From Mauka to Makai, Leeward to Windward: Culture-Nature Connection and Pasifika Perspectives on Communication

This essay explores the interconnectedness of culture, nature, and communication, with a focus on Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) values and practices. It highlights the deep relationship between Indigenous peoples and their lands while exploring the ways in which colonial dispossession has led to the disarticulation of Indigenous communities from their ancestral lands. Using the Hawaiian value of aloha ʻāina (caring for the land) and the Hō‘ālani Framework, this work emphasizes the importance of reconnecting with ancestral places to foster sustainable place-based ways of knowing. Emphasizing genealogical connections, interdependence, responsibility (kuleana), and fulfillment of duty (ho‘okōkuleana), the essay argues for an inclusive, relational approach to communication that transcends human interaction and extends to our relationship with the land and water.