(Guest commentary by Alice J. Kawakami and Chelsea N. K. Keehne)
Since 2018, Koʻolaupoko Hawaiian-focused Charter Schools (HFCS) and ʻāina partners have cultivated pilina between students and ʻāina, with support from the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation and Kamehameha Schools. Our schools (Ke Kula o Samuel M. Kamakau, Malama Honua PCS, and Hakipuʻu Academy) and ʻāina partners (Papahana Kuaola, Paepae o Heʻeia, Kanehunamoku Voyaging Academy, etc.) are collectively grounded in the importance of ʻĀina-based Education’s ability to positively impact students and communities. They engage haumāna in ʻĀina-based Learning on a regular, on-going basis. As one teacher shared, “How can we truly care for a place if we’ve never visited it and do not intimately know and understand it?”
ʻĀina-based Education Definition
(Hakipuʻu Academy, Ke Kula ʻo Samuel M. Kamakau, Mālama Honua, 2020) Our goal is to engage in learning experiences that allow learners to create authentic, reciprocal relationships with the land, people, and resources of a specific community. This becomes an integral part of the learner’s identity and a catalyst for a personal commitment to the health and well-being of that community. Education is situated in learning that honors the past, present, and future in order to ensure the sustainability and productivity of all forms of life. ʻO ka hā o ka ʻāina, ke ola o ka poʻe – The health of the land is the health of the people.
Interestingly, the charter school movement and ʻāina organizations were founded around 20 years ago and have matured as siblings into the fullness of adults able to collaborate and contribute to kaiāulu. Cultural practitioners in waʻa culture, kalo/loʻi cultivation, fishpond restoration/management, and native environment reclamation collaborate with kumu to create exciting, authentic and purposeful learning for students to develop aloha for our ʻāina.
Aloha ʻāina and mālama ʻāina are validated with academic rigor and the wisdom of our kupuna through standards-based units of study and assessment that are culturally authentic. A HFCS kumu shared, “It is critical for kumu to integrate community expertise and engage learners in the exploration of historical, current, and future potential of ʻĀina-based Education. Students will apply this knowledge to positively impact community well-being.”.
We mahalo our beloved ʻāina and the poʻe Hawaiʻi who have joined us in educating our youth facing forward, while guided by the knowledge and practices of our past.