Archie Kalepa Is a retired ocean safety officer who served the County of Maui for 32 years. Archie is not only a world renowned ocean safety expert and dedicated advocate for Hawaiian culture with decades of experience in rescue operations, cultural preservation and team leadership. He is a pivotal leader in West Maui, as one of the first responders on-scene after the Lahaina fires organizing the ocean delivery of needed food, water and essentials to people stranded and desperate for help. While his big wave surfing and ocean rescue accolades are many, he tells us about how helping and connecting people to the land, ocean and each other--especially in times of crisis--are among his most difficult and rewarding experiences.
In this live recording for the 2024 Hawai‘i Conservation Conference, co-hosts Melissa Chimera and Clay Trauernicht interview keynote speakers Kapuaʻala Sproat, professor of law at the William S. Richardson School of Law and Kekai Keahi, Maui Komohana community leader in the opening session “What Water Rights in West Maui Can Teach Us About Fire & Conservation." In an emotional interview for 1,400 attendees, they revisit the 2023 Maui fire catastrophes one year later, recounting historical land care battles dating back more than a century, as well as their own personal struggles, triumphs and lessons. They demonstrate how the fight for land, people and water is a responsibility we all share to make possible a thriving future for all of Hawai‘i's people. For more information about this plenary panel, click here: https://www.hawaiiconservation.org/conference/2024-keynote-name-2/
Born and raised on Maui, Hina Puamohala Kneubuhl is an artist, co-founder of Kealapiko clothing, rare plant botanist, Hawaiian translator and scholar. Her knowledge base spans both conservation and the humanities, as her lineage of healers and musicians includes her great-grandmother Nana Veary and her grandmother, renowned Hawai`i singer Emma Veary. We traverse many worlds--from her work in Hawaiian language translation, her work in rare plant conservation to her recent activism against the proposed military telescopes atop Haleakalā, Maui. She connects economic and environmental sustainability for all of Hawai`i's people to the importance of indigenous sovereignty both in Hawai`i and abroad.
Ted Rodrigues, retired National Park Service animal control and fencing manager built some of Hawai`i's first ungulate (hoofed mammal) exclusion fences in the mid 1980s in Haleakalā National Park. He helped pioneer non-native animal removal through fencing and organized hunting aimed at limiting the damage of goats, pigs and deer in native ecosystems—programs now widely adopted throughout the state. He is the living example of an old-school park ranger versed in everything: facilities and trails maintenance, visitor education, predator and weed control and offers the natural and cultural expertise of having walked and observed all parts of Haleakalā mountain, otherwise known as Kealahele.
Raised on Hawai`i Island, Suzanne Case has worked for forty years in public and private law and conservation as the executive director of The Nature Conservancy in Hawai`i and Palmyra, and most recently as Chair for the Department of Land & Natural Resources. Listen to her unique perspective as one raised in the wilds of Hawai`i Island and how her deep love of place has helped her navigate the legal conflicts, commonalities and moral complexities of natural and cultural resources stewardship, water rights, and public access.
Ed Misaki, retired director of Molokai conservation programs for The Nature Conservancy worked since 1982 on the island where he was born and raised. He faced personal and professional challenges most of us can't imagine. His controversial non-native animal removal programs--aimed at removing deer, pigs, and goats--protects the most fragile upland forests. His story is one of resilience through difficult times, inspired by his love and desire to restore and protect the wao akua (native upland forest, or realm of the gods). Ed demonstrates true community engagement and commitment through the good and bad, and the value of ahupua`a protection in garnering and sustaining broader support.
Brian Naeole, former Field Coordinator with The Nature Conservancy Molokai speaks to growing up homesteading on Hawaiian homelands, hunting, farming, raising pigs, and surfing while restoring native ecosystems on his home island. He describes the hard work that goes into fencing watersheds and removing the non-native animals like pigs, goats and deer that do so much damage to Hawaiian ecosystems within those fences, while at the same time raising livestock on his homestead for food.
Penny Rawlins Martin is one of the first two kānaka maoli (Native Hawaiian) women to sail as a crew member on the first 1976 voyage of the Hōkūle‘a Hawaiian sailing canoe between Tahiti and Hawai‘i, a 2,500 mile journey of her ancestors. She takes us back to the energy of the 1970s during the Hawaiian renaissance where the language, music, dance, voyages and land-back initiatives were being fought for, revived and uplifted. Penny shares with us her many lessons aboard the canoe, namely care for one another through love of the land and concern for its limited resources--now commonly referred to as aloha ‘āina. She brings these historical, social and environmental perspectives to Moloka‘i students through her work with Papahana Kuaola, a non-profit education organization aiming to connect students to culture, place and history with an eye towards a sustainable future.
Beginning with his arrival in Hawai`i in 1968, Dr. Steven Montgomery University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa entomologist has studied genetics and molecular biology while discovering insects and plants new to science. While his expertise includes an extraordinary array of Hawaiian insects--from picture wing flies to the carnivorous caterpillar found no where else in the world--his passion includes everything from bee keeping and keiki education to Hawaiian ecosystem protection as a former member of Hawai‘i's Land Use Commission.
