Endangered Animals and Endangered Languages: I am Confused.
So I had conversation with some of my students the other day that left me a bit bemused. They were talking about going to the beach and getting cordoned off because there was a monk seal basking on the sand. There was a collective growl of irritation. One kid voiced it: "Just these STUPID endangered animals! And don't even get me started on the Shearwaters!"
I.... didn't have an answer to that. And we were really supposed to be talking about Macbeth. And scanning iambic pentameter. So I filed "My endangered Hawaiian students hate endangered Hawaiian animals" to my mental Think About Later shelf.
So now I am thinking about it. And I'm a bit stumped. Why do my students, who are striving with all of their might to preserve an indigenous language and culture on the brink of extinction, have nothing but contempt for conservation efforts for indigenous plants and animals? Is this something just with my students? Is this a local vs. non-local problem? Is this the past vs. the present? Is this people against nature? What is the real heart of the problem? And why does it seem like such a contradiction to me?
The Hawaiian community on Kauai (according to my students and co-workers at my Hawaiian Immersion school) HATE the monk seals. Because, they say, the seals never existed in Hawaii before-- in wa kahiko or the olden days. One teacher said that scientists introduced them here. Which ones? Just... scientists. One student protested-- "They're not even HAWAIIAN! Seals are from antarctica!" In reality, the seals always lived in the uninhabited Northen Hawaiian Islands. They have over a million and a half years of diverging genetics from their closest relatives elsewhere-- they've been on this island chain about that much longer than humans. The first humans came to these islands at the earlist around 300 CE-- about 1,700 years ago at the most generous estimates. But, according to my coworkers, there isn't a native Hawaiian word for seal. It's "sila." The clunky "ilioholoikauaua" which you see printed on park placards and museum photo titles is grammatically questionable and a recent invention. More tellingly, there are no mentions of seals in Hawaiian mele), moolelo oli, mele, or hula. All of this points to a distinct lack of seals in Hawaiian ancestral memory.
One student said-- they just weren't useful! A teacher said, they stayed away from the inhabited islands because if they had come anywhere near, they would have been eaten. And that, if they're smart, they should still stay away. Hawaiians had and have no use for seals. Go ahead, shoot da buggahs.
This is a pretty stark contrast to the congratulatory conservationist high-fiving that celebrates the resurgence of Hawaiian Monk Seal population in the islands. Although they are endangered, over 100 individuals have been recorded in the Kauai and Oahu area.
And what about the birds?
Last night I was at a Punana Leo Preschool meeting and Kumu asked all us parents to come up with six sentences in Hawaiian about how we can "Malama i ka honua"-- or take care of the earth. Our group came up with: Reduce, reuse, recycle; plant plants; eat from the garden; take care of native animals and plants; and cultivate a relationship with the earth. "Ho'oulu i ka pilina me ka honua." One mom in the group said-- "a me na kanaka pu--" and with people.
I agreed. I said, "Sometimes there are groups who are working to 'malama i ka aina' -- but they fail to cultivate relationships with the people, so their efforts are thwarted. Like my students were like, 'those stupid shearwaters!' and I was just shocked that kids who are learning an endangered language and endangered culture could not care about endangered animals. And I think--"
Another mom interrupted.
"Those #$%#$ing Shearwaters! No-- They are NOT EVEN FROM HERE! And they get like MILLIONS of them-- out in the ocean! I saw on Discover Channel! And why YOU PEOPLE--"
I said, "Hey, when did I become 'you people?'"
She gestured up and down at me. "You all a kumu and everything. AND YOU tell us that these damn birds are more than our kids, our keiki gotta play in the hot daytime, because cannot have the lights at night--"
"What you're saying is-- malama i ka aina IF it's culturally important, ONLY IF it's locally important. So we shouldn't put, 'take care of the hawaiian plants and animals' if that's not really what we believe."
Another mom joined in-- "I volunteer to do conservation in the forests to malama the Hawaiian plants-- and we get hunters all the time cutting fences so they can cut through. And I get it! I get it--you wanna feed your family, malama your keiki, I get it."
I said, "It's a communication problem. Here are these groups working to protect the aina in different ways-- but they failed to prove to you that it's important. And so now local culture hates these birds... But it's like this dairy coming in. We want local food, we want to be sustainable, but when the dairy actually comes in, everybody freaks out-- not in my backyard."
Emotions were really high. The anti-shearwater mom kept going after me. I felt personally attacked-- as if I was symbolizing everything she resents.
Okay, so then the next question. Why the antipathy about the Shearwaters? I asked several students and the answer I got was the same across the board: football games. One student told me, as I was writing this, "If one shearwater dies from a football game, it costs money, just because of the birds, the football games are super super early."
So........... in this case, the antipathy about the conservation efforts if fueled not by cultural irrelevance.... but community inconvenience? And not for a unique Hawaiian cultural practice, but for the most all-American of all American games: Pop Warner and High School Football.
So basically-- seals are not culturally or historically important to Hawaiians. Conservation efforts to keep their population viable are just irritating and unnecessary because they are working to conserve something irrelevant to ancient Hawaiians.
