Kaiaulu: Gathering Tides

The tide is rising ahead of the early morning sun on the northeast coast of the Hawaiian island of Kaua'i. Waves rush singing onto the outer reef where two throw net fishermen stalk the surge. An elderly woman with her silver hair in a kerchief makes her way toward shore, two octopuses tucked in her mesh bag. Within hours, two hundred tourists will snorkel, sunbathe, and teeter on the coral, few ever knowing that people fish here or that their catch sustains an entire kai?ulu (community) connected to this stretch of reef.

This coast is known as a playground for tourists and backdrop for Hollywood movies, but catch from small local reefs, and the sharing of this abundance, has sustained area families for centuries, helping them to thrive through tidal waves, hurricanes, an influx of new residents, and economic recessions. Yet fishing families are increasingly invisible and many have moved away, threatened by global commodification and loss of access to coastal lands that are now private retreats for star entertainers, investors, and dot-com millionaires.

Building on two decades of interviews with more than sixty Hawaiian elders, leaders, and fishermen and women, Kai?ulu shares their stories of enduring community efforts to perpetuate kuleana, often translated to mean "rights and responsibilities." Community actions extend kuleana to include nurturing respectful relationships with resources, guarding and cultivating fishing spots, perpetuating collective harvests and sharing, maintaining connection to family lands, reasserting local governance rooted in ancestral values, and preparing future generations to carry on.

An important contribution to scholarship in the fields of natural resource management, geography, Indigenous Studies, and Hawaiian Studies, Kai?ulu is also a skillfully written and deeply personal tribute to a community based not on ownership, but reciprocity, responsibility, and caring for the places that shape and sustain us all.

Author: Mehana Blaich Vaughan
Publisher: Oregon State University Press
Published: 05/01/2018
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.90w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9780870719226

About the Author
Mehana Blaich Vaughangrew up where the districts of Halele'a and Ko'olau meet on the island of Kaua'i. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, and the Sea Grant College Program and Hui '?ina Momona at the University of Hawai'i at M?noa. Mehana's research and teaching focus on community relationships with natural resources, particularly in indigenous settings, as well as place-based education. Her home is on Kaua'i with her husband, mother, and three children. Kai?ulu is her first book.