‘i, and have lived here my entire life save for just short of two of my teenage years in the Philippine islands. Ironically that puts me at somewhat of a disadvantage, for I have been immersed in local values from as far back as my memory goes, and in many ways must work with diligent focus to be scholarly or historically correct with them: Local living in Hawai‘i is not necessarily Hawaiian.
When people ask for such references, that is, the scholarly or historically correct ones, I will normally point them to Dr. George Kanahele’s book Kū Kanaka, Stand Tall. Yet even Dr. Kanahele was careful to add his humble subtitle, A Search for Hawaiian Values.
Many in Hawai‘i today, me included, will tell you that we may still be searching.
I was one who started my own ‘better informed search’ with Dr. Kanahele four decades ago, and living within the shifts of more recent years has been utterly fascinating —and the subject of a good number of debates.
I think of values as universal and as timeless as principles, virtues, and planetary laws; it is unimaginable to me that anyone but the Lord God Himself could claim authorship of these things. To say that values are Hawaiian, or European, or Asian, or of any other ethnicity, is just to say that we have shaped their interpretation with our place-connected contexts and ancestrally shared beliefs. Therefore, in answering Michael’s question, the best I can hope to do, is share what I believe have been strong influences in the shaping of the values that we call “Hawaiian” today. (Another tidbit: ‘Hawaiian’ is a western word, and not one of the ancient language.)
To be most accurate, it would be best to divide our answer in certain time periods, for the Hawai‘i of old before Captain Cook arrived is quite remarkably different from the Hawai‘i of today, and different from plantation Hawai‘i prior to World War II and our Statehood in 1959. (A good timeline-in-brief can be seen here.) However I am not using a chronological time-line to keep this as an article, and not an entire white paper or book draft!
So I will list a few things as I would first tend to include them (i.e. as I have been taught and have learned), and perhaps those of you reading who are also of our Hawai‘i nei could help me and add your feelings as well? Let us think of this as an essay of exploration in progress!
Finding 8: Coincidence or Makawalu Opportunity?
There is another reason Michael’s question seemed to be so opportune: This past Thursday and Friday I attended a tourism conference on O‘ahu sponsored by the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association (NaHHA) called Hō ‘ā ka Lamakū, Keep the Torch Burning.
NaHHA was founded in 1997 by Dr. George Kanahele, PhD, and Kenneth Brown, a renowned leader in Hawai‘i business and health systems, formerly state senator and chair of the Queen’s Health Systems. As native Hawaiians, both these gentlemen had serious concerns about the direction of tourism and its impact on our local communities. In particular, they were concerned about the misuse and lack of respect for Hawaiian culture, values, and traditions. NaHHA’s mission to protect and perpetuate these assets today is accomplished through consultation and training, developing and implementing effective communication tools, conducting research, and providing project support.
My plan this weekend was to debrief with some of the learning I was able to gain at the conference, and this has been a wonderful way to begin doing so. To my past learning from Dr. Kanahele and others, I add some very current wisdom shared at the conference by Kumu Tommy Kaulukukui, Kumu Ramsay Taum, Kumu Peter Kamamo Apo, Dr. Pualani Kanaka‘ole Kanahele, professional photographer Dewitt Jones, Andrew Te Whaiti, James Koshiba of Kanu Hawai‘i and others. The conference was one of intensive learning, and our Sunday Mālama today turned out to be an unexpected opportunity to seize my Kuleana (responsibility) with teaching what I continue to learn.
Makawalu is a new Hawaiian word for me, just learned on Friday: Maka is the word for eyes, and walu is eight, thus makawalu means to look for eight ways or facets of thinking. It stems from a belief that our intelligence is infinite: For each of the eight perspectives one might come up with, another eight will be possible (making 64), and on, and on, and on to infinite possibility.
When I had written my first draft for this, it my list of first thoughts came to walu, eight, not by design, but just by arrival of thinking... just as the voyagers who first came to Hawai‘i would initially give us names for eight of her largest islands...
March 2008 image of the incoming tide in Hawai‘i by Taiger808
The Effect of Voyaging and of Isolation
Kumu Ramsay Taum has a wonderful presentation involving the legend of the demi-god Maui, in which he explains how Hawai‘i’s culture prior to the arrival of Captain James Cook in 1778 developed as a result of voyaging and migration, and then settlement and survival in isolation. It can accurately be said that we who now call ourselves “native Hawaiians” and keiki o ka ‘āina (children of the land) have ancestors who were without exception visitors at one time, all arriving by canoe. The ancient Hawaiians were an extremely resourceful people; there is only so much you can bring with you across the open sea in a canoe! Certainly those earliest arrivals brought their values of another place and time with them. Some values live on, some are true mutations, others have disappeared altogether. This combination of voyaging and isolation is a fascinating one, for voyaging represents adventure, freedom and immensely promising possibility. I would venture to say that no Hawaiian ever felt the world was flat!
