Speakers: Renee Pualani Louis | Air Date: February 1, 2020 | Run Time: 52mins | The Native Seed Pod: Season 2
Hawaiian Cartography and ‘Aina Sovereignty
Cover of Kanaka Hawai’i Cartography: Hula, Navigation, and Oratory
Rooting us further into the Indigenous cosmologies of the Pacific (Moana), podcast host Melissa Nelson catches up with Hawaiian Cartographer Renee Pualani Louis during a writers’ retreat at the Mesa Refuge in Point Reyes, California.
Renee shares her experience of being changed while writing her book Kanaka Hawaiʻi Cartography: Hula, Navigation, and Oratory (2017), which explores Kanaka Hawai’i place-name and spatial knowledge systems. We are met with the breadth of Hawaiian, place-based language and knowledge of ‘Aina – the land-food matrix. Deep in intimate conversation, together we traverse stars and seasons, plants and mountains, and how to embody food sovereignty, self-determination, and nourish relationships of food and community.
“ . . . . you can see how the bones of our ancestors are really what’s feeding the generations to come, and again, this is how we become invested in the landscape.”
About Renee Pualani Louis
Renee Pualani Louis is a Hawaiian cartographer passionate about Hawaiian storied place names, spatial knowledge systems, and an advocate for the integration of indigenous knowledge systems into Western Geosciences.
A leader of her field, Louis is a graduate of The University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, a Co-Chair of the Indigenous Peoples Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers, the 2014 co-recipient of the American Association of Geographers Enhancing Diversity Award, and a member of CHIRP3 Working Group, whose goal is to develop new guidelines for building collaborations between Native and non-Native researchers working with Native communities.
Additional Resources
Collaboratively Harnessing Indigenous Principles, Protocols, and Practices (CHIRP3)
Article for First Peoples: New Directions in Indigenous Studies
CREDITS
Host/Writer/Director: Melissa K. Nelson
Producer: Sara Moncada
Co-producer and photographer: Mateo Hinojosa
Audio Editor and Engineer: Colin Farish
Production Assistant: Teo Montoya
Additional Photography: Melissa Nelson
Songs (in order of appearance):
“Plants of the Sea, Ka Uluwehi O Ke Kai” by Del Medina, Linda Low, and Colin Farish