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Bearing the Weight of WESPAC’s Push for Extractive Fishing in Papahānaumokuākea and Other Sacred Pacific Ocean Spaces

By Kenika Lorenzo-Elarco and Hau‘oli Lorenzo-Elarco

What does protection mean when even some of our most sacred and carefully protected ocean spaces are being reopened to commercial fishing? As World Ocean Day approaches, there is a renewed attention to the need for marine protected areas that are strong not only on paper, but in purpose and practice.

While the world is being urged to strengthen ocean protections, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WESPAC), fueled by the Trump Administration, has moved to restore commercial fishing access of all four Pacific Marine National Monuments: Pacific Islands Heritage (PIH), Muliava (Rose) Atoll, Marianas Trench, and Papahānaumokuākea.

Despite massive opposition, WESPAC took final action recommending the reopening of commercial fisheries in the 3 to 200 nautical mile (nm) zone of Papahānaumokuākea. Additionally, they voted to reopen commercial fisheries in the 12 to 50 nm zone at Muliava, Sāmoa, 0 to 50 nm in the Marianas Trench Islands, and 50 to 200 nm at Jarvis and Wake Islands, and Johnston Atoll in PIH.

These final recommendations will move into further federal review by NOAA and for public comment. Papa- hānaumokuākea, with the extra protective national marine sanctuary designation layer, would require additional congressional steps.

That procedural detail matters, but only up to a point. The deeper issue is not simply what zone might be opened or under what regulatory conditions, but what it means to revisit commercial extraction in places already recognized as culturally sacred and ecologically critical.

At the WESPAC meeting, Papahānaumokuākea Native Hawaiian Cultural Working Group (CWG) member William Ailā Jr. warned the council that “those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Commercial fishing, though labeled as “sustainable” and with the misappropriated term “pono,” risks repeating past mistakes.

Since the commercialization of fishing in Hawaiʻi, particularly in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI), unsustainable and harmful practices have caused irreparable damage to both the ecological and cultural wellbeing of our ocean.

As early as the 1840s, foreign commercial traders nearly wiped out the Hawaiian pearl oyster from Pearl Harbor within a short 30-year period. After a massive population of large pearl oysters were discovered at Manawai (Pearl & Hermes), an estimated 100 tons of pearl oysters were extracted from Manawai in just three years (1927-1930) for global trade. Nearly a century later, that population still has not recovered.

Between the 1970s and the 1990s, the lobster fishery in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) caused a near ecosystem collapse. Lobster populations plummeted, precious coral reefs were damaged by traps, and the endangered Hawaiian monk seal, which depends in part on lobster as prey, also declined. The fishery was closed in 2000 to avoid further catastrophe.

That same year, the shark population in NWHI was ravaged by a single commercial fishing vessel that killed 990 manō in just 21 days. In 2014, longliners reported a catch of 11,700 ʻahi from the now protected expanded area of Papahānaumokuākea, along with more than 5,600 sharks as bycatch, meaning one shark was caught for every two ʻahi. Most sea animals caught as bycatch do not survive.

Fishing is a rich cultural practice shared amongst many people. Native Hawaiians, like many of our Pacific cousins, have lived in harmony with the ocean through pono fishing practices since time immemorial.

However, commercial fishing is not a cultural practice, and it threatens our ability to live respectfully with the ocean.

In just a few decades of colonial, destructive, and profit-driven fishing, populations of important species have plummeted resulting in near-catastrophic ecosystem collapses. With this renewed push to restore commercial fishing, we no longer risk repeating past mistakes, we are deliberately choosing them.

Commercial fishing continued in Papahānaumokuākea until 2016. The late Uncle Buzzy Agard was one of the commercial fishermen in NWHI. Over a 10-year period, he witnessed a massive fish population decline from fishing in the area.

From that point forward, he along with many other respected kūpuna including Aunty Laura Thompson, Uncle Eddie Kaʻanāʻanā, Uncle Walter Paulo, Aunty Wilma Holi, Uncle Kawika Kapahulehua, Dr. Kekuni Blaisdell, Dr. Carlos Andrade and others lobbied state and federal agencies to establish a marine protected area called the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve in 2001.

Through their efforts, the CWG was established. Guided by these kūpuna, Papahānaumokuākea was born as a national marine monument in 2006, expanded in 2016, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010, and designated a national marine sanctuary in 2025.

WESPAC argues that Pacific Island peoples carry an unfair burden of global marine conservation goals. But that argument ignores a central truth: these protections were never forced on Pacific Island peoples. We fought for them.

Indeed, we embody the words of late Tongan-Fijian writer Epeli Hauʻofa, “No people on earth are more suited to be guardians of the world’s largest ocean than those for whom it has been home for generations.”