In his conference welcome, John De Fries, President of the NaHHA Board, shared his mana‘o that Captain Cook was not the first tourist to Hawai‘i; our ancestors were. Further, they believed they arrived at a place which though vacant of human life, was thriving and teeming with life forces that were meant to be blended with ours. His point was that we support tourism today not because it is the surviving option which displaced our once agrarian society, but because it is a welcoming and blending we have always done from our most humble beginnings: We have shared the Aloha within life.
We are Islanders, and not “Mainlanders”
When they decided to land, stay and settle however, those earliest voyagers did arrive at a chain of islands, and not at a continent or massive land mass: Today our values are very much shaped by what we refer to as an ‘island sensibility’ and an ‘island intelligence.’ In fact this may be one of our strongest value influences at present, for attend any social, civic, business or environmental issue discussion here —yes, any where the talk story becomes lengthy— and you will be sure to hear someone say with pained expression that we are no longer a self-sustaining culture, but one heavily relying on imports of all kinds for our continued survival. We have not been true to the ancient island intelligence that our resources are indeed limited and thus must be honored and cared for (Mālama) if they are to be perpetuated versus encroached upon and denuded.
As islanders, we articulate much about life within the metaphor and historical context of the ahupua‘a, the wedge-shaped land division that ran from the summits of our mountains down to the sea. By their geographical nature, our volcanic islands have given us a unique sense of place that is quite elemental in its connection. At the conference, Kumu Tommy Kaulukukui nā haumana (and his students) shared a way that we could each personally self-reflect, to identify with our mountains, valleys, rivers, ocean, winds, and the rain, explaining that our Kūpuna (elders and teachers) would likely say to us, “How can you know who you are if you do not know your place?”
Big and Universal, not Small or Self-Contained
I think an important distinction to keep in mind however, is that our ‘island thinking’ would never be described as small or self-contained. The concept of ‘āina, though literally and simply translated as land, is huge, and includes the ocean, and as far as your canoe can possibly take you. In her fascinating presentation, Dr. Pualani Kanaka‘ole Kanahele told us of how The Kumulipo, the genealogy composed for a newborn chief, but believed by many to tell the story of our creation (and composed a century before Charles Darwin was born) makes pointed reference to
- Papahulihonua (all facets of the earth and of the oceans),
- Papahulilani (all strata of the spaces above us, i.e. the heavens to all reaches of the universe, both horizontally and vertically) and
- Papanuihanaumoku (all facets of birthing, origin and embryonic possibility).
Despite their isolation, our ancestors have always felt very connected to all possibility of life itself. It was within Auntie Pua’s presentation that I learned of makawalu:
“Culturally and metaphorically, ‘makawalu’ asserts that intelligence is infinite, and therefore, it belongs to no one person nor one school of thought, nor one generation. This establishes a very high standard for life-long learning and the active pursuit of knowledge, whether it’s in a formalized school, the natural environment, within our families or in business… [there is] an inward journey to a deeper understanding and respect for our existence on these islands and the inherent responsibilities and opportunities that come with it.”
Mythology, Religion and Spirituality
If not a physically apparent answer, Hawaiian society has always been quick to wholeheartedly accept a spiritual one: Ours is a culture founded in belief and respect for the sacred, and whereas the trappings of religion may fall away, our deeply held values continue to reflect this acceptance of divine power and immense respect for it. Religion was the central authority of early Hawaiian society, and in his book, Dr. Kanahele goes to great lengths to explain why apart from the keen reality Hawaiians felt about mythology, Hawai‘i could not have existed at all. Religion influenced virtually everything and every phase of each person’s individual and communal life. There were thousands of gods, and the Hawaiians said that man created the gods in his own image and not the other way around, not in superiority, but just so they could better articulate the character and functioning of their gods.
