Historic Hawai‘i Foundation presents

A Talk Story with the filmmaker and

Loko Iʻa Stewards

Wednesday, October 27, 2021

From 5:00-6:15PM

Virtual, via Zoom

Cost: Free

View the video replay below of the talk story with the film’s director and community stewards of three O‘ahu fishponds: Kanewai Loko Iʻa, Paʻaiau Loko Iʻa, and Huilua Loko Iʻa, below.

 View the film, Kai Piha: Nā Loko Iʻa

SUMMARY: For centuries, loko iʻa, or fishponds, were a vital part of the Native Hawaiian food system, connecting freshwater sources to the ocean, using rock-wall enclosures to raise and eventually harvest fish. In recent decades, there has been a resurgence of this indigenous way of aquafarming. Kai Piha: Nā Loko Iʻa looks at how four fishponds on Oʻahu are being restored.

Loko i‘a are historical evidence to the legacy of abundance throughout our islands — abundance of freshwater flowing to the ocean, abundance of healthy coastal fisheries and thriving human communities that lived independently on isolated islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

The people power required to construct loko i‘a and the intergenerational environmental knowledge required to manage them necessitated stable living conditions and social structures. These are sophisticated systems that continue to teach many lessons to our community. They also serve as a testament and inspiration of the innovation and ingenuity of our community and its response to resource management, food security and sustainability.

We look forward to a rich discussion about the importance of loko i‘a and their potential as a transformative model in a multitude of areas:

• Cultural resource stewardship;
• Hawaiian construction;
• Food source;
• Communal activity;
• Use as educational tool;
• Perpetuator of indigenous knowledge;
• Resilience builder;
• Climate change mitigation model

“They’re blowing around us right now. You can see them in the wind. How the water ripples that comes to greet us. I think they’ve always been here waiting for us. Kūpuna have told me this beautiful proverb, ‘The ancestors are waiting at the mouth of the river for the descendants to return.’ And in this case the descendants are all of us together with the Navy, to come together to restore peace and abundance to this place.”

~Kehaulani Lum, Ali‘i Pauahi Hawaiian Civic Club, community steward of Paʻaiau Loko Iʻa in ʻEwa

“We have documented over 488 of these ponds that were built over 800 years on the 8 major Hawaiian Islands. We have maybe 10 to 15 percent of them left. They’re on the verge of vanishing from the landscape in our lifetime. We need to hold onto this because they are our connection to the past. And that wisdom is still something that empowers us today and nourishes us today as we move into the 21^st century.”

~Herb Lee Jr., Executive Director. Pacific American Foundation, stewards of the Waikalua Loko Iʻa in Kāne‘ohe

Ann Marie Kirk, Filmmaker and Moderator: Ann Marie is an award-winning filmmaker with the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education. She also has her own production company, Blue Crater Media.  With over 30 years of experience, her films touch on numerous aspects of Hawaiian culture, people, and life in Hawaiʻi.

Chris Cramer directs the Maunalua Fishpond Heritage Center at Maunalua, O’ahu. He was mentored by the last generation of kūpuna that stewarded Hawaii’s largest fishpond. He co-founded the organization in 2007, when remaining Hawaiian fishponds in the region were being auctioned. In 2010 he led the effort to pass Act 210 to protect publicly owned Hawaiian fishponds from sale and destruction. Alongside fellow board members, he currently serves the community through restoration and education programs at Kānewai Spring and Kalauha‘iha‘i Fishpond.

Kehaulani Lum is the President of Ali‘i Pauahi Hawaiian Civic Club, a Native Hawaiian organization founded over 40 years ago by elders who heard the call to preserve traditional cultural practices, education, and sacred site restoration. Her kuleana was passed down by her late maternal Grandmother, Harriet Mākia Awana O’Sullivan, a retired DOE teacher and esteemed community leader, who brought her into the club at a young age.  A member of the ‘Aiea Community Association, in the ahupua`a where her family has stewarded ancestral lands for over 100 years, Kehaulani feels blessed to lead Ali‘i Pauahi’s effort to restore the 400-year-old Loko i`a Pā`aiau, the last remaining royal fishpond in Pu`uloa, built by O`ahu Queen Kalanimanuia.

Kahiau Wallace, Huilua Loko Iʻa,  hails from Kahana, Ko‘olauloa, O‘ahu. Kahiau is the Education Manager at Kākoʻo ʻŌiwi and a board member of Hōala ʻĀina Kūpono.