*2.1. Overarching Vision: Restoring 'Aina Momona, the Holistic Health of People and Place ¯*

NKA is made up of several initiatives that strive to strengthen indigenous visions of healthy and productive social-ecological systems, or ❛ aina, a community of people and place. Feeding from the ¯ places that feed you continues a lifelong pilina that binds your commitment to care for these places and share this deep pilina and understanding into the next generations. In this special issue, ❛ aina momona ¯ (lit. fat, sweet, or fertile lands) is described as a state of perpetual resource abundance. Based on the foundation of NKA, we expand that definition to include abundant and productive communities that are inclusive of people and places. Our approach views supporting social-ecological resilience as a mechanism to return to to ❛ aina momona, thriving and productive communities of people and places. ¯ ❛ Aina momona is the ultimate long-term goal for biocultural restoration in Hawai ¯ ❛ i that speaks to the productive, healthy, and resilient lands and oceans, including the intimate reciprocal relationships our ancestors had with ❛ aina, which we are re-remembering today. Though ¯ ❛ aina is commonly used to ¯ reference land and resources, it is important to clarify that a deeper meaning of the term centers around the reciprocal relationships between the lands, oceans, and people which feed and sustain well-being. Beyond the physical and/or material aspect of provisioning sustenance, this concept also includes feeding and sustaining the emotional, mental, and spiritual dimensions of well-being. Through this expanded definition of ❛ aina and its broader implications of the meaning of ¯ ❛ aina momona, we identify ¯ a greater collective movement to adjust our behaviors to support health and productivity together with lands, watersheds, and oceans with which we all share space. Seeing conservation as healing our people and for collective conversation about shifting behavior based on the holistic needs of a place and the practices those landscapes and seascapes can sustain [46]. Many Native Hawaiian scholars share related insights through their research on the value of intimate relationships to places and how inseparable, continual connections to places allow place-based and indigenous peoples to thrive [47–49]. These relationships are at the core of well-being as Native peoples acknowledge cultural relationships through genealogies and traditional cultural expressions and archival documents that connect Native Hawaiians to the lands and oceans across the Hawaiian Archipelago, including the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands [50]. These connections broaden the perspective of participants to honor and respect themselves/their individual self, family, community, surroundings, and places [51].

#### *2.2. Creating a Foundation Based on Native Hawaiian Place-Based Values and Perspectives*

NKA is a biocultural monitoring and community capacity-building program, established by the nonprofit group, Na Maka o Papah ¯ anaumoku ¯ akea (NMP), and implemented in partnership with the ¯ University of Hawai❛ i Sea Grant Program and a network of community partner organizations, and state and federal agencies. In 2009, a small group of Native Hawaiian undergraduates and graduate students at the University of Hawai❛ i at Hilo recognized the importance of indigenous science in developing meaningful guidance to support community-based biocultural approaches in research and resource management. To address this gap, these scholars drew from their strong cultural backgrounds and formal training in ecology to develop the NKA program.

Established by NMP ten years ago, NKA initiatives are centered around biocultural monitoring tools, community engagement, and capacity building. Community-engagement strategies focus on the understanding of pilina as an important component to ❛ aina momona, the holistic vision of ¯ Native Hawaiian communities. The focal point of NKA is indigenous inquiry and multidisciplinary research applied in locally-relevant, experientially-driven programs, activities, and tools designed for multigenerational communities. Through focusing on intertidal ecosystems, NKA builds capacity within communities to collect quantitative and qualitative data from intertidal ecosystems and extending across terrestrial and marine ecosystems.

#### *2.3. Addressing Complex Resource Management in Hawai*❛ *i*

Consistent with other approaches in community-based conservation that use a systematic approach, recognize coupled systems inclusive of humans, and utilize participatory methods in resource management [7], customary marine-resource management in Hawai❛ i is characterized by traditional and local practices grounded in a sophisticated understanding of and familiarity with an area, resulting from generations of interaction with the natural resources of that place [52,53]. Developed by necessity as a means for the native tenants to not only survive on one of the world's most remote island chains, but to thrive, these place-based interactions have come to represent the deep-seated connections between people and the places they descend from, relate to, and identify with [11]. Traditional knowledge is based on a traditional system of knowing, founded on fundamental observations, relationships, and practice. This knowledge lives on through Hawaiian communities that function as both physical places and social groups that are regarded as "cultural k¯ıpuka", where knowledge is passed on through active transmission of generational and ancestral knowledge through cultural practices [54].