Two hundred years later, religion and its supporting institutions have long since been pushed aside by business, labor, science, education, technology— and one might argue it is so in nearly every other culture as well, not just ours. However while we may be willing to relinquish the religion of old—and largely have done so, we have not denied our spirituality, for it is the essence of our personal mana (divine power as human beings) and of aloha itself, our innate ability to live together in the way that our mana is shared and communally integrated. To the ancient Hawaiians, our American separation of church and state would have been considered absolutely absurd, and this remains a discomfort for many. We may not pray in our schools anymore with deference to our Statehood, but we pule (pray) everywhere else, whether with words, chants, song or mutually granted silence. Like many other places throughout America, there is a steady return to religion in the islands today, though of the Western and Asian theologies, and not of ancient Hawai‘i.
The Ghost of Inferiority
This is a sensitive subject, and if you only know Hawai‘i by reading my words it may totally surprise you. I trust in and defer to Dr. Kanahele’s book to explain it:
“Every Hawaiian has a built-in inferiority complex,” a well-educated, well-paid Hawaiian professional has said. “You can’t help but have it, because you come from a culture that’s ‘no good,’ and nothing in it is good. You have no solid foundation. So you flounder around and you can’t find a place for yourself. Everywhere you go, you get reminded of the fact that you are Hawaiian… that you’re lazy, that you don’t have a brain… There is this emptiness that exists for a Hawaiian.”
“Our search for values is also a search for renewed pride in our traditions, but this is unlikely to be realized unless the ghost of inferiority is fully exorcised… the Hawaiians before 1778 did not believe they were an inferior people. That alien notion came from the outside… it came in the Pandora’s box of the Westerners who followed in Captain Cook’s wake. Perhaps the beginnings lay not so much in the fact that Hawai‘i’s natives were inferior, but that the whites brought things that made them seem superior. In either event, the germ of the idea —more deadly to the soul of Hawaiians than any disease germ— was racism.”
Of important note here is that there has been a surrender to culture, and not just to governance. People in Hawai‘i continue to fight for a reclaiming of both, and the sovereignty movement is thought by many residents to be short-sighted and misdirected in that it is a minority movement primarily focused on governance, and a separation of people within the islands as well; these are not the true values of the Hawaiian culture claimed as wronged and lost.
Dr. Kanahele also quoted John Holt, who worrying over the conditions of today’s Hawaiians asked,
“Do we really know ourselves as Hawaiians, enjoy being Hawaiians, and strive to find places in which we can use our talents in all areas of present-day life as active, participating, productive, first-class citizens of the United States?”
[If you would like to ‘meet’ John Dominis Holt, I highly recommend this story shared by navigator Nainoa Thompson: Sacred Forests / Chapter 5 - Advice from a Kupuna.]
The Hawaiian Renaissance and Ethnic Melting Pot
Our answer to John Holt’s question in recent times has been what is referred to as a Hawaiian Renaissance, the generational movement of cultural rebirth since the 1970’s that I have been a part of, blessed in that it has coincided with my adult life. It is a renaissance where we have diligently sought to learn and celebrate all things Hawaiian in heritage in every way it is still possible to do so, hoping that our past heritage will more strongly influence our present culture. There has been a beautiful rebirth of tradition, arts and crafts, music and dance, and what can be referred to as artistic and innate island talent and expertise. Values weave throughout them all brilliantly, and especially exciting and energizing to me, they are values which connect the Hawai‘i of old and new brilliantly too.
Born within the time of this Renaissance, my own children and most of their generation are not saddled with the “ghost of inferiority.” The exorcism Dr. Kanahele called for has been successful in many of our communities (though not all), a direct result of what I would call breakthrough parenting and Baby Boomer indulgence. Also of significance, the last three generations are products of the ethnic melting pot of plentiful cultures we now have in the islands and refer to as “local” and wonderfully diverse. My children are Filipino, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, and English in ancestry, but just as I am, and as my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were, they are Native Hawaiian by birth and by true heritage and lived-within culture. Ethnic diversity is commonplace in Hawai‘i; we are all mixed breeds who take great pride in simply saying we are “of this place.” We revere our genealogy and know of our bloodlines, but not of the ethnic cultural practice of those bloodlines; we have only lived as the Hawaiians of our time.
Our Love-Hate Relationship with Tourism
There is a saying about commerce in the islands that business people will often lament is simply way too true for comfort: “When tourism catches a cold, we all get sick.” In brief, we love tourism for the revenue streams with which it feeds our local economy, and we hate it for the stress it places on our infrastructure: Current estimates are that there are 7 tourists here daily for every resident.
