Aloha,
E Komo Mai!

Introduction: A Website for the Exploration of Traditional Hawaiian Agriculture and Aquaculture

Aloha, and welcome to our Traditional Hawaiian Agriculture website! This online resource, funded by the USDA Alaska Native-Serving and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions Education Grants Program, is the result of a Hawaiian fishpond project that was initiated in early 2005 by the Pacific Aquaculture & Coastal Resources Center (PACRC). Since that time, the scope of this project has broadened to include traditional Hawaiian agriculture. The PACRC is dedicated to the advancement of long-term sustainable use and conservation of coastal areas in the Hawaiian Islands and worldwide through aquaculture and effective resource management. Please see our Project Partners page for more information.

O ke kane huawai, Akua kena
The man with the water gourd, he is a god
O kalina a ka wai i ho‘oulu ai
Water that causes the withered vine to flourish
O ka huli ho‘okawowo honua
Causes the plant top to develop freely
O paia [‘a] i ke auau ka manawa
Multiplying in the passing time
O he‘e au loloa ka po
The long night slips along
O piha, o pihapiha
Fruitful, very fruitful
O piha-u, o piha-a
Spreading here, spreading there
O piha-e, o piha-o
Spreading this way, spreading that way
O ke ko‘o honua pa‘a ka lani
Propping up earth, holding up the sky
O lewa ke au, ia Kumulipo ka po
The time passes, this night of Kumulipo
Po--no
Still it is night

The Kumulipo: A Hawaiian Creation Chant
Hawaiian - Kalakaua Text, lines 112-122
English translation - Beckwith (1951).

Mission: Traditional Hawaiian Models Deserve Review

Although many problems encountered in traditional food production systems can be technical, they are often also environmental, cultural, social, and economic in nature. Until recently, agricultural development programs have attempted to modernize these systems through purely 'technical' solutions. Unfortunately, these efforts have too often led to a mismatch between development objectives and the needs and potentials of local people. To prevent this situation, it is imperative that development planners thoroughly understand traditional agricultural practices so that adequate strategies—sensitive to ecological complexities, socioeconomic processes, and local peoples' specific need—can be devised.

Traditional Hawaiian agricultural systems, which have yielded food for generations of kama'aina without external inputs, capital, or scientific knowledge, may help to remedy a wide array of problems encountered in modern agriculture. New models of sustainable agriculture, which combine traditional knowledge with modern technology, may be required to meet the state's nutritional and developmental needs for the 21st Century.

We hope that our website will provide a valuable information resource for policymakers, scientists, farmers, concerned citizens, and native Hawaiians on traditional agricultural knowledge and how it might be used to accelerate the development and emergence of more sustainable 'agroecosystems' throughout the main Hawaiian Islands.

Source: Miguel A. Altieri (from Agroecology, 1990)

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