Empowering long-term, relational research pathways: innovation and adaptation at the speed of trust within more-than-human and human communities

Significant movements across the world indicate a shift from conventional information exchange within academia to empowering relational approaches in applied research, such as engaging with place-based knowledge systems. Much of this redirection has occurred through the engagement of Indigenous knowledge systems and multidisciplinary approaches, as well as collaborations with federal agencies and university extension networks, thereby elevating holistic knowledge forms that possess a strong capacity to influence human behavior. This case study highlights the value of moving beyond short-term, one-off research projects and outdated, dysfunctional data exchange paradigms within research, science education, and science communication. Instead, we highlight the capacities of long-term relational approaches within higher education and adaptation science that empower data usage on the ground and hold strong capacity to drive human behavior by engaging a diversity of knowledge forms (e.g., emotion). Specifically, we report on the interpersonal linkages, expanding networks, and output from a series of community-driven graduate research projects. Utilizing a narrative approach, we place a research team's affective relationships and demonstrated trust within a more-than-human metaphor of contemporary outrigger canoe paddling. Rather than theoretical advancement, this paper shares an example of what relational approaches look like in action within the Kapukapu community on Hawaiʻi Island.