It is not that we feel overrun as much as we are conscious of how few the options with our earning potential where the cost of living in paradise is exceptionally high. The single biggest employer in Hawai‘i today is the U.S. military; as pervasive as it is for us, travel and tourism rank at number two. When you think about this, both would be considered foreign influences that cannot claim a full century’s worth of integration or resolution within Hawai‘i.
More dramatically, both have made a direct hit on the one value we consider the very rootstock of all our other values: The genuine desire to freely share our Aloha spirit with complete generosity. That viewpoint of consistency with our origins as shared by John De Fries (above in the section on the effect of voyaging and isolation), is not one widely accepted here; even as our most honored kūpuna insist on its truth, many will look away and mutter with a disrespect borne of sad resentments, saying it is just a pretty story by those who now wish to justify their existence.
Still, love it or hate it the fact remains; tourism drives the bus called our State economy by providing the fuel for our present-day standards of living. Indulgent beings of the 21st century that we are, they are standards we are not willing to give up in creating the simplest of new habits... like turning off the tap when we brush our teeth.
“We have no choice but to get along.”
This was something that James Koshiba said in his conference presentation, and it is a good summation of many other influences in our more recent history. (The last two links shared go to Kanu Hawaii, of which James is a founder. Kanu Hawaii is our GenX/Yers’ championing of a new Island Style Activism.) Much as Madame Pele continues to build our islands we are still mere dots in a very vast ocean, however we are no longer isolated: Air travel and U.S. military occupation has made Hawai‘i an international hub and gateway. We are no longer an agrarian, self-sufficient society as were the Hawaiians of old, and we no longer live on plantations. Technology has connected us virtually however we remain geographically remote.
Therefore, if you are a resident, and choose to live and work in Hawai‘i, the values which will equip you best —for our values drive our behavior— are those which help you be individually responsible and self-reliant while also the best team player, community volunteer, and global citizen you can be. We may struggle with this daily, especially as we feel the pressures of investment growth and density, however I believe we share the realization we must try to get along, even if we stubbornly will not say so out loud, fiercely proclaiming our desire to be independent.
Hawai‘i is relatively small, and relationally small, in that it is still a place where everyone seems to be somehow related within very few degrees of separation: Everyone seems to know everyone else. Our elders often admonish us to be careful with what we say (meaning we should never say a negative word), for we never know when we will unintentionally insult our listener’s family. Therefore,
- Pono, rightness and balance,
- Lōkahi, unity and harmony,
- Kākou, the language of inclusiveness and togetherness, and
- ‘Ohana, family and community,
...are dominant values which have never been stronger. The up side to this is that we strive to work together better, hoping and expecting that we will end up living together better too (thus the very favorable reception I have been so fortunate to enjoy for Managing with Aloha).
It pains me to say so, but today, in the right now of this writing, we struggle most with the value of Aloha and genuinely wanting to give it freely. My own take on this, is that we are very fearful of the brutally ugly reality that our proud history of island self-sufficiency is something we will never, ever enjoy again. We are grappling with how to deal with that for accepting it is just too hard, and values like Ho‘okipa (hospitality) and Lokomaika‘i (generosity) are not as prevalent as they once were. The word you hear much more often is reciprocity, a concept which can confuse more than it can explain.
What would you add?
How would you answer Michael’s question on how history has shaped our values? Have you been taught more, or taught differently by your kūpuna (elders of our culture)? If so, I would love to hear from you, and invite you to share your mana‘o ka ‘ike (beliefs borne of learning), and any kaona (context, hidden storied meaning) you feel will give us relevancy and understanding.
Just one more thing…
You may have noticed that I have not referenced too much of Managing with Aloha up to now, though my own book is a packaging of nineteen Hawaiian values. It is a packaging for a certain context; management and the world of business, and not as a complete study of all Hawaiian values. More importantly, I will be the first to tell you that Managing with Aloha is what I believe to be true (thus my personal nānā i ke kumu) and what I believe to be most useful for the workplace versus a work of definitive truths of our local culture. If the history of Hawai‘i intrigues you, I encourage you to read Dr. George Kanahele’s book Kū Kanaka, Stand Tall, A Search for Hawaiian Values. Online, you can find good information at www.hawaiihistory.com, and at the website of the Polynesian Voyaging Society.
At their essence, values are what we choose to believe, in the way we choose to interpret and express those beliefs. The most universal value of them all is said to be love; however while I also favor the hope, optimism and promise of that statement, I would assert that our most universal value is our very right to choose whatever values we prefer to believe in and stake our humanity on.
