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

Colby Miyose

doi:10.18733/cpi29772

Authors

Colby Miyose University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18733/cpi29772

Keywords:

Communication, culture-nature, Kānaka Maoli, Hō‘ālani Framework

Abstract

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.

Author Biography

Colby Miyose, University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo

Colby Miyose (PhD, University of Massachusetts Amherst) is an Assistant Professor at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo in the Department of Communication and the Second Vice-Chair for the Asian Pacific American Caucus and Communication Studies Division for the National Communication Association.

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