Traditionally, Native Hawaiians possessed a sophisticated land- and ocean-resource management system built on a strict religious and social norms [52,53,55,56]. Traditional management systems were self-sufficient for more than 1500 years, providing for estimated populations of 400,000 to 800,000 people [57]. Yet, the current health of Hawai❛ i's coastal fisheries is extremely threatened by major anthropogenic stressors [58–60]. As of 2013, Hawai❛ i's estimated population is approximately 1.4 million people. The effects of this growing population are reverberating through the political, social, cultural, and environmental communities as Hawai❛ i, and the world, prepares for a future dealing with overpopulation, urban development, and the deteriorating health of fisheries [60].

Drawing from traditional knowledge to support community-based marine resource management provides a promising path to respond to these issues and can facilitate the creation of collaborative, innovative approaches to conserve marine resources [46]. Recently, managers and practitioners in communities across Hawai❛ i have begun to explore formal co-management agreements, in particular those grounded in place-based cultural norms, values, and practices, between community groups and resource managers, like the State of Hawai❛ i [61–63]. These efforts are oriented around uplifting both people and place towards a vision of ❛ aina momona. However, it is important to note that compromises ¯ on both sides are necessary across both parties if co-management is truly the desired goal [33].

Though communities are involved in participatory co-management approaches, there remains additional room to empower communities through building a community's ability to trust in their knowledge systems and advocate for their priorities and vision of health and balance to ultimately restore biocultural landscapes/seascapes on their own terms. Pacific Island scholar, 'Epeli Hau'ofa (2000), explains, "We cannot do away with the global system, but we can control aspects of its encroachment and take opportunities when we see them in order to create space for ourselves [64]". This underscores the self-determination of Pacific Islanders to create equitable engagement in management to develop solutions that will guide the future health and well-being of their biocultural environment and future generations.

#### **3. Programmatic Initiatives**

Community-based resource monitoring depends on the trust, reciprocity, and inclusivity of indigenous peoples in decision-making and management [65,66]. Examining the patterns of indigenous knowledge and relationships to freshwater systems across Aotearoa (New Zealand), Australia, and North America, scholars use the term "cultural keystone species" as a focal point to better understand holistic freshwater-ecosystem processes through the interconnectedness of people to these ecosystems [67]. Maori developed a cultural health index focused on indicators of human–environment ¯ relationships through indigenous worldviews for a variety of river types that can grow national datasets of holistic health of people and ecosystems [38].

While there is indeed ecological research conducted under the NKA Program, our programacknowledges community data-sharing protocols regarding the research component of this work. This is part of a long-term partnership with local communities in Hawai❛ i to build local capacity of culturally grounded research and community engagement and to ultimately improve community-based resource management. The research is protected for the community to approve its use. The quantitative data NKA has collected is community-owned and part of collective discussions and co-management efforts to improve local, place-based resource management in Hawai❛ i. Due to the sensitive nature of the information, in particular target species populations and locations, the findings are protected as a principle of respect to the communities with which we partner and can only be shared in a more generalized format, pending community approval.



**Table 1.** Summary overview of N¯a Kilo ❛ ¯ Aina Program (NKA) initiatives.

#### **4. Biocultural Community-Based Research and Monitoring Tools**

#### *4.1. Huli* ❛ *Ia*

The concept of adaptation is embodied by indigenous peoples whose ancestors survived through adapting to a multitude of environmental changes. Traditional knowledge is part of a knowledge–practice–belief system [20] and in the Pacific Islands, indigenous communities are entering into community-based approaches rooted in contemporary extensions of traditional knowledge systems that provide valuable high-resolution insight into merging monitoring, customary management, and social mechanisms to support resilient holistic systems [68]. To perpetuate oral transmission of this contemporary knowledge base, we engage in training our memories to identify the changes in the environment and what how that can inform human behavior. This encourages local communities to engage in the knowledge system of kilo, keen place-based observations, that enabled our indigenous ancestors to understand their surroundings well enough to know when and where to gather food in order to sustain themselves for generations.