Pauline Sato speaks to the evolution of `āina (land)-based learning across her decades long career in environmental education with Moanalua Gardens Foundation, Bishop Museum, The Nature Conservancy, and now as the Executive Director of Mālama Learning Center. While her broad reach in introducing many generations of students and stewards to the Hawaiian outdoors is well known, few know about how she connected with nature as a child watching television or her wild times in Wailau valley on Moloka`i. Now as one of the producers of the Oceanic Cable show "Outside Hawai`i"(watch the program here or at https://www.malamalearningcenter.org/) she enters a new realm of mālama (care) outreach and audience.
Retired Hawai`i Pacific Parks artist, educator and Hawaiian cultural practitioner Nanette ("Nan") Ku`ulei Akau Cabatbat speaks to her decades of chanting sunrise`oli at Hāleakala National Park, connecting both kama`āina and visitors alike to the place of her ancestors. She speaks to the values of caring for the land by sharing and connecting with the people under her care first and foremost.
University of Hawai`i at Mānoa professor emerita of biology and zoology Dr. Sheila Conant speaks to working with rare Hawaiian birds at a time when few women did so. While her publications, awards and distinctions are many, her lasting gift is painting the picture for all who will listen of both the beauty and fragility of Hawaiian creatures and plants. In this episode, she conveys the gravity of the situation with straight talk, but also humor, fun and passion.
Steve Perlman, a botanist for the Kaua`i Plant Extinction Prevention Program (PEPP) talks about his love of Pacific island peoples in remote places, the thrill of discovering new plants, and climbing the highest sea cliffs in the world to save the last of a species.
Bob Hobdy, former Department of Land and Natural Resources Maui district forester time travels back to the early days of discovering new Hawaiian plant species with renowned botanists Otto Degener and Harold Saint John-- all the way to present day.
Hawai`i-based co-hosts Melissa Chimera and Dr. Clay Trauernicht talk about their respective careers in environmental stewardship, art and research and how a more holistic understanding of our place in the natural world is more important than ever before.
Part II of a two-part conversation with Jermy Uowolo, who was born and raised on the island of Fais in the State of Yap, in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). Jermy's background is as a Micronesian cultural practitioner, anthropologist, historian and Hawaiian ecosystem restoration specialist for the Mauna Kea Forest Restoration Project. He shares with us the value of gathering and recording knowledge from Micronesian elders and culture keepers, as well as the challenges and opportunties of his own immigration story--from Yap to Guam and eventually Hawai`i Island.
Part I of a two-part conversation with Jermy Uowolo, who was born and raised on the island of Fais in the State of Yap, in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). He received his bachelors degree from University of Hawai`i at Hilo and served as a conservationist for the Watershed Alliance in Hawai`i, the Mauna Kea Forest Restoration Project and is the President of the Micronesians United – Big Island (MU-BI) organization in Hawai`i. His knowledge spans the remote atols of his home state, to Guam, Palau, the Mariana Islands and beyond. He shares with us the prehistory and the recent immigration, military and colonial struggles in places like the Marshall Islands, and the challenge of preserving cultural practices and knowledge.
Abigail Romanchak was born and raised on Maui and is a native Hawaiian printmaker who conveys the Hawaiian environment–the sounds, bird songs, human footprints across Haleakalā–through the medium of printmaking. She has both a Bachelors and Masters in Fine Art with a specialty in printmaking from the University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa and her work has been shown and collected by museums and institutions throughout the world. She takes her inspiration from uncovering the hidden, sometimes minute patterns in nature and art–from nearly invisible watermarks made by Hawaiian kapa beaters on wauke (or mulberry) to the rings made by trees that mark cycles of drought. Through her bold use of abstract lines and geometric shapes, her work is an intentional departure from commercial representations of the Hawaiian landscape, specifically in the following work: her Kahea series (or the visualization of Hawaiian bird calls), the silence of Haleakalā as represented by sound waves in the Ke Ano series, the Pilina series of prints made with ash from the Kula 2023 fires on Maui, and her Tracked series of human conservation activity.
Co-hosts Melissa Chimera and Clay Trauernicht give you a *sneak peak* of Season 3 coming up very soon!
Scholar and historian Dr. Davianna Pōmaika`i McGregor is a founding member of the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa's Ethnic Studies Department and a pivotal force in the Hawaiian sovereignty movement beginning in the 1970s. Now retired, she taught oral history, environmental and cultural review and assessment to many students for 49 years. She speaks to the importance of upholding basic living standards for Hawai`i's people and how her work spans countless struggles across ethnic lines--from her involvement with the Protect Kaho`olawe `Ohana which helped successfully transfer the former bombing range to indigenous stewardship by native Hawaiians to her scholarship and activism that aimed to prevent Chinatown evictions of former plantation workers on fixed incomes. She speaks to the importance of framing political struggles along class lines while at the same time promoting indigenous sovereignty and environmental protections for the benefit of all.