I look forward to your sharing. I am eager to learn what you would add.
Mahalo nui loa, me ke aloha a me ka ha‘aha‘a,
With my gratitude, aloha in respect and utmost humility,
—Rosa
Photo Credits where not specified above:
Travel Poster from www.hawaiihistory.com, and Cellophane Hula Skirt photo by MikeNeilson on Flickr.
Mahalo, thank you for reading today, especially because this was so much longer than usual!
- If you would like to read more about Aloha, you may enjoy Aloha in A Love Affair with Writing
- Early in the article I had also made reference to this, an older Sunday Mālama essay written this past November: Believe, Think, or Know?
- My most recent commentaries on my home state have been these: Civil Responsibility in 2008 for Hawai‘i and for you, and Working Beyond Their Means.
Rosa,
You've made my day just reading your thoughtful post. Thank you for the time and effort you put into it as well as the humility of your words. You've given me a lot of food for thought and I plan to reflect on it over the coming days.
With much gratitude and respect,
Michael
Posted by: Michael Lee Stallard | May 11, 2008 at 12:10 PM
That's a great post! There's nothing wrong with a tourism economy, as long as there is some balance with the local economy. the recent shutdowns of Aloha Airlines and ATA have been a wake up call for local businesses.
One might compare Honolulu to Las Vegas, but there are major difference between the styles and approaches of these two cities. Las Vegas had more room to grow and less local history to appropriate, after all.
Legalized gambling would wreck Oahu. Illegal gambling is bad enough in the state of Hawaii, and it is sad that so many residents tolerate and support these activities.
Illegal vacation rentals are another problem in our state. It's a sign of selfishness, and a further erosion of community values.
The local infrastructure must accommodate tourists, after all... but the culture should not bend so much that it breaks apart.
Posted by: billso | May 11, 2008 at 12:36 PM
Mahalo nui to you Michael. You gave me the opportunity to write through something that was good for me to sit with and think more about in a very personal way. This is likely to be an essay I will continually edit relentlessly, claiming that privilege as a citizen publisher still studying her own roots. That said, I am not sure I could honestly say I'd have tackled this without some kind of prompting, so I am grateful to you.
Posted by: Rosa Say | May 11, 2008 at 12:37 PM
Mahalo for adding your perspective Bill; this surely is an intriguing time to live in Hawai‘i, isn't it. I am not sure we have ever grappled with issues so large and unsettling, but then again, I must say I wonder at times if they seem overly so because we are so technologically connected now... in all we call "modern" there can rarely be the statement made that "ignorance is bliss."
Selfishness has been a convenience we must all question right now as we realize that our places are becoming more and more fragile each day. I must be positive though, and put selfishness together with convenience, as a true luxury we can no longer afford. I prefer to think that selfishness is not the true, root cause motivation people have... that would be sad indeed!
Posted by: Rosa Say | May 11, 2008 at 01:01 PM
Rosa, thank you for sharing this most thoughtful essay.
This line resonated in particular - The concept of ‘āina, though literally and simply translated as land, is huge, and includes the ocean, and as far as your canoe can possibly take you.
I wonder if it is because it reminds me of you, who paddles her canoe so beautifully and graciously as far as it can take her - and us.
Joanna
Posted by: Joanna Young | May 12, 2008 at 08:53 AM
Joanna, first I must say mahalo; thank you for the generosity of your compliment, and for the constant of your friendship in reading so much of what I write, especially something of this length! I know what a full time this is for you right now.
Second I must share this admission: You have begun to know me in such a perceptive way, and can say so much to me with so few sentences! I thought about the canoe quite a bit while within this writing, wondering about the faith and bravery of the earliest Hawaiian peoples, and wondering what kind of person I might have been if living at that time, not yet having the benefit of living hundreds of years in their future, with their life lessons-learned as my teachers. They had such bravery, and their voyaging was a tremendous leap of faith. Their legacy has been to give what was a leap of faith for them, as a very basic belief for me: Within their aloha, all people are inherently born to good, meant to be good, and to accomplish great things. Any reaching out I might do is a reaffirmation of that belief when I am blessed enough to make connections with others, much more than it could ever be called Koa, courageous, or Lokomaika‘i, generous.
I need look no further than the comments I have gotten here already from you, Bill, and Michael as more proof!
