**I Hawai'i nO n** ¯ **a Hawai'i i ka '** ¯ **aina** ¯

#### *Hawaiians are Hawaiians because of the land [74]*

How do we continue the function of the ali'i and leaders of our institutional genealogy in today's socio-ecological context? In 2008, our department composed the adage above. The saying recognizes (1) the shared ancestry that ka¯naka have with all of the elements of 'a¯ina and (2) our reciprocal relationship and interdependence. Just as the 'O¯ iwi lifeforms evolved over many years to create the unique native ecosystems and landscapes of Hawai'i, so too have those ecosystems shaped the cultural identity, traditions and practices of Ka¯naka 'O¯ iwi as a people. These concepts of mo'oku'auhau and aloha are ¯ at the foundation of our stewardship—which includes natural and cultural resource management, advocacy, community engagement, and beyond.

Additionally, we hold kaumaha as a programmatic principle and basis for many of our decisions, as we strive to meet our obligation as an ali'i land steward by contributing to biocultural resource stewardship across Hawai'i. Twelve percent of Hawai'i's remaining native ecosystems are on Kamehameha Schools' lands and over half of all of Hawai'i's threatened and endangered species depend on increasingly rare native habitats within these landholdings. Like our predecessors, we recognize that healthy, functioning native ecosystems provide critical ecosystem services that sustain life and quality of life in our islands, for native plants and animals, and all those who drink our water, breathe our air, and are inspired by our landscapes. Though we are not mandated to do so by any governmental authority, we know our function is to maintain the summits, headwaters, forests, coastal zones, hills, as sources of our ancestral identity for the benefit of our 'O¯ iwi communities forever. An entire one fifth of the watershed forests that sustain Hawai'is aquifers are on Kamehameha Schools lands. We manage these vital watershed resources in association with regional watershed partnerships, voluntary alliances of private landowners and governmental agencies, who agree to work together to steward resources across landownership boundaries. Due to our extensive landholdings, we belong to 7 of Hawai'i's 10 watershed partnerships and are one of the very few private landowners that provide financial resources to support the critical watershed conservation work of these partnerships.

Over the past generation, we've shifted over 100,000 acres of land from pasture back into management for ecosystem health. Our approach is to protect intact native communities; enable natural regeneration, where possible, by suppressing priority threats; and, where necessary, reintroduce biocultural diversity. For example, at Keauhou, Ka'u, we are restoring native forests and shrublands ¯ on 30,000 acres of former cattle pasture. We have installed protective fencing and removed cattle, goats, sheep, and pigs. Native canopy is being restored through replanting. Our communities participate in stewardship through 'a¯ina-based education and community engagement programs that are strengthening and reestablishing ancestral connections to forested landscapes. Most recently, we've formalized our commitment to stewardship in this area through a Safe Harbor Agreement with the State of Hawai'i Department of Land and Natural Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agreement is a cooperative effort that supports recovery of threatened and endangered species. It is the first of its kind in Hawai'i, the longest term in the United States, and the first to cover 7 species of native birds, the 'ope'ape'a ( ¯ *Lasiurus cinereus semotus*; Hawaiian hoary bat), and 25 species of

native plants. The Safe Harbor Agreement is a commitment to ma¯lama Kamehameha Schools 'a¯ina at Keauhou, Ka'u, inclusive of rare species recovery, through landscape-scale restoration of native forests ¯ and protection of native species, while preserving Kamehameha Schools ability for beneficiaries to interact with these landscapes and resources.

The landscapes we steward are also inclusive of critical cultural resources, comprised of wahi kupuna which include heiau, agricultural and aquacultural systems, trails, habitations areas, as well ¯ as koehana (artifacts), and iwi kupuna (ancestral burials). Like our predecessors, we recognize our ¯ obligation to the perpetuation of our cultural resources for future generations, as they are embodiments of our ancestors' presence, existence, and sustainability. We acknowledge that these wahi kupuna ¯ and koehana are repositories of ancestral knowledge and energy [75]. Thus, we are committed to stewarding our cultural resources in perpetuity. In order to understand the mo'oku'auhau, ¯ history, and ancestral knowledge of our lands, we have completed ethnohistoric studies for all of our landholdings. We have also inventoried close to four thousand cultural sites through various archaeological studies have to inform our stewardship of these places into the future.