Huli ❛ Ia is an NMP tool that supports the NKA Program and engages participants in a process of conducting recurring biocultural monitoring activities to quantitatively assess coastal ecosystems while also qualitatively documenting observations—for example, storm systems, cloud patterns, flowering/fruiting plants, reproductive events of land and ocean organisms, fish schooling/aggregating, and size classes (see [34] for additional details). In a facilitated process, participants document seasonal changes and shifts across entire landscapes over time in an effort to identify correlations between and across species and zones including the ocean, land, and sky. In a facilitated discussion with community biocultural-monitoring participants, the group discusses observations of dominant patterns at a particular time-bound scale (usually one month).

Through a discussion of individual observations and group comparisons, participants collectively learn how to reawaken their senses to pay attention to detailed occurrences from the changing of wind direction, wind speed, dominant cloud formations, and rain patterns, and begin to recognize connections between those observations across time and space. This internalization is ultimately intended to inform how people interact with the environment through Native Hawaiian knowledge systems. For example, this might include avoiding harvesting species in a particular location when it is known to be spawning. Huli ❛ Ia illuminates a dominant seasonal shift in shoreline communities that can inform future monitoring in these highly variable ecosystems. Built through long-term observation tested by environmental challenges throughout time [52], traditional knowledge can guide ecological monitoring and climate-change resilience frameworks [68,69]. For example, it was important to be down at the shoreline throughout both the rough surf in Ho❛ oilo (wet season) and the calm conditions of Kauwela (dry season) to record collective observations. Over time, the number of recorded observations grew as people enhanced their ability to observe the environment at the shoreline and in the respective areas where they reside. Driven by patterns of rain, storms, and high surf, the lands and ocean became a teacher. We learned how to empower our knowledge systems to increase the capacity of communities to adapt to conditions under climate change and increasing anthropogenic pressures.

Huli ❛ Ia is a platform to record place-based cycles of productivity in relation to seasons and lunar cycles to guide and inform management practices. Huli ❛ Ia aims to awaken the ancestral mindset of paying attention to our environment and our impact on it, and encourages participants to ingrain observations into memory. Community participation in this type of research generates greater social awareness and systemic change [70]. After engaging in participatory methods (as described in [46]) and discussing observations through Huli ❛ Ia for two years in one of our study sites, our NKA team reviewed the data in an attempt to identify cultural and ecological indicators of ecosystem health. We looked for dominant patterns of occurrences and the relationships between space and time of each traditional Hawaiian month and season. Native Hawaiian knowledge systems are intimately attentive to environmental changes related to the seasons—Kauwela (dry season) and Ho❛ oilo (wet season)—moon phases, and periods of growth that guide Native Hawaiian approaches to co-management [53]. Native Hawaiian knowledge systems are extremely holistic in nature. Through the use of poetic imagery embedded in traditional knowledge systems and physical pictures, we developed a seasonal calendar showcasing these dominant natural cycles and their correlations. These cycles provide a place-based timeline of social–ecological cycles to guide discussions and implementation of best practices in support of these cycles and, ultimately, their productivity. The seasonal calendar also includes ❛ olelo no ¯ ❛ eau, or traditional Hawaiian proverbs. ❛ Olelo no ¯ ❛ eau is a traditional process of composing easily remembered wise sayings in order to document and transmit information through poetry [71]. Based on monitoring activities, participants compose contemporary ❛ olelo no ¯ ❛ eau to document new knowledge, perpetuating a traditional-knowledge transmission mechanism passing on information to the next generation. To look at patterns from terrestrial and marine systems, we worked in collaboration with the team who manages one of the last remaining remnants of Hawaiian dryland-forest ecosystems. We collaborated to develop a mauka to makai (lit., the mountains to the ocean) seasonal calendar identifying patterns informed through combining their place-based knowledge of the dominant drivers of ecosystem and landscape level changes. The NKA team continues to share the Huli ❛ Ia methodology through partnerships ranging from local community organizations to state and federal agencies in Papahanaumoku ¯ akea ¯ Marine National Monument (PMNM). Monthly observations were distilled and compiled into seasonal calendars for North Kona, Hawai❛ i Island and Holanik ¯ u (Kure Atoll) in the PMNM. ¯

