A collaboratory with students in ART484: Art and Ecology, Spring 2023
How can we learn to build pilina to particular watery places in Hawai‘i by retracing some of the paths of the mo'o who protect our waters?
In Ka Po‘e Mo‘o Akua: Hawaiian Reptilian Water Deities, Marie Alohalani Brown explains that in Hawai'i, mo'o, are (mostly) female watery deities that take lizard form. Guardians of fresh water pools and streams, they personify the "life-giving and death-dealing qualities of water." Their vertebrae, shaped like mountain ridges, form a procession that celebrates the continuity of water flow from the clouds to ‘āina. They also invoke inter-generational knowledge in the form of mo'olelo (storytelling). Their shedding skins indicate the power of regeneration. Many bodies of water across Hawai'i have stories of mo'o who attract fish, protect waters from being overused or polluted, as well as protect and guide humans (142-150).
Narrative traditions of mo'olelo and ka'ao (legend) about mo'o are filled with layers of observation about the interconnected cultural and ecological values of water. They build pilina (relationship and connection) to ‘āina and have been important ways to remember how to caretake waters. No'u Revilla's collection of poetry, Ask the Brindled (2022) celebrates the fierceness of the mo'o and her fierce identification with them. She says, "All lizards and shapeshifters, I belong to you. Each leathery bundle born to protect water" (19). In Mapping Abundance for a Planetary Future (2021), Candace Fujikane, articulates the responsibility of non-Kanaka kama‘āina and malihini (visitors) to also learn and share in the wisdom of the mo'o. She says, can "we consider these stories about the earth..to restore more sustaining arrangements of life? How can abundance be mapped to show functioning Indigenous economies not premised on the crises of capital? How are lands mapped as having an ontology—a life, a will, a desire, and an agency—of their own? How can such cartographies help us grow a decolonial love for lands, seas, and skies that will help to renew abundance on this earth" (4)?
Inspired by mo'o stories and poems, we each developed a digital story to express our pilina to watery places through presence, attention, and mo'olelo. Read some of our efforts below!
How can we learn to build pilina to particular watery places in Hawai‘i by retracing some of the paths of the mo'o who protect our waters?
In Ka Po‘e Mo‘o Akua: Hawaiian Reptilian Water Deities, Marie Alohalani Brown explains that in Hawai'i, mo'o, are (mostly) female watery deities that take lizard form. Guardians of fresh water pools and streams, they personify the "life-giving and death-dealing qualities of water." Their vertebrae, shaped like mountain ridges, form a procession that celebrates the continuity of water flow from the clouds to ‘āina. They also invoke inter-generational knowledge in the form of mo'olelo (storytelling). Their shedding skins indicate the power of regeneration. Many bodies of water across Hawai'i have stories of mo'o who attract fish, protect waters from being overused or polluted, as well as protect and guide humans (142-150).
Narrative traditions of mo'olelo and ka'ao (legend) about mo'o are filled with layers of observation about the interconnected cultural and ecological values of water. They build pilina (relationship and connection) to ‘āina and have been important ways to remember how to caretake waters. No'u Revilla's collection of poetry, Ask the Brindled (2022) celebrates the fierceness of the mo'o and her fierce identification with them. She says, "All lizards and shapeshifters, I belong to you. Each leathery bundle born to protect water" (19). In Mapping Abundance for a Planetary Future (2021), Candace Fujikane, articulates the responsibility of non-Kanaka kama‘āina and malihini (visitors) to also learn and share in the wisdom of the mo'o. She says, can "we consider these stories about the earth..to restore more sustaining arrangements of life? How can abundance be mapped to show functioning Indigenous economies not premised on the crises of capital? How are lands mapped as having an ontology—a life, a will, a desire, and an agency—of their own? How can such cartographies help us grow a decolonial love for lands, seas, and skies that will help to renew abundance on this earth" (4)?
Inspired by mo'o stories and poems, we each developed a digital story to express our pilina to watery places through presence, attention, and mo'olelo. Read some of our efforts below!
Collaborators:
Abarca, Christopher Baja, Dennyse Therese Bock, Cara Cabico, Divine Grace Hastings, Brienna Higgins, Marika Hurley, Jade Jensen, Camilla Kipapa, Cori-Lee Marrotte, Kamaehu Mulitauopele, Evan Osorio, Malia Padilla, Kelsy Paguirigan, Jordan Pearce, Ryan Sanderson, Jui Lien Shimabukuro-Sanchez, Coby Wong, Connie |
THE PROCESS: We wanted to not only understanding the historical roots of water crises, but also recover and regenerate the histories and practices that have best cared for Hawai'i's water and learn how to carry them into the future... with craft...with story...with laughter.
To begin to understand the transforming, shapeshifting, and interconnected qualities of wai across Hawai'i, we developed a series of collaborative workshops on researching, drawing, poetry, facilitation, and writing. Each of us chose a particular "water body" that was meaningful to us, and focused on gathering our own experiences and memories of that place and putting them into conversation with layered histories of wahi pana, hydrology, ecology, politics, development, and more. We made collaborative poems as we sat in a chain on the banks of Mānoa stream. We facilitated a "Council of Waters" with Aurora Kagawa's Water and Society class to discuss the major issues that these waters now face collectively. We imagined and talked through these issues from the point of view of water. Meleanna Meyer led us in a collaborative drawing project in which our water bodies flowed through each other. We brought these elements together in the abstracted mural grid of our interconnected waters above! Along the way, we also spent time working with Malama Pu'uloa—doing some hana lima and also learning about the water communities of Pearl Harbor. All of these experiences allowed us to move deeper into public digital storytelling processes in which we could find our own voices, and more importantly, the voice of our waters. Mahalos to: Meleanna Meyer Aurora Kagawa-Vivani and GEO 305 Anuschka Faucci Sean Connelly Drew Kahuʻāina Broderick + Josh Tengan Hui o Ho`ohonua @ www.hoh808.org Ka Papa Loʻi ʻo Kānewai @ Hawai'inuiakea School of Hawaiian Knowledge |