We are entrusted not only to know where these sites are, but to also protect, maintain, and restore Ka¯naka 'O¯ iwi connections with these significant wahi kupuna. Though often challenging, we work to ¯ maintain the conditions of the many heiau in different conditions across our lands, often in remote areas and heavily impacted by natural and man-made threats. We conduct consistent management of these sacred sites and places to ensure the integrity of the wahi kupuna, but also to maintain access to ¯ these sites for community use. We have pioneered cultural resource community engagement strategies, first providing opportunities to access to 'ike va¯ina (knowledge of lands) through the development of online resources including a website of 3D models of select cultural sites and artifacts. Community engagement strategies also involve improving physical access to wahi kupuna with the intention ¯ of rekindling pilina or the ancestral bond between ka¯naka and 'a¯ina. This strategy can take many forms, and includes the development of interpretive trails at sites, hosting community workdays, supporting field schools, and facilitating restoration of traditional agriculture and loko i'a (aquaculture systems). It is through both the knowledge and physical interaction with these cultural resources that our communities access and reestablish their connection to place and identity.

#### *4.3. Influencing Stewardship Beyond Kamehameha Schools 'aina* ¯

Like our ali'i predecessors, we work across large landscapes, and are sometimes looked to by our communities as well as government agencies to be the representative voice of Ka¯naka 'O¯ iwi in 'a¯ina stewardship. Consequently, beyond our direct resource management functions, we have taken on the significant duty to drive 'O¯ iwi perspectives in statewide consortiums and alliances. We participate in leadership roles and provide support, especially in topics concerning cultural perspectives, community-based management, and biocultural stewardship, in influential groups such as the Hawai'i Conservation Alliance, Pacific Islands Climate Change Cooperative, Environmental Funders Group, International Union for the Conservation of Nature—Indigenous Peoples Organizations and others. Such organizations and their members influence the agenda for research, funding, and policy at state, regional, and international levels. By actively participating in these groups, we uplift 'O¯ iwi perspectives across scales of stewardship industries.

Furthermore, we also serve to represent our Ka¯naka 'O¯ iwi communities with state agencies, such as those that regulate cultural sites (State of Historic Preservation), the Division of Forestry and Wildlife, and Department of Aquatic Resources. For example Kamehameha Schools supports an effort which created the first community-based marine 10-year rest area in Hawai'i in the ocean off Ka'up¯ ulehu, a Kamehameha Schools landholding. We provided support in the decade of social and ¯ ecological research of the fishery, and provided testimony in favor of the initiative which required a change to the Hawai'i State Administrative Rules. Today, with the marine rest area in place, we are actively engaged in the community's planning and management of the natural and cultural resources in the near-shore and coastal areas as a partner. We have served as the lead communicator

with regulatory expertise with state agencies which have jurisdiction over some of the community's stewardship activities. The Ka'up¯ ulehu marine rest area embodies the duty we feel to support ¯ our communities in their capacity to manage their ancestral biocultural abundance. Additionally, Kamehameha Schools directly partners with community individuals and organizations through 'a¯ina-based education programing, stewardship or resource management agreements, as well as community-based management of 'aina across all of the islands we own land. ¯

Finally, in recognition of the overall lack of Ka¯naka 'O¯ iwi and 'O¯ iwi perspectives in 'a¯ina stewardship industries across the archipelago, our team has developed internship and other professional training opportunities to foster the development of future Ka¯naka 'O¯ iwi resource managers in Hawai'i. These internships focus on training participants in culturally-grounded approaches to research, science, and 'a¯ina stewardship, while also simultaneously contributing to Kamehameha Schools' on-the-ground resource management in a variety of forms. For example, due to historically little to no 'O¯ iwi representation in the cultural resource management field in Hawai'i, including in the field of contractors that Kamehameha Schools looks for its own work, Kamehameha Schools supports the Wahi Kupuna Internship Program (WKIP), developed by the K ¯ a¯naka 'O¯ iwi organization Huliauapa'a. The WKIP is an immersive summer internship training undergraduate Ka¯naka 'O¯ iwi students in 'O¯ iwi cultural resource management, including appropriate cultural protocol, technical skill building in ethnographic and archival research, geographic information systems (GIS), community interviews, archaeological field methods, research writing, and presentations. In addition, each student chooses a management-aligned topic to research throughout the summer tailored to questions from Kamehameha Schools resource managers or community stewards, in order to ground their newly learned skills in applied management issues. Similarly, Kamehameha Schools supports a summer Ecosystem Monitoring Internship Program focused on training undergraduate and senior level high school Ka¯naka 'O¯ iwi students in biological survey and forest management strategies, while also providing a solid grounding in 'O¯ iwi perspectives on 'a¯ina. Many alumni of this program have gone on to seek advanced degrees in natural resources fields, and most are now employed in 'a¯ina stewardship careers, working as kahu 'a¯ina (land stewards), foresters, researchers, and educators. Through the half-dozen 'a¯ina stewardship training opportunities we directly manage, and numerous others we support financially, we are working to uplift the next generation of vO¯ iwi thought leaders in the 'a¯ina space. This is indeed our kaumaha, to not only care for Hawai'i's lands for our communities today, but that we ensure there are capable stewards for every aspect of aloha 'a¯ina (love for the land)—from those who will manage the lands at Kamehameha Schools, or those who will steward from the community, to those who will do the research on our lands and seas, to those who are entrusted to teach 'Oiwi resource management to future generations of stewards. ¯