#### *4.2. Pilinakai*

Pilinakai led to building integrating tools to understand intertidal-ecosystem health and build collective place-based knowledge of how to guide behaviors that support the holistic health and productivity of these ecosystems. Biocultural approaches rooted in intertidal ecosystems lead to understanding how resource management needs to reflect the social, cultural, and biological needs of the place. Developed through major partners, the Pilinakai team pulled the strands of integration of knowledge systems as biocultural approaches to empower communities in creating management decisions that support productive and resilient ecosystems inclusive of people. Additional contributions of this research approach include increasing opportunities for two-way mentorship between local undergraduate and graduate students including UHH faculty.

NKA's Pilinakai initiative is coordinated and implemented by indigenous and place-based professionals who are committed to helping communities identify management tools that support productive ecosystems in a biocultural framework. The genealogy of Pilinakai is extensive with important foundational stepping stones that provided safe places and support systems for Native Hawaiians to integrate knowledge systems into practice from the community, state, and federal levels. Focused on intertidal ecosystems, Pilinakai was initially developed from a master's thesis in Hawaiian Studies at the Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawai ¯ ❛ i at Manoa [ ¯ 72] utilizing standard biological survey protocols introduced by Dr. Chris Bird and implemented and evolved by project mentors as tools for community-based monitoring throughout the Hawaiian Islands. Our study examines temporal patterns in spawning behavior, invertebrate population densities and size structure, and community composition. Huli ❛ Ia, a monitoring tool, was developed and refined through the Pilinakai project in Ka❛ up¯ ulehu and extended into other communities in West ¯ Hawai❛ i, Kaua❛ i, and into PMNM. Pilinakai blended both Huli ❛ Ia and the biological intertidal surveys into a biocultural approach applying these tools in different capacities with different communities. Through growing the vision of integrated intertidal monitoring during the Holo-I-Moana Cruise, the Pilinakai leadership advocated to establish the Annual PMNM Intertidal Research Cruise and the Pilinakai team helped develop and implement the cruise with major partners, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) PMNM office, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, The Nature Conservancy, Na Maka o Papah ¯ anaumoku ¯ akea, University of Hawai ¯ ❛ i, Conservation International, and Dr. Chris Bird at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi. Members of Pilinakai joined this

multidisciplinary group of community members from the ❛ Opihi Monitoring Partnership, managers, and academic researchers, to better understand the ecology of ❛ opihi populations and intertidal communities through a biocultural lens.

The Keaholoa STEM Scholars Program (KSSP) and the Ku¯ ❛ ula Traditional Marine-Resource Management course at UHH inspired and provided a platform to grow the application of these approaches into practice. It was through the KSSP framework that Pilinakai was able to establish itself into the programs implemented within community-based marine resource management today. The KSSP Pilinakai initiative innovated a way for culturally-grounded research and monitoring pillars to develop Huli ❛ Ia and quantitative biological tools to assess local populations and intertidal-ecosystem health. The central question driving Pilinakai intertidal monitoring is, "How do we know our environment in such a way that, when we interact with it, it's in a healthy, sustainable way?" This foundational question drove the subsequent implementation of the Huli ❛ Ia initiative along with evolving quantitative biological surveys with a focus on understanding intertidal ecosystems and overharvested limpets known as ❛ opihi (*Cellana* spp.).

