ʻO wai kou kuleana?

To whom are you responsible?

Kuleana is a Kanaka ʻŌiwi ethic of responsibility, authority, and rights that are tied to one’s relationship to place, genealogy, and commitment and effort put forth toward a community and landbase. Kuleana, fundamentally, is about the connection between people and their ties to ancestry and place. Over centuries of living in a place and fostering a relationship with those places, people become tied to the land, making both human and non-human elements ʻohana. Mountains, winds, rocks and other non-human beings are recognized as family members and ancestors, and people are obligated to care for their ʻohana. To use the term “kuleana” without understanding the importance of land and genealogy is to alter this important cultural concept. Instead, we ask in every new context: “what is my kuleana here?”

Asking “what is my kuleana here?” fundamentally structures how we approach this project. We ask that, before entering our syllabus, you take a pause to answer this question. In engaging with these texts, videos, images, and other media, you are engaging in an act of building pilina (relationships through accountability and mutuality). Such a process requires pause, reflection, and to ask: what is my kuleana here? In drawing upon these curated sources, some of which are meant for particular places, people, and times, we ask that you acknowledge your relationship, your positionality in relation to Hawaiʻi before engaging with, teaching, or doing work on our islands.

For more on kuleana read this short excerpt from the Movement for Building Ea Workshop Book (Goodyear-Kaʻōpua et al.,):