Indigenous Hawaiian Practices are Mana Model for Change
Posted in business development communications hints of inspiration by on Sep 28 2010
“We have not inherited the Earth from our parents. We have borrowed it from our children.”
What type of world will we be passing on to our children? This was the headlining question at The World Congress on Zero Emissions, a “think tank”esque conference focusing on the design of an economic system driven by innovations, generating jobs and building social capital through the application of sustainable practices. Held this month at the Hawai‘i Convention Center in Honolulu, I was honored to be in attendance with world-renowned leaders and entrepreneurs including Professor Gunter Pauli founder of Zero Emissions Research Initiatives (ZERI) and author of “The Blue Economy.”
There was an underlying reverence throughout the presentations for respecting the past while looking forward to the future. Many of the modern techniques and sustainable practices that were featured by the presenting companies brilliantly reflected the Hawaiian mana’o that was shared throughout the conference by community leaders and centers of influence.
Professor Pauli stated, ”Our challenge today is to respond to the basic needs of all with what we have, to build upon indigenous cultures as in Hawai‘i, learning from the ancient systems of the past, while drawing upon concrete innovations and examples from around the world.”
The main challenge at hand is well summed up in this verbiage from one of the presenting companies, EcoCycleDesign. “Our lifestyle of endless consumption is causing chaos in mother nature. The earth’s resources will not last for long if we continue to consume and use the resources as we are doing today. Human beings have dramatically affected nature, especially during the last 200 years – the industrial epoch in the history of man. We have ruthlessly taken as many accessible, but not necessarily renewable, resources and changed survival opportunities for flora, fauna and ourselves. Our economy is still based upon cheap fossil fuel and a constant growth of gross national product.”
Hawaiian perspectives that were shared centered around the flow of time, balance of resources, relationship to land, food production and the aloha spirit. Aloha was the working philosophy of native Hawaiians (moved into modern day mantra), and expresses the charm, warmth and sincerity of Hawaii’s people. In addition to being a greeting, aloha extends caring with no obligation in return. It is the essence of relationships in which each person is important to every other person for collective existence. It was the tie that bound the indigenous Hawaiian system together for productive co-creation and balanced growth.
Indigenous principles of resource management focused on respecting and healing the land as an integral part of maintaining a balanced system. God, plants, creatures and all elements are important parts of the system. The relationships between the spiritual, natural and human realms dictated the flow of time. Hawaiians claimed relationships with land and ancestors as a responsibility, privilege and right. There was a deep relationship to place, taking into account both the needs of people with the needs of place. The land belonged to the Gods, the chiefs managed the land to benefit the people, and when the land was happy the Gods were happy. By healing the land, you were healing the people, and thriving lands created thriving economies.
The Hawaiian system emphasizes assigning value to things that are important, including culture, education, community, economics and the environment. By giving value to things that don’t have an assessed market value, systems can change.
Our next blog post will feature the stories of some of the presenting companies and case studies, and profile how these companies have drawn influence from indigenous practices, working to shift our system toward a Blue Economy.
The Zero Emissions Conference was presented by Enterprise Honolulu, the O‘ahu Economic Development Board, and led by Pono Shim and Mark McGuffie. Enterprise Honolulu is a private organization that envisions a prosperous Hawai‘i through partnerships, collaboration and community input. Their grounding values are Aloha and Pono, and they believe that with these values we are able to unite all sectors of Hawaii’s residents and visitors to a full and healthy future.