In response to concerns about overharvesting of ❛ opihi, the Ka❛ up¯ ulehu community was interested ¯ in monitoring intertidal resources at Kalaemano. From 2010 to 2012, a group of Native Hawaiian ¯ undergraduate student scholars from the UHH KSSP started an intensive research effort with a community in West Hawai❛ i. Starting from the central questions of Pilinakai, this project used Huli ❛ Ia and conducted quantitative survey methods adapted from the standardized intertidal monitoring tools. The Pilinakai team entered into this community partnership on a shared commitment of dedicating at least five years of monitoring in Ka❛ up¯ ulehu. As Native Hawaiian and local students and ¯ mentors with backgrounds in Hawaiian Studies and Marine Science, the Pilinakai team conducted monthly monitoring using transects to assess intertidal invertebrate diversity, population densities and size structures. Findings included information on peak ❛ opihi recruitment and population-size structure and abundance. Understanding the most abundant size classes of ❛ opihi and sizes of highest reproductive potential are essential to creating rules that protect present and future ❛ opihi abundance.

One important output of the Pilinakai initiative has been the development and refinement of intertidal monitoring methods resulting in a suite of ecological data. In order to examine spawning seasons and the effect of ❛ opihi size on reproductive output, we collected ten individuals of the three ❛ opihi species, measured body size, dissected out the gonads, and calculated the gonad index (gonad weight/total weight × 100). The gonad indices revealed two spawning seasons within a year, and larger sizes were more fecund than smaller sizes during their peak spawning season. Currently, the State of Hawai❛ i Division of Aquatic Resources enacts minimum-size limits for ❛ opihi in one blanket rule for all three species and there are no mandated rules that protect spawning season. This is the first study in Hawai❛ i to investigate spawning timing for the three endemic ❛ opihi species and provides more detailed place-based and species-specific information needed for effectively managing local populations.

The third survey method integrated into the Pilinakai biocultural monitoring is the ❛ opihi and ha¯❛ uke❛ uke rapid assessments being implemented in multiple communities on Hawai❛ i Island, O❛ ahu, and Kaua❛ i, and into PMNM. NMP is a partner organization in the statewide ❛ Opihi Monitoring Partnership that also conducts intertidal chain transects and rapid assessments on Maui and PMNM. The objective of this assessment was to collect information of the distribution of ❛ opihi by size and location on shoreline. The dataset provides critical information of ❛ opihi abundance by species, size, and location to ultimately develop an additional monitoring protocol. The long-term objective is to use this information to implement biannual monitoring of ❛ opihi populations. Another application has been to create maps of hotspots where ❛ opihi are most abundant. Examining the spatial and temporal distribution of these populations can help to develop management strategies that account for points of human access, harvesting, and further insight into how to investigate environmental factors linked to productive areas.

From 2010, this research effort established a baseline of intertidal communities including natural seasonal fluctuations in population sizes and size structure of culturally prized intertidal limpet, including the most abundant sizes. This is critical information to understand what level of harvesting these intertidal ecosystems can sustain. Coupled with knowledge of spawning seasons and productive larger sizes of ❛ opihi, this information has become a platform for creating place-based sustainable harvesting practices. In West Hawai❛ i, the Ka❛ up¯ ulehu community supported the official designation ¯ of the Ka❛ up¯ ulehu 10 year Try Wait Rest Area designed to replenish historical abundance to coastal ¯ fish populations and also included the protection of intertidal resources. Relationship building is integral to our long-term commitment to Ka❛ up¯ ulehu and we continue to monitor these areas with ¯ students and community members participating in NKA programs throughout the year. Creating this framework and implementing it into practice in Ka❛ up¯ ulehu has helped our team understand seasonal ¯ changes in intertidal communities through quantitative and qualitative methodologies. In Ka❛ up¯ ulehu, ¯ this is critical information to inform the long-term sustainable fisheries management plan developed through the Ka❛ up¯ ulehu Marine Life Advisory Committee. This is part of a growing dataset of ¯ intertidal community diversity, ❛ opihi densities, and algal composition across Hawai❛ i. Through a dedicated long-term commitment to local communities on Hawai❛ i, Kaua❛ i, and extended partnerships with communities throughout the Main Hawaiian Islands, Pilinakai has extended these tools from undergraduate- and graduate-level research, and then extends these tools into community engagement strategies implemented under NKA.