### **5. Discussion**

There is increasing consensus that indigenous people worldwide are essential to biocultural conservation, because of their widespread tenure, resilient and persistent management systems, sustainable practices, and innovative conservation techniques [3]. Yet, there is a lack of examples of applied indigenous resource management in the systems context, especially from the indigenous perspective. Our case study provides an example of the maintenance of an indigenous resource management system over hundreds of years fixed within traditional worldviews, social institutions, and principles. We have shown that this resource management system was not, and is not static, but instead like other socio-ecological governance systems, has transformed and adapted overtime [19,76,77]. We provide an important case of how an organization defines itself using ancestral concepts and methodologies to execute leadership in indigenous stewardship today.

Our process is replicable, and could serve as a guide for both indigenous organizations determining for themselves how to steward in a way that is appropriate to their ancestral ways of knowing, as well as for non-indigenous agencies which have obligations to indigenous lands and people. First, we let 'O¯ iwi methodologies guide us in the process of (re)discovery. Second, we looked to the foundation, our 'O¯ iwi worldviews (mo'oku'auhau and aloha). It should be noted ¯ that genealogical and reciprocal connections to landscapes are inherent in many other indigenous cultures [38], and could potentially also be a foundation for other organizations. Third, we worked to understand the institution we sit, from traditional functions, to the transference of responsibility (in our case kaumaha) through time, actors, and lands. It was through the self-determined indigenous process that we were able to answer the questions: what is our function and how do we continue that function today? It is important to note that the process is continual and iterative, as with 'O¯ iwi ways of knowing, adapting, and stewarding. We continue to hold team discussions dedicated to better understanding our position in the continuity of ali'i function, and consequently, we consistently have new realizations, both personal and collective, about why and how we manage 'aina. ¯

There are challenges and limitations beyond our individual and institutional control in maintaining an indigenous system of resource management. This continues to be an issue globally, where the structures of governance and community that indigenous institutions sit within have changed quite drastically. Even within our own indigenous institution, we face cycles of changing leadership and vision. Beyond that, as a private landowner we have limited control over what ali'i traditionally regulated (i.e., fresh water allocation, public access, nearshore and marine tenure, etc.) because these are now under the control of county, state, and federal agencies. Furthermore, traditional relationships between ali'i and community have been radically altered, with traditional social structures of community centered on 'a¯ina, reciprocally connected to a hierarchical system of social regulation, greatly damaged through generations of American colonization, though examples of persistence exist [78,79]. Therefore, it is critical for our 'O¯ iwi stewardship in this contemporary social context to look beyond our conservation and management practices alone, but to consider our greater kaumaha, our chiefly obligation to steward biocultural systems in perpetuity. We have found that one way we can fulfill our kaumaha in today's governance context, is to collaborate with governance agencies that now also carry a responsibility and heaviness once only granted to ali'i, as well as to restore our mutually benefitting relationships with community through supporting their own stewardship of their ancestral resources.

*Indigenous institutions are among the world's most durable and enduring for governance, offering inspiration for the development of sustainable systems, while others, acting on vested interests, opt for short-term gains at substantial social and environmental cost.* [80] (p. 340)

Like in traditional indigenous societies, effective indigenous resource management systems require social institutions that as we have shown, coordinate resource management at different scales, take on roles of governance of resources, and plan for stewardship in perpetuity [19]. For all of us working towards biocultural abundance on indigenous lands (in Hawai'i those are all landowners), it is essential to restore the institutional functions and continuity for today's context. We provide one roadmap of an institution refinding our continuity and purpose. The restoration of indigenous knowledge for resource management today necessitates the maintenance, and in some cases reestablishment, of indigenous institutions at the regional, county, state, or national level.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, N.K., J.J., J.T., N.W., M.B., T.D.; Investigation, N.K., J.J., N.W.; Writing—Original Draft Preparation, N.K., J.J., J.T., N.W.; Writing—Review & Editing, N.K., J.J., N.W., M.B.

**Acknowledgments:** We are grateful to Ulalia Woodside, Neil Hannahs, Kamakani Dancil, Kealaka'i Kanaka'ole for shaping Kamehameha Schools' thinking around 'O¯ iwi 'a¯ina stewardship; We mahalo the Edith Kanaka'ole Foundation and its scholars including: Pua Kanaka'ole Kanahele, Huihui Kanahele-Mossman, Kekuhi Kealiikanakaoleohaililani, Ku'ulei Kanahele, and Kalei Nu'uhiwa for their research that has greatly influenced our understanding of contemporary ali'i stewardship.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