Rather than framing ocean protection as a burden, we should instead ask why Pacific Island peoples, and our protected and sacred oceans, are forced to bear the unfair burden of industrial fishing.

As World Ocean Day on June 8 calls attention to strong marine protected areas, Hawaiʻi faces a harder question: what does protection require of us when the place in question is sacred, storied, and entrusted to future generations?

Papahānaumokuākea reminds us that some places are not meant to be measured only by what can be taken from them, but by the relationships they carry, the memory they hold, and the responsibilities they call forth.

Kenika Lorenzo-Elarco is a Kanaka ʻŌiwi educator and scholar from Waialua, Oʻahu. He is a member of the Papahānaumokuākea Native Hawaiian CWG and serves as the co-chair of the communications subcommittee. Kenika also serves as the community engagement manager at the W. M. Keck Observatory and a junior specialist faculty at UH Mānoa.

The post Commercial Fishing is Not a Cultural Practice appeared first on Ka Wai Ola.

Hauʻoli and Kenika Lorenzo-Elarco

On March 24, 2026, despite massive opposition and historical environmental abuses, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WESPAC) voted to restore commercial fishing in culturally and ecologically vital ocean areas across Moananuiākea including Papahānaumokuākea, Pacific Islands Heritage (PIH), Muliava (Rose) Atoll, and Marianas Trench Marine National Monuments.

Though the meeting was scheduled to adjourn by 5:00 p.m., the highly debated topic brought an overwhelming amount of written and public comments, running the meeting past 8:00 p.m. Comments came from both sides, however, it was clear that the majority were Indigenous voices from across the Pacific collectively opposing commercial fishing in protected marine areas.

Individual community members and organization representatives provided powerful testimonies on upholding the strongest protections in these places for the benefit of future generations. Many also highlighted the irreversible consequences of over-extraction and exploitation of ocean resources. Others pointed out that commercial fishing risks repeating past mistakes that continue to cause harm today.

Despite the obvious public opposition, WESPAC still voted to allow commercial fishing in all four Pacific marine monuments. Specifically, for Papahānaumokuākea, they voted to open the 3-200 nautical miles (nm) area for bottomfish and pelagic fisheries.

The delegate representing Hawaiʻi was the only WESPAC member who voted “no” to allow commercial fishing in any of the marine monuments. All others voted “yes.”

WESPAC members continue to advance their commercial fishing agenda in the Pacific through three recurring claims: 1) commercial fishing is a cultural practice and right of Indigenous Pacific Island peoples; 2) these protected areas are “American waters, and American fishermen have the right to fish there;” and 3) Pacific Island peoples carry an unfair burden of global marine conservation goals.

These claims are misleading, and fundamentally distort Indigenous values, histories, and responsibilities.

First, there is nothing culturally Indigenous about the industrial exploitation of our seas. Fishing alone does not make a practice Indigenous. What is Indigenous is the kuleana to ensure abundance endures so that future generations may thrive. “Pono fishing” is not a slogan; it’s at the core of our cultural practice.

Second, invoking “American waters” to justify extraction erases the deeper and ongoing realities of Indigenous relationships to these places. It reduces ancestral ocean spaces to political and economic boundaries while the council selectively invokes Indigeneity only when it serves their commercial interests. This contradiction reveals WESPAC’s argument for what it is: opportunistic and unprincipled.

As the late Tongan-Fijian writer and anthropologist Epeli Hauʻofa reminds us, “No people on earth are more suited to be guardians of the world’s largest ocean than those for whom it has been home for generations.”

Stewardship is not a burden imposed on us as Pacific peoples – it is a responsibility, privilege, and right carried forward with intention and pride. These protected places exist because our ancestors inherited an understanding of the ocean’s significance from their ancestors and thus, acted to safeguard the ocean as the most valuable resource for us, their grandchildren.

To frame protection as a “burden” and exploitation as a “right” is to invert the very values that have sustained our Pacific ancestors and ecosystems for generations.

Though this was expected from the WESPAC vote, the outcome does not yet make commercial fishing legal.

There are still several steps and consultations that are lawfully required. We are continuing to organize and remain vigilant to ensure commercial fishing does not gain any legal ground, and that our oceans protected in perpetuity – for the benefit of our grandchildren.

Follow us on FB and IG @papahanaumokuakea.cwg and @papahanaumokuakea.coalition to stay updated and get involved.

The post WESPAC Pursues Commercial Fishing in Papahānaumokuākea appeared first on Ka Wai Ola.

E ko Hawaiʻinui a hiki loa i ko Hōlanikū, aloha pae ʻāina kākou. Ua hiki mai ka makani pāhili ʻo Walaka ma ʻIkuā o ka MH 2018, a ua ʻane pau kekahi moku kele o ka poʻe ʻīlioholoikauaua a me ka poʻe honu ma Lalo ma Papahānaumokuākea i ke kai kūmoho.