#### **5. Community Engagement to Support Positive Cultural- and Social-Behavior Shifts**

#### *5.1. NKA Annual Nohona (Community Engagement Camps and Programs)*

To date, NKA programs have hosted approximately 12 Annual Nohona community engagement camps and contributed to more than 10 other cultural and community-based camps throughout Hawai❛ i over the past six years. Culture-based education is one that stems from the foundation of a culture and is a framework of teaching and learning that is grounded in "the values, norms, knowledge, beliefs, practices, experiences, places, and language" of a culture [36]. NKA Annual Nohona are rooted in a culture-based and place-based educational framework to honor community resources of people and place and build capacity for youth to become future leaders in their community. Participants of these nohona build reciprocal relationships with place to understand its capability to feed the community, and the community's capability to feed and intimately tend to that place. NKA has worked with nine communities on Hawai❛ i Island, one community on Maui, one community on Moloka❛ i, one community on Lana ¯ ❛ i, four communities on O❛ ahu, and six communities on Kaua❛ i. NKA has hosted thousands of school-aged children from one-day-only field trips to recurring workshops throughout the years of implementing NKA programs. Through the implementation of trainings and programs, we have trained over 20 UHH undergraduate interns in biocultural monitoring tools and supported the successful completion of Master's of Science thesis drawing heavily from these methods (described in detail in [46]). NKA creates more opportunities for graduate and undergraduate research to expand on applying research towards indigenous-based approaches to research and resource management in intertidal, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems.

The students, educators, academic researchers, and conservation professionals involved in the administration of NKA initiatives collaborate across projects and disciplines to continually advance NKA's initiatives towards indigenous approaches to community engagement based on indigenous values honoring relationships. Family and community are key components of culture-based education, and involving families and members of the community supports the growth and success of learners [73]. NKA programs encourage parents and elders of the community to become educators through sharing their stories and knowledge of place to contribute to the cultural identity and sense of belonging of the next generation.

Reflective processes are important and necessary to build confidence, be accountable, and responsive to learning and to ultimately internally strengthen participants, as an individual and a collective [74]. NKA implements strategies focused on reflection in the program curriculum where NKA leadership facilitates safe spaces for participants to critically reflect on their learning and how the NKA activities are supporting their growth as a leader in the community. The NKA workshops serve as an opportunity to engage the next generation in this ancestral mindset to challenge behaviors in our community that hinder our relationships to people and place.

#### *5.2. Kuka ¯* ❛ *i Laulaha: Broadening Vision of Biocultural Restoration and Building Leadership through Larger Indigenous Networks*

Kuka ¯ ❛ i Laulaha (KL) is an international cultural exchange built on the framework of pilina that extend between indigenous communities across the Pacific. KL has established and maintained connections with indigenous communities that face similar challenges of addressing biocultural resource abundance in their communities. It is an initiative to grow perspectives on the social, cultural, and biological management challenges that disrupt indigenous relationships to place, and it addresses this issue through strengthening foundations in indigenous language, history, and genealogy. This exchange creates opportunities to grow local leadership in Hawai❛ i and enables participants to critically think and evoke discussion about the impacts of management strategies and conservation models that are inclusive of human dimensions. It is an exchange for aspiring leaders, active community members, conservation managers and professionals as it is vital that our leadership and work ethic is grounded in honoring our places, our many cultures, and the reciprocal relationships that have become a shared responsibility.

Over the duration of this initiative, over 50 students and community members have participated in this exchange to Aotearoa and the Cook Islands and in turn, these participants have hosted numerous groups comprised of approximately 150 individuals from these communities. Participants are invited to the exchange program after contributing to our local NKA initiatives through discussions, research, monitoring, and/or community service. Past participants include high school students, UH Hilo and UH Manoa undergraduate and graduate students, community members of Waimea, Kailapa, Molokai, ¯ and Ha¯❛ ena, and organizations including the Queen Lili❛ uokalani Children's Center, Hui Maka❛ ainana ¯ o Makana, and Kailapa Community Association. KL immerses participants in indigenous communities to gain understanding of cultural traditions, beliefs, and practices and how cultural values influence the way they manage their natural resources. Then, upon returning home, participants are encouraged to think about their role in the communities they serve, and create effective, multifaceted strategies guided by indigenous relationships to place.