So what is the logic here? Only things that had cultural importance to ancient Hawaiians have value and are worth protecting. Rules and regulations that are coming from external (as in, not specifically Hawaiian….Okay, so obviously the rubric for okay conservation is more complex than, "Ancient Hawaiian things are the only things worth being protected." Because football is obviously not an Ancient Hawaiian thing.
I asked kids about plants. What's the state of Hawaiian plants? The kids answered-- some are endangered, some are doing okay. For example--Kauai Laulii, the small-leafed Maile vine is endangered.
I asked, "Is it worth saving?" There was a disgusted snort-- "Yeah?! Because it's indiginous to Kauai. AND because it has to do with Laka and Laka's ahu on Kauai."
Ah, now we're getting somewhere. So, things that are unique to kauai and culturally important are a go.
So then why do we sing Hawaii Ponoi every morning? That is an anthem to the dynasty of Kamehameha-- which brutally subjugated Kauai and slaughtered her chiefs. When I asked about why we would do that, my students said because singing Hawaii Ponoi shows solidarity with all of the Hawaiian islands.
So in that case, it is not an indigenous Kauai practice, it is a general Hawaiian practice that deserved preservation.
So to clarify:
Hawaiian language=from kauai=culturally important=inconvenient= Protect
Seals= not from Kauai= Not culturally important=inconvenient= Don't protect
Shearwaters= from Kauai= Not culturally important=inconvenient= Don't protect
Oiwi-- is Hawaiians speaking for it
These other things it's Hippies telling us, don't do this, don't do that
Capes ==those birds were important, Shearwaters weren't used for anything, they were just there. Turtles? --yes, they would protect them, because they were people's aumakua
Rash of Hawaiian Monk Seal Killings
Who Would Kill This Monk Seal?
Who's Killing Monk Seals?
Hawaiian Monk Seals Blugeoned to Death
Who Who Would Kill a Monk Seal?
Hawaiian Monk Seal
I.... didn't have an answer to that. And we were really supposed to be talking about Macbeth. And scanning iambic pentameter. So I filed "My endangered Hawaiian students hate endangered Hawaiian animals" to my mental Think About Later shelf.
So now I am thinking about it. And I'm a bit stumped. Why do my students, who are striving with all of their might to preserve an indigenous language and culture on the brink of extinction, have nothing but contempt for conservation efforts for indigenous plants and animals? Is this something just with my students? Is this a local vs. non-local problem? Is this the past vs. the present? Is this people against nature? What is the real heart of the problem? And why does it seem like such a contradiction to me?
The Hawaiian community on Kauai (according to my students and co-workers at my Hawaiian Immersion school) HATE the monk seals. Because, they say, the seals never existed in Hawaii before-- in wa kahiko or the olden days. One teacher said that scientists introduced them here. Which ones? Just... scientists. One student protested-- "They're not even HAWAIIAN! Seals are from antarctica!" In reality, the seals always lived in the uninhabited Northen Hawaiian Islands. They have over a million and a half years of diverging genetics from their closest relatives elsewhere-- they've been on this island chain about that much longer than humans. The first humans came to these islands at the earlist around 300 CE-- about 1,700 years ago at the most generous estimates. But, according to my coworkers, there isn't a native Hawaiian word for seal. It's "sila." The clunky "ilioholoikauaua" which you see printed on park placards and museum photo titles is grammatically questionable and a recent invention. More tellingly, there are no mentions of seals in Hawaiian mele), moolelo oli, mele, or hula. All of this points to a distinct lack of seals in Hawaiian ancestral memory.
One student said-- they just weren't useful! A teacher said, they stayed away from the inhabited islands because if they had come anywhere near, they would have been eaten. And that, if they're smart, they should still stay away. Hawaiians had and have no use for seals. Go ahead, shoot da buggahs.
This is a pretty stark contrast to the congratulatory conservationist high-fiving that celebrates the resurgence of Hawaiian Monk Seal population in the islands. Although they are endangered, over 100 individuals have been recorded in the Kauai and Oahu area.
And what about the birds?
Last night I was at a Punana Leo Preschool meeting and Kumu asked all us parents to come up with six sentences in Hawaiian about how we can "Malama i ka honua"-- or take care of the earth. Our group came up with: Reduce, reuse, recycle; plant plants; eat from the garden; take care of native animals and plants; and cultivate a relationship with the earth. "Ho'oulu i ka pilina me ka honua." One mom in the group said-- "a me na kanaka pu--" and with people.
I agreed. I said, "Sometimes there are groups who are working to 'malama i ka aina' -- but they fail to cultivate relationships with the people, so their efforts are thwarted. Like my students were like, 'those stupid shearwaters!' and I was just shocked that kids who are learning an endangered language and endangered culture could not care about endangered animals. And I think--"
Another mom interrupted.
"Those #$%#$ing Shearwaters! No-- They are NOT EVEN FROM HERE! And they get like MILLIONS of them-- out in