I kekahi mau mahina ma hope mai, ua heluhelu kāu wahi mea kākau nei i kekahi makasina pili huakaʻi, a ua kuhi ʻia aʻela ma kekahi ʻatikala, ʻo ʻOregona kā ka moku ʻumi o Hawaiʻi, a ʻo Las Vegas hoʻi ka ʻeiwa. Auē kā hoʻi ē!

Ke mau nei nō ke ō o ia moku ʻane pau o Lalo, akā ua lilo nō hoʻi ʻo Walaka he wahi hoʻomanaʻo, ʻo ia hoʻi, e pau kekahi moku i ka makani a me ke kai ʻino, a e pau pū nō hoʻi kekahi moku i ka poina ʻino i kā kākou kapa inoa hou ʻana.

Mai nā palapala kākau a Kaiaikawaha (he haumāna a ke Kulanui o Lahainaluna i ka MH 1835), ka haku inoa ʻana o ke Kōmike Lekikona, a me ka noiʻi ʻana o Kekuewa Kikiloi, ua nui nā ʻano hana e ʻimi ana i ka hoʻōla pilina ʻana me nā moku nōweke ma o ka hoʻomanaʻo ʻana i nā inoa Hawaiʻi.

I kēia lā, e like me nā ʻano inoa o Hawaiʻi, Maui, Oʻahu, a me Kauaʻi, he mau inoa Hawaiʻi nō ko nā moku o Papahānaumokuākea, a ʻōlelo ʻia nō nā inoa a pau. No laila, e nā mea heluhelu, e hoʻomohala mai ʻoukou i kekahi pilina me ia mau pana ʻāina i ka ʻōlelo ʻia o ko lākou mau inoa Hawaiʻi.

ʻO ka mua, ua kapa ʻia nā moku kupuna ʻo Papahānaumokuākea i ka MH 2007 e Pualani Kanakaʻole Kanahele, a he inoa hoʻohanohano ia i ka noho pū ʻana o Papahānaumoku lāua ʻo Wākea, a hānau ʻia maila ka pae ʻāina Hawaiʻi.

Ma ʻō aku o Niʻihau, Lehua, a me Kaʻula, aia nō nā moku mua ʻelua i hoʻomanaʻo mau ʻia ma ko lāua mau inoa Hawaiʻi: ʻo Nihoa a me Mokumanamana (Necker).

Eia hoʻi nā inoa o nā moku ʻē aʻe: ʻo Lalo/Kānemilohaʻi (French Frigate Shoals), ʻo ʻŌnūnui, ʻŌnūiki/Pūhāhonu (Gardner Pinnacles), ʻo Kamokuokamohoaliʻi/Koʻanakoʻa (Maro Reef), ʻo Kamole/Kauō (Laysan), ʻo Kapou/Papaʻāpoho (Lisianski), ʻo Manawai/Holoikauaua (Pearl & Hermes), ʻo Kuaihelani/Pihemanu (Midway), a ʻo Hōlanikū/Mokupāpapa (Kure).

I ko kākou hoʻopuka mau ʻana i ia mau inoa Hawaiʻi, pēlā ana nō kākou e mālama mau ai i ko kākou pilina me ko kākou moku kupuna o Hawaiʻi pae ʻāina nei.

Map of Papahānaumokuākea with original island names

The post E Hoʻomanaʻo i nā Inoa Hawaiʻi appeared first on Ka Wai Ola.

In 2018, Walaka, a category 5 hurricane, nearly devastated an island in Lalo in Papahānaumokuākea, causing major habitat loss for monk seals and sea turtles.

A few months later, I read an article from a popular travel magazine that touted Oregon State as the “10th Hawaiian Island” after Las Vegas as the “9th.”

Although Lalo is fragile, it is resilient in its recovery. Yet, Walaka was a reminder that our islands are not only eroded from natural phenomena, but also by dangerous (re)naming practices that have negative implications on our language, culture, and sense of place.

From Kaiaikawaha’s documents (a student at Lahainaluna in 1835), the Hawaiian Lexicon Committee’s investigations, and Dr. Kekuewa Kikiloi’s research, there have been many endeavors to record and recall our ancestral connection to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands through their Hawaiian names.

Today, there exist several names for the islands and atolls in Papahānaumokuākea and these are used interchangeably just as the many names of Hawaiʻi, Maui, Oʻahu, and Kauaʻi. I encourage readers to begin developing relationships with these places in Papahānaumokuākea through these names.

First, Papahānaumokuākea is the name given to the region known as the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands by Dr. Pualani Kanakaʻole Kanahele in 2007, commemorating the earth and sky union of Papahānaumoku and Wākea as the progenitors of the Hawaiian archipelago.