More importantly, KL introduces participants to the realities and sometimes overwhelming sociocultural conflicts experienced by Pacific indigenous peoples, and ways to begin to heal to shift normalized behaviors. For example, for the past five years in Aotearoa, KL has been working with Te Taitimu Trust (TTT), a nonprofit organization whose goal is to motivate youth to become leaders in their communities. Each year, participants have been involved with TTT's annual camp that focuses on whanaungatanga, building familial relationships through shared experiences. It brings together rangatahi (youth) from various backgrounds who each deal with different realities at home. Some of these realities include suicide, gang involvement, and drug and alcohol abuse. It is through connections and conversations from communities such as TTT that KL participants have realized a different source of disconnect that affects the families of indigenous communities. In an effort to empower communities in natural-resource management, it important to consider these social environments and the potential consequences of resource-management decisions on long-term social and cultural health. KL provides an important opportunity to experience first-hand the struggles and strategies of environmental and community issues across the Pacific.

Within community engagement, NKA work on strategies to provide cultural foundations for cultivating a generation of young leadership within communities. Having older youth learn through NKA and start to teach these lessons to younger children is part of a cord of succession to support the healing of ❛ aina, our community of people and place. Through long-term relationship building with ¯ young leaders, we support their role and contributions to community decision-making that benefit the overall health and wellness of ❛ aina. ¯

#### **6. Capacity Building within Indigenous Communities**

Capacity building is a major challenge in creating long-term partnerships with indigenous communities [24]. Other major challenges in management partnerships include the short-term nature of grant-funded research projects and the potential for mismatch in research project and community-valued timelines [65]. In order to confront the recurring issue of inconsistent funding and subsequent high turnover of short-term partnerships with communities, the NKA team dedicates at least five years to communities with whom we work and operates through supporting community partnerships from a local, state, and federal level. As an extension of the value of pilina in managing for ❛ aina momona, healthy, productive, and resilient systems of people and place, NKA focuses on ¯ leadership and succession building that holds individuals and partnerships accountable to honoring pilina and reciprocity.

The NKA leadership team confronts the problem through a developing local leadership based on indigenous values of pilina and commitment to contributing to healthy communities. The team actively participates in NKA Annual Nohona and other activities throughout the year on the shared commitment to the collective work. This work is important for NKA leadership, which is a group of Native Hawaiian and local women from undergraduate and graduate levels spanning marine science, Hawaiian Studies, natural-resource management, and culture-based education who work across the Hawai❛ i to empower indigenous science and community engagement. Throughout the year, many of the same middle-school and high-school youth continue to participate in NKA activities and NKA leadership grow into the commitment to mentorship of the next generation of community members. Seeing examples of Native Hawaiian and local leadership provides a source of support for their individual paths. This addresses the need for succession building where youth can recognize their value to their community and positively contribute to foster critical thinking of the social, cultural, and ecological needs for their community to be healthy and thriving.

In the long-term, these youth will contribute positively to their community and stay actively involved in contributing to their community in some capacity. NKA creates opportunities to grow local and Native Hawaiian mentors and role models for the next generation of community leaders who understand the realities of their communities and how to support a path to heal these relationships that support a resilient social-ecological system. Through a shared long-term commitment to the communities we serve, NKA leadership facilitates discussions of social and cultural shifts needed to improve resource management and the holistic well-being of our communities. Collectively, these solutions enable the adaptive governance of social–ecological systems in the face of today's global environmental pressures and changes by prioritizing knowledge coproduction, collaboration, and social and institutional learning [6].

This case study highlights views and practices on cultivating reciprocal pilina with communities and within broader conservation partnerships and indigenous networks, provided through examples such as KL. The deeper the relationships grow within Hawai❛ i's communities and indigenous communities in Aotearoa and Mangaia in the Cook Islands, the more future generations can gain the experience and insight to lead NKA back home and how to apply it to their communities.