Posted by: Rosa Say | May 12, 2008 at 12:43 PM
Thank you, Rosa, for taking the time to write this beautiful post that has given me so much to think about. One of the quotations that you include, “How can you know who you are if you do not know your place?”, struck a particular chord with me. I believe that our 'place', our land, our 'aina' (am I using that correctly, Rosa?) is integral to our sense of self and to the values we hold onto as a way of expressing that sense of self. Whilst your writing here specifically addresses the values that have developed in Hawaii, I can see how it would be possible to extrapolate some of what you have said here, to all those who appreciate and embrace that sense of place, that feeling of belonging, that source of strength and identity.
I have a feeling I'll be revisiting this post, Rosa!
Posted by: amypalko | May 12, 2008 at 10:41 PM
Thanks Rosa, I really enjoyed reading this and since we have just met, it was especially enlightening and thought provoking. I mentioned to you on twitter, some of my many connections to Hawaii, why it has held intrigue for me since early childhood.
My cousin is married to a native Hawaiian and lives there, but I have learned more in your one post than many of my conversations with her on this topic.
I have never lived long enough in one place to feel like it was " my place" and think perhaps much of the earth feels like "home" to me....especially places that combine mountains and sea. ( Of course, Moscow outskirts and Jerusalem do not have that and I weeped at both places at first sight with a sense of knowing too). I use to have a favorite T-shirt that said " Only visiting this planet". ;)
Yet I do think a sense of place and history has a profound effect on people. I feel the 800 years of peace here in Andalucia between the Christians, Jews and Muslims, but also the anguish of the inquisition...in the land.
I love the combination of adventuring and isolation that you bring up! I can relate. ;)
I have read that Hawaii is one of the spiritual centers on earth, so that pulls me there more than anything. I look forward to reading more of your thoughts and rereading this a few times. ;)
Posted by: Soultravelers3 | May 13, 2008 at 12:53 AM
Amy, the Sense of Place exercise that Kumu Tommy Kaulukukui was referring to (What is your MWROWR- mountain, valley, river, ocean, wind and rain) was presented to us in the context of learning Hawaiian-rooted leadership principles, and I would say that your mana‘o added here for us makes a similarly strong connection! We must self-manage and self-lead before we can presume to manage or lead others, or even set the best example for our children and/or community, and that self-direction of our behaviors does require that we have a sense of belonging (just as Abraham Maslow shared his pyramid to articulate our hierarchy of human needs.)
And yes Amy, because I know a bit more of your context (having the extraordinary richness of our personal friendship to draw from) you indeed use your reference to ‘āina correctly within your Ho‘ohana, your intention :) You know how much I wholeheartedly agree that Sense of Place is a “source of strength and identity” for us.
When I wrote Managing with Aloha there was no question for me where I would add my pages on Sense of Place, although it is a concept which actually runs through the entire book like a silent but steady heartbeat: I described Sense of Place within my earliest draft on Nānā i ke kumu, and it never was edited or shifted elsewhere.
Posted by: Rosa Say | May 13, 2008 at 10:30 AM
Jeanne D’Arc (aka @soultravelers3) :) mahalo nui for continuing our conversation here! (Those 140-character tweets are challenging for get-to-know you talk stories, aren’t they?)
I can relate more to your cousin than you would guess! For the majority of us here in the islands, living in Hawai‘i today is not much different than living in any modern, cosmopolitan city, even if we grew up here (from “small kid time” as we say.) To truly learn more of a culture we are supposedly immersed in (again, within ‘isolation’) one must dedicate the time to studying it, and studying it with several sources collectively represented by what we call the mo‘ōlelo, succession of talk in story told through the generations (both factual and romantic). It was a study I did not passionately (or diligently) leap into myself until I met Dr. Kanahele and was well into my adult years (and already a wife and mother.) I am very pleased to know you feel this has been helpful to you.
Hawai‘i certainly is a place where people arrive at a comfort with those spiritual tuggings you mention. One link somewhat buried in my article is the one at the end of that section I called “Mythology, Religion and Spirituality.” It goes to a wonderful story Professor George Tanabe wrote for the current issue of Hawaiian Airlines’ inflight Hana Hou magazine called Shaka Budda on our Hawai‘i-grown interpretation of Zen Buddhism. It is another way to consider our melting pot!
I must say that what you have (“much of the earth feels like "home" to me”) versus what you say you don’t have (“I have never lived long enough in one place to feel like it was my place”) is very inspiring to me. That is why I just had to meet you when I was fortunate enough to catch a tweet or two of your conversation with Amy!
Posted by: Rosa Say | May 13, 2008 at 11:08 AM