Beyond Niʻihau, Lehua, and Kaʻula are the first two islands of Papahānaumokuākea still remembered by their Hawaiian names: Nihoa and Mokumanamana (Necker).

The other islands are Lalo/Kānemilohaʻi (French Frigate Shoals), ʻŌnūnui, ʻŌnūiki/Pūhāhonu (Gardner Pinnacles), Kamokuokamohoaliʻi/Koʻanakoʻa (Maro Reef), Kamole/Kauō (Laysan), Kapou/Papaʻāpoho (Lisianski), Manawai/Holoikauaua (Pearl & Hermes), Kuaihelani/Pihemanu (Midway), and Hōlanikū/Mokupāpapa (Kure).

Remember and speak these names for this is how we reclaim and maintain our connection to our ancestral islands.

Map of Papahānaumokuākea with original island names

The post Remember Their Hawaiian Names appeared first on Ka Wai Ola.

Together, we spoke in defense of one of the world’s most ecologically and culturally significant marine protected areas. Papahānaumokuākea’s protections were not created overnight – they were built over years of public engagement, cultural leadership, scientific collaboration, and international cooperation.

Today, those protections face an unprecedented threat. WESPAC has repeatedly attempted to weaken marine safeguards, advancing proposals to reopen marine monuments and sanctuaries, including Papahānaumokuākea, to commercial extraction.

Acting under federal directives, NOAA Fisheries is now “reconsidering” key regulations through the so-called “seafood competitiveness” strategy. Framed as “modernization,” this process paves the way for commercial interests to override conservation efforts and Indigenous stewardship, undermining decades of work to protect these sacred waters.

In my testimony I emphasized that traditionally, Hawaiian families only fish in within the coasts and waters of our own land division. Fishing beyond one’s borders is considered disrespectful and a breach of protocol. I expressed severe disappointment at rhetoric perpetuated by WESPAC insinuating that “these are ‘American’ waters, and ‘American’ fishermen have the right to fish there.”

Papahānaumokuākea is in Hawaiian waters; no one has the right to fish there.

It is among the largest marine protected areas in the world. For perspective: if the Pacific Ocean were a football field, Papahānaumokuākea would be the size of a postage stamp. Yet, WESPAC and its allies are focusing on fishing in this tiny part of the ocean.

The ecosystem found within Papahānaumokuākea is an ancestral legacy from the Kumulipo, our cosmogonic chant. As Native Hawaiians, the salt waters of Papa- hānaumokuākea run through our veins, its waterways are our memories of oceanic migration paths connecting us to every living creature and island in this vast ocean of Moananuiākea.

For a thousand years, our kūpuna manifested Papahānaumokuākea’s pristine beauty and sacredness for the benefit of today’s generation and for the next thousand. This is true foresight. Yet, in just a few short years, it could all be destroyed through extractive activities like commercial fishing and deep-sea mining. Let us not be the shortsighted generation.

Final comments and a petition with 2,600+ signatures advocating for the fullest protections for Papahānaumokuākea has been sent to the federal government. As we await the forthcoming decision on commercial fishing policies in Papahānaumokuākea and other marine protected areas, we must remain vigilant and ready.

Mahalo nui to everyone who came together in support of this massive undertaking. When the opposition says no community exists in Papahānaumokuākea remember: We are the community!

Stay updated on this issue and other opportunities to amplify the story of our kūpuna islands by following the Papahānaumokuākea Native Hawaiian Cultural Working Group (alohacwg.com) and the Papahānaumokuākea Coalition (papahanaumokuakeacoalition.org) on FB and IG.

The post No ka Pono o Papahānaumokuākea! appeared first on Ka Wai Ola.

Me ka hanohano o nā ʻāina kupuna, mai ka lā puka i Haʻehaʻe o Hawaiʻi Nui Kuauli a hiki loa aku i ka lā hoʻi i Hiʻolani o ka moku kuaʻau ʻo Hōlanikū, aloha nui iā kākou a pau. Eia hou mai nei he ʻelele o nā hoa ʻāina o Papahānaumokuākea (CWG) e waiho haʻahaʻa nei he pūpū limu aloha nui ʻia na ʻoukou pākahi, i wahi hoʻomanaʻo no ka ʻono o ka ʻōlelo Kanaka o ko kākou pae ʻāina.