### **7. Discussion: Healing Communities to Support Healthy and Resilient Communities of People and Place**

This paper offers a case study that defines biocultural restoration through indigenous relationships to people and place, sharing biocultural monitoring tools and community engagement and capacity building strategies that address holistic social-ecological systems. NKA is an example of how a

biocultural approach can inform community-based marine resource management ranging from a local to Archipelago-wide scale. It is part of a biocultural approach to developing culturally grounded indicators of well-being from a local to regional scale [3,30,34].

Huli ❛ Ia and Pilinakai are integral to the growth of NKA that contributed to how we as Native Hawaiians perpetuate indigenous-knowledge systems, biocultural monitoring, and community engagement to identify social and cultural factors to support resource management and holistic restoration of indigenous relationships to place. Huli ❛ Ia provides a culturally based methodology for understanding cultural and ecological connections based on a Native Hawaiian worldview. Learning from the ❛ aina and community through Huli ¯ ❛ Ia and Pilinakai and sharing NKA in other communities throughout Hawai❛ i provides one example of how the value of reciprocal pilina builds trust allowing for NKA to grow a community network and a larger indigenous network through KL.

As biocultural restoration of social–ecological systems and the sustainable use of natural resources continues to be a priority in discussions at regional, national, and global scales, many have realized that a first step is to acknowledge and aim to better understand the intrinsic connection between people and place [6]. The relationship between humans and the environment are widely acknowledged in indigenous epistemology, passed down through creation stories and other traditional forms of information dissemination for generations. ❛ Aina momona is the ultimate long-term goal that ¯ speaks to the productive, healthy, and resilient lands and oceans including the intimate reciprocal relationships our ancestors had with ❛ aina which we are re-remembering today. This reciprocal ¯ relationship is ingrained in the cultural memory of place-based and indigenous communities around the world. A growing number of disciplines including sustainability science and ecological restoration, as evidenced by this special issue, provides critical pathways to explore the multifaceted biocultural approaches to addressing resource abundance through strengthening the intimate connections between people and place.

### *Pilina and Reciprocity within Conservation and Research Partnerships*

Conservation goals do not always align between the indigenous people and partner organizations, and new approaches are needed to respect and value indigenous knowledge and worldviews [35]. One area attempting to bridge this gap on multiple scales lies in developing culturally grounded indicators of natural, cultural, and socioeconomic well-being with application and relevance on a local scale [3,34]. For example, in Melanesia, agreeing on a shared vision and clear expectations is essential to create transparent communication and equitable outcomes [13,75].

NKA offers another dimension to community-driven research specifically focused on indigenous self-empowerment through capacity building in restoring ❛ aina momona, thriving, productive, ¯ and healthy biocultural communities. Empowering cultural perspectives and values provides invaluable insight into the feedbacks in a social-ecological system [3,13]. Indigenous approaches have woven cultural, social, and ecological into many cords of knowledge that have the power to address social justice and equity of costs and benefits, and the impact of conservation actions on cultural identity [13]. This is part of a rise in broadening the definition and advocating for self-determination of indigenous communities within conservation where communities define well-being [43]. However, because conservation goals do not always align with a collective solution developed from indigenous communities, it takes long-term commitment and personal investment to building relationships, trust, and reciprocal partnerships with indigenous communities in conservation. As previously noted, the potential mismatch in time frames between communities and partners is a challenge for grant-based work [65].

In the long-term, the goal of NKA is to empower community voices and decision-making as an ❛ ohana (family), gathering around building pilina to place and perpetuating ancestral-knowledge systems. Only the community itself can identify the best ways to reach out to their peers and to initiate the hard conversations about behavior changes. Through community self-empowerment, we support perpetuating traditional knowledge systems and building collective contemporary knowledge of biocultural systems. In the long-term, we are supporting a movement to create place-based management and behavior shifts based on the collective and equitable needs of people and place. Ultimately, this approach provides thought-provoking insight into resource management and decision-making process and empowers community members to move collectively and to critically assess how management decisions may affect the environment and community into future generations.
