Kanaka 'Ōiwi Methodologies: Mo'olelo and Metaphor ed. by Katrina-Ann R. Kapā'anaokalāokeola Nākoa Oliveira and Erin Kahunawaika'ala Wright (review)

IN THIS FOURTH VOLUME of the Hawai'inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge's series, the editors trace and argue for methodologies, and methods, to scholarship that are unapologetically Kanaka 'Ōiwi. In doing so, Katrina-Ann R. Kapā'anaokalāokeola Nākoa Oliveira and Erin Kahunawaika'ala Wright suggest the anthology has two aims. The first is to foster dialogue across various Kanaka 'Ōiwi methodological approaches to producing knowledge. The second is to advance the diverse ways that Kānaka 'Ōiwi engage, practice, and apply scholarly research. Different from previous volumes in the Hawai'inuiākea series, Kanaka 'Ōiwi Methodologies untangles the complexly interwoven frameworks that animate and equip 'Ōiwi researchers in the study of 'ike Hawai'i, or Hawaiian knowledge.

The authors offer readers mo'olelo (stories, narratives, histories) and metaphors as organizing concepts rooted in Indigenous Hawaiian epistemologies. Much of this work is positioned from the field of education. Kaiwipunikauikawēkiu Lipe suggests mo'olelo expressed in oli (chants) and 'ōlelo no'eau (proverbs) are imbued with metaphorical meanings for 'Ōiwi survival. In turn, she suggests "mo'olelo aku, mo'olelo mai" (54), or sharing and receiving mo'olelo. For Lipe, this is an engaged practice and methodology, especially to transform wahine (female) leadership in struggles against the racism and patriarchy of the academy. By highlighting King David Kalākaua's mele "Ua Noho Au A Kupa I Ke Alo," R. Keawe Lopes Jr. recommends a research protocol responsible and accountable to kūpuna (elders), community participants, practitioners, and teachers as mentors. Coalescing these arguments, Maya L. Kawailanaokeawaiki Saffery's essay, analyzing place-based educational programming, demonstrates how mele (songs) and hula (dances) communicate mo'olelo, like that of Queen Emma's journey to Mauna a Wākea in 1874, which metaphorically and materially ground 'Ōiwi scholars to geographic ways of being in the 'āina, or the land that feeds us, of Hawai'i.

Other authors outline 'Ōiwi methodologies from a more explicitly environmental and 'āina-based focus. Extending environmental studies, Mehana Blaich Vaughan reflects on research in Lumaha'i Valley on Kaua'i with the Waipā Foundation. Sharing three lessons from this project, Vaughan contends 'āina is a source as well as guiding partner, 'āina links communities, and 'āina emboldens our connections to place. In the essay written by Katrina-Ann R. Kapā'anaokalāokeola Nākoa Oliveira, wai (fresh water) presents a metaphor to map how scholarly contributions by Kānaka 'Ōiwi collectively constitute 'ike Hawai'i, like streams flowing into the ocean. For instance, Oliveira argues that academic inquiry written in 'ōlelo Hawai'i (Hawaiian language) and utilizing the vast archives of Hawaiian-language texts signifies ancestral wisdom as the source of these running waters. Thus, Summer Puanani Maunakea theorizes an aloha 'āina framework based on and utilizing 'ike kupuna (ancestral knowledge). Brandy Nālani McDougall's story "Nā 'Ili'ili" illuminates the regenerative force of 'ike kūpuna through the metaphorical use of the mo'o (lizard). "'Ōiwi scholars across a range of academic disciplines and institutions of higher education," according to Maunakea, "are thriving, driven by our kuleana to our 'ohana, our people, and our 'āina" (142–43).

This volume powerfully shows that Hawaiian studies is a capacious, dynamic, and critical field. In her indispensible chapter, Noelani Goodyear-Ka'ōpua tracks a genealogy of 'Ōiwi methodologies. She situates Hawaiian studies as an interdisciplinary field with four commitments: lāhui (collective identity, self-definition), ea (sovereignty, leadership), kuleana (positionality, obligations), and pono (harmonious relationships, justice, healing). By invoking Haunani-Kay Trask's poem "Sons," Goodyear-Ka'ōpua asserts that these intersecting concepts metaphorically signify 'aho (single cords) that, when plaited together, reproduce ropes of resistance against injustice, violence, and elimination. Erin Kahunawaika'ala Wright and Brandi Jean Nālani Balutski's essay illustrates this interdisciplinary methodology and analytical intersectionality. Building on the...