I ka MH 1917, ua paʻi ʻia ma ka nūpepa ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi ʻo Ka Puuhonua o na Hawaii, “I ikeia no ke kanaka no kekahi lahui ma kana olelo…”. Inā pēlā, ʻike pū ʻia nō ke kanaka no kekahi ʻāina ma kāna ʻōlelo, e laʻa hoʻi me nā inoa, nā mele, a me nā ʻōlelo noʻeau no kekahi ʻāina. No ka ʻōlelo, ua lilo ia he mea pono a mea kaua hoʻi no ka hoʻohanohano ʻana, ka hoʻokolonaio ʻana, ke kāpae ʻana, a me ka haku hou ʻana i ka moʻolelo o kekahi ʻāina.

Ma ke kiaʻana i nā inoa pana ʻāina a me nā inoa mea ola, ma o ka ʻōlelo Kanaka, e hoʻomanaʻo ʻia ana nō ia māhele nui o ka pae ʻāina nei, ʻo ia ke Kiahoʻomanaʻo Kai Aupuni ʻo Papahānaumokuākea.

No Papahānaumokuākea

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ʻO Papahānaumokuākea kekahi puʻuhonua kai nui loa i hoʻomalu ʻia o ka honua nei no ka pono o nā ʻano mea ola ʻōiwi a ʻāpaʻakuma hoʻi e noho nei ma laila. He 582,578 mile kuea ka nui, a he ʻekolu hapahā nō ia o ka pae ʻāina nei, a aia nō i laila nā mokupuni a pau o ka ʻākau komohana o Hawaiʻi.

Kapa ʻia nō ma ka inoa ʻo nā Kupuna Islands, he koʻikoʻi loa pū nō ʻo Papahānaumokuākea no ka lāhui Hawaiʻi ma ka moʻomeheu, ka ʻaoʻao politika, a me ka ʻaoʻao pili ʻuhane pū kekahi. I loko nō naʻe o kona ʻano nui a koʻikoʻi, ua ʻane poina loa kekahi hapa loa o ko ke au nei i ia mau moku o loko o Papahānaumokuākea ma muli o ka hehu ʻia o nā inoa kuʻuna a me nā moʻolelo e pili pū ana e nā kolonaio no ke kanu a hoʻoulu hou mai i nā inoa ʻē a me nā moʻolelo ʻē.

Nā Inoa Pana ʻĀina

Ua laha loa nō paha nā inoa Hawaiʻi o nā moku “nui” he ʻewalu o Hawaiʻi nei. Ma kahi o 3,000 mau mile mai Hawaiʻi aku, kuhi pinepine ʻia ke kiwikā kai ʻole ʻo Las Vegas, ʻo ia ka moku ʻeiwa o Hawaiʻi, a no kekahi, kuhi ʻia ka mokuʻāina ʻo Wakinekona, ʻo ka ʻumi ia. Kuhi ʻia nō pēlā no ka nui o nā Hawaiʻi i haʻalele iā Hawaiʻi no ka noho hou ʻana ma ia mau wahi mamao.

ʻOiai he mau inoa kapakapa wale nō paha ia e hōʻoia ana i kekahi pilina kanaka me kona ʻāina, he ala nō ia e hoʻopoina mai ai kākou i nā mokupuni ʻē aʻe o Hawaiʻi pae moku, e laʻa hoʻi me Paokalani, Mokupuku, Molokini, Mokoliʻi, Popoiʻa, Mānana, Kāohikaipu, Mokulua, Mokuʻauia, Mōkapu, ʻŌkala, Huelo, Lehua, a me Kaʻula mā. I loko nō naʻe o ka hiki ke ʻike maka aku i ia mau mokupuni mai nā mokupuni nui o Hawaiʻi nei, ʻaʻole manaʻo ʻia, he mau mokupuni kū ʻokoʻa nō ia mai ia mau mokupuni nei mai. He mau mokupuni wale nō naʻe ia o ia mau mokupuni nei i hoʻohui ʻia i loko o nā palena ʻāina a nā kalana Hawaiʻi i kaha ai.

ʻIke leʻa nō naʻe kākou, nā Hawaiʻi, he mau ʻāina Hawaiʻi nō ia mau mokupuni liʻiliʻi no ko kākou ʻike maka ʻana i ia mau moku a me nā moʻolelo Hawaiʻi kahiko e pili pū ana. Eia naʻe, no ka ʻaʻai ʻāina ʻana, ka piʻi kai ʻana, a me ka huli ʻana o ke au nei, e aha ana lā nā mokupuni a me nā moku kuaʻau o Papahānaumokuākea i ʻike pinepine ʻole ʻia, ke hoʻi piha hou aku ma lalo o ke kai?

He 10 mau moku o Papahānaumokuākea. Ua kamaʻāina paha kekahi i nā mokupuni ʻo Nihoa a me Mokumanamana, nā mokupuni kokoke loa i nā mokupuni nui loa o Hawaiʻi nei. Mau nō ka mauli Hawaiʻi o ia mau ʻāina ma nā inoa e hoʻomanaʻo mai ana iā kākou no nā moʻolelo o nā akua kumu, nā aliʻi holomoana, a me ka hoʻomana kahiko.

I ke au ʻana aʻe i ka ʻākau komohana, kōliʻuliʻu ka mauli Hawaiʻi o nā moku, oki loa i ko lākou mau inoa ʻē. A hiki i kēia, ua kō he ʻelua hana kuʻupau e hoʻā hou aʻe ai i ia mauli Hawaiʻi o ia mau moku.

ʻAkahi, i nā MH 1990, ua haku ke Kōmike Huaʻōlelo i kekahi mau inoa no kēlā moku me kēia moku. ʻAlua, i kekahi mau makahiki ma hope mai, ua hoʻōla hou ʻia kekahi mau inoa pana moku kahiko e Kekuewa Kikiloi (ke poʻo kuʻi o CWG) ma kona ʻimi noiʻi ʻana i nā hiʻohiʻona ʻāina o ia mau moku me ka hoʻopili pū nō o ia mau hiʻohiʻona me kekahi palapala kākau o ka MH 1835 a kekahi haumāna o ke Kulanui ʻo Lahainaluna, ʻo Kaiaikawaha kona inoa, nāna i moʻolelo mai no ka pae ʻāina o Hawaiʻi.

Koe naʻe ʻo Nihoa me Mokumanamana, ʻekolu inoa nō o kēlā me kēia moku o Papahānaumokuākea: ʻelua inoa hawaiʻi a hoʻokahi inoa ʻē (e nānā aku i ka palapala ʻāina i pākuʻi ʻia). I kēia au e neʻe nei, ʻōlelo ʻia nō ia mau inoa a pau, a ʻo ka mea mio a nani loa, ʻo ka lohe nui ʻia nō ia o nā inoa Hawaiʻi ma mua o nā inoa ʻē.

Nā Inoa Mea Ola

Ola pū nō ka ʻōlelo Kanaka ma Papahānaumokuākea i nā inoa mea ola. He mau miliona nō ka nui o nā manu kai o Papahānaumokuākea. ʻO ka maʻamau ma ka ʻōlelo Kanaka, he inoa hoʻopilipili leo ko kekahi mau manu Hawaiʻi, ʻo ia hoʻi, ua kapa ʻia nō kekahi lāhui manu ma kona kani. Ma laila nō ma Papahānaumokuākea, hiki nō ke lohe ʻia ke mele hoʻoipoipo o ka mōlī, ka ʻuaʻuaʻu ʻana o ka ʻuaʻu kani, a me ka ʻaoʻaoʻaoʻū ʻana o ka ʻaoʻū. No kekahi mau mea ola naʻe e noho ana ma laila, ua nalowale aku ko lākou inoa, a i ʻole, ʻaʻole i kapa ʻia aku.

Ua hoʻokuleana ʻia ʻo Nomenclature Hui, he lalo kōmike o ka CWG, e noiʻi noelo i nā inoa pana ʻāina a me nā inoa mea ola o Papahānaumokuākea. Ma ke kālele piha ʻana ma ka waihona palapala ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi o ka wā ma mua a me nā loina kapa inoa kuʻuna Hawaiʻi, noiʻi, hoʻōla, a kapa aku ia hui i nā inoa. A hiki i kēia, he 74 mau inoa a ia hui i kapa aku ai no kekahi mau pana ʻāina, iʻa, lima, koʻa, mea ulu, a manu hoʻi o Papahānaumokuākea.

ʻAʻole wale nō na ke kōmike i kapa aku i nā inoa o nā mea ola hou. Ma ka pōmaikaʻi loa o ka ʻenehana hou, e hoʻopili pū ʻia mai ana nō ʻo Papahānaumokuākea me ka poʻe ma o ke kelealo ʻana. Ma kekahi o ia mau hanana, ua hana pū ko ʻoukou mea kākau nei me Ocean Exploration Trust, nāna e ʻimi noiʻi ana ma Papahānaumokuākea, no ka hoʻolele ʻīwā ʻana i nā wikiō o ka papakū o Papahānaumokuākea no kekahi papa mālaaʻo o ke Kula Kaiapuni o Pūʻōhala.

Ma ia launa ʻana me nā haumāna, ua hoʻolele aʻe au i kekahi wikiō o kekahi mea ʻeleʻele a poepoe kohu pāluna e pūlana ana ma luna iki aʻe o ka papakū. A laila, hāmama aʻela ka waha nui o ia mea, a luaʻi akula ʻo ia i ke kai i piha ai i kona mau pāpālina ʻuheke. Mai kona ʻano poepoe, wīwī maila kona kino a he ʻano puhi, a ʻau akula, a ʻo ka hū aʻela nō ia o ke aloha o ia poʻe kamaliʻi i ka ʻike aku i ka hana ʻana o ia ʻano puhi, he gulper eel ka inoa.

Me kona waha nui, alapoho mai ia puhi i ke kai a nui aʻe kona mau pāpālina no ke kūpale ʻana aku i nā mea pōʻino. ʻAʻohe ʻike ʻia he inoa Hawaiʻi o ia ʻano puhi. A laila, nīnau akula au i ka poʻe kamaliʻi, “he aha ka inoa o ia ʻano iʻa?” Ua kupaianaha loa nō ka pane ʻane lōkahi ʻana o lākou, “he puhi waha nui!” Pēlā nō i ola ai kona inoa.

He ʻŌlelo Ola, He Moʻomeheu Ola, He ʻĀina Ola, a He Lāhui Ola

He wahi ola a mauli Hawaiʻi nō ʻo Papa- hānaumokuākea, a aia nō ko kākou pono i ka mālama pono ʻana i ia wahi no ko kākou ʻike leʻa ʻana, no Papahānaumokuākea nō kā-kou, a ʻo ko kākou kupuna nō ia, a ʻo kākou kāna mamo. I ka noke ʻana aku o kākou ma kēia aukahi hōʻola ʻōlelo a moʻomeheu hoʻi, ke huliāmahi nei nā lālā o CWG me nā hoa ma ka mālama ʻana iā Papahānaumokuākea ma nā ʻano hana like ʻole, ʻo ka hoʻopuka a kapa inoa ʻana, ka noiʻi ʻana, ka hoʻohemo pīhā ʻōpalapala ʻana, ka haku mele a ʻōlelo noʻeau ʻana, a me ka hoʻomohala haʻawina ʻana i loko piha nō o ka ʻōlelo Kanaka.

E like loa nō hoʻi me ka puhi waha nui nāna i hoʻoulu he pilina ʻōlelo Kanaka me ka poʻe kamaliʻi o ka hanauna hou, lana aʻe nō ka manaʻo, e hoʻoulu pilina kākou me Papahānaumokuākea, a hoʻomanaʻo pono mai, ʻaʻole he mau moku lēʻia wale nō ia o ka moana, akā he puʻuhonua kapu, he kanaaho, he papa aʻo, a he wahi ʻimi naʻauao nō hoʻi e hōʻoia ana i ke ola mau loa o ka ʻōlelo a ko kākou pae ʻāina. E ola nō ʻo Papahānaumokuākea.

Hauʻoli Lorenzo-Elarco is a member of the Papahānaumokuākea Native Hawaiian Cultural Working Group, and chair of the Nomenclature Hui Subcommittee. 

The post Ola ka ‘Ōlelo Kanaka ma Papahānaumokuākea appeared first on Ka Wai Ola.

With the honor of the ancestral islands, greetings of aloha to each of you from Haʻehaʻe on Hawaiʻi Island to Hiʻolani on Hōlanikū (Kure Atoll). As a representative of the Papahānaumokuākea Native Hawaiian Cultural Working Group (CWG), I humbly offer a bundle of limu to each of you, as a reminder of the delicacies of the Hawaiian language throughout our entire archipelago.

In 1917, it was printed in the Hawaiian language newspaper Ka Puuhonua o na Hawaii that, “I ikeia no ke kanaka no kekahi lahui ma kana olelo…” (One is identified as belonging to a particular people by their language…). In this way, a people may also be seen as belonging to a certain place through the language used to describe it. This includes names, poetry, and proverbial sayings. Language has been used both as a tool and a weapon to honor, claim, erase, and rewrite the history of a space.

Focusing on names for spaces and species, this article illuminates two of the many ways a thriving Hawaiian language has mapped and memorialized land and ocean in the region of the Hawaiian archipelago known as Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM).

About Papahānaumokuākea

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PMNM is one of the largest marine protected areas on the planet, spanning 582,578 mi², comprising ¾ of the archipelago and the entirety of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The area is home to several marine and terrestrial species, many endemic.

Affectionately referred to as the Kupuna Islands, PMNM is historically, culturally, politically, and spiritually important to Kānaka. Despite its size and importance, the islands and atolls within Papahānaumokuākea were nearly forgotten under forced amnesia due to the colonial project that supplanted traditional place names and narratives with non-native ones.

Island Names

Hawaiian Archipelago Map – PDF Format

Generally, one might know that there are eight “main” Hawaiian Islands (MHI). Almost 3,000 miles away from Hawaiʻi, the landlocked city of Las Vegas is often cited as the ninth island. Some also point to Washington State as the tenth island. These foreign places receive such designations based on the large number of Native Hawaiians now living there in diaspora.

Though terms like this are seemingly an innocent act of placemaking, these ideas actively work to erase from human consciousness the many other islands that comprise the Hawaiian archipelago, such as Paokalani, Mokupuku, Molokini, Mokoliʻi, Popoiʻa, Mānana, Kāohikaipu, Mokulua, Mokuʻauia, Mōkapu, ʻŌkala, Huelo, Lehua, Kaʻula, and others. Though these places can be easily seen from the MHI, contemporary society does not count them as standalone entities but extensions of the larger, human-inhabited islands, grouped within imaginary county boundary lines.

Nonetheless, we know these are storied Hawaiian places because we can physically see them, and we possess historical language that describes them. But, with erosion, sea-level rise, and climate change, what will happen to our memory of the rarely seen or spoken of islands and atolls of Papahānaumokuākea when they reach the end of their life cycle and fully return to the ocean?

There are 10 islands and atolls within Papahānaumokuākea. Starting closest to the MHI, some may be vaguely familiar with Nīhoa and Mokumanamana (Necker Island). These islands retain their identity as Hawaiian places simply through names that recall stories of primordial deities, voyaging chiefs, and ritual worship.

Moving northwest, the identity of the islands noticeably shifts, with Hawaiian histories completely washed over by foreign names. To date, there have been two important efforts to recover the Hawaiian identity of these elder islands.

First, in the 1990s, the Hawaiian Lexicon Committee developed names for each island. Secondly, several years later, Dr. Kekuewa Kikiloi (CWG co-chair) returned lost traditional names to these islands by matching their physical characteristics to an 1835 written composition by a Lahainaluna Seminary student named Kaiaikawaha, who described the islands of the Hawaiian archipelago.

The islands and atolls of Papahānaumokuākea – except for Nīhoa and Mokumanamana – now hold at least three names: two Hawaiian and one foreign (see map). Today, these names are used interchangeably. Excitingly, there is a conscious shift away from the English epithets to the Hawaiian ones.

Nā Inoa Mea Ola

The Hawaiian language also thrives in Papahānaumokuākea through species names. Seabirds reign in the millions within PMNM. Hawaiian bird names are often onomatopoeic, named for the sounds they make. It is in Papahānaumokuākea that one can hear the courtship song of the mōlī, the cawing of the ʻaoʻū, and the chattering of the ʻuaʻu. But, for a handful of species that inhabit this place, Hawaiian names have been lost to time or never given.

The Nomenclature Hui, a subcommittee of the CWG is tasked with investigating the names of spaces and species within Papahānaumokuākea. Leaning on archival materials and ancestral naming practices, the committee researches, repatriates, and develops names. Thus far, the hui has given 74 names to fish, seaweeds, corals, plants, and birds of PMNM.

New names for newly discovered species are not just created through a committee structure. With the power of technology, we now bring Papahānaumokuākea to the people through video conferencing. For one such event, the author partnered with the Ocean Exploration Trust, conducting research in Papahānaumokuākea, to bring live footage of PMNM to a Hawaiian immersion kindergarten class at Pūʻōhala School.

During this interaction, I shared a video of a dark, balloon-like creature floating motionless above the deep seafloor of Papahānaumokuākea. Suddenly, it shook and twirled, opening its extremely large mouth and expelling water that bloated its cheeks. From its circular form, the creature slimmed to a slender-shaped eel and swam away. The school children burst with excitement for this transforming organism known as a gulper eel.

Its large mouth and extra cheek skin allow it to hold large volumes of water, vastly increasing its size as a defensive mechanism. This eel has no known traditional Hawaiian name. But, when I asked the Hawaiian-speaking children for the name of this creature, they immediately shouted in near unison, “he puhi waha nui” (a large-mouth eel). Thus, born was the Hawaiian name for the gulper eel.

A Living Language, Culture, Place and People

Papahānaumokuākea is a living, breathing realm worthy of protection, and our language reminds us we belong to this place and are bound to its currents and wildlife. As continued acts of Hawaiian language and culture revitalization, many members of the CWG actively engage in tending of this place through speaking old names and developing new ones, researching archives, tides, and seasonal changes, surveying spaces, removing debris, crafting songs, producing proverbs, and building curricula, all through the medium of Hawaiian.

Like the puhi waha nui that excites the next generation, we hope this work helps shape our understanding of Papahānaumokuākea away from mere forgotten islands of the Pacific to a sacred space, wildlife sanctuary, interactive classroom, and living language lab that prioritizes Hawaiian as a living language, culture, place, and people.

Hauʻoli Lorenzo-Elarco is a member of the Papahānaumokuākea Native Hawaiian Cultural Working Group, and chair of the Nomenclature Hui Subcommittee. 

The post The Hawaiian Language Thrives in Papahānaumokuākea appeared first on Ka Wai Ola.