Rooted in Ancestral Knowledge, Sustaining Honuaʻula’s Land and Legacy.
ʻŌiwi can be translated as Native or that which is the substantial makeup of something. It is what gives character or ornament. Our ʻŌiwi Resources & Stewardship team is just that; those whose character and personal appearance reflect this place. These are the skilled and strong hands that protect and nurture Makena's natural cycles and cultural resources. Honuaʻula kua laʻolaʻo is an ʻōlelo noʻeau (wise proverb) used to describe the hard-working ʻōiwi of Honuaʻula, those with calloused backs, supporting life in this drier, leeward landscape.
The foundation of ORS' work is based on a Hawaiian worldview, more specifically a Makena and Honuaʻula worldview, of knowing how Life expresses itself in this place. ʻIke kūpuna (ancestral wisdom) within Makena and Honuaʻula is the core of our cultural vitality. ORS knows Makena's lifecycles and seasons, the movement of the celestials in this skyscape, the different wind and ocean currents, the timing of this ecosystem, when the wiliwili will bloom, when the first 'iwa (frigate bird) and koholā (humpback whale) will return.
Our worldview doesnʻt work in isolation of practice, of daily commitment to the resources of this place. ORS carries with them the teaching of families who have long belonged to Makena, of today's natural and cultural resource subject matter experts, and apply all this knowledge in their work to care for our natural and cultural resources today. ORS strengthens the symbiotic relationships between ʻāina (land, that which feeds) and kānaka (humans) towards a vibrant and fertile leeward lowland Honuaʻula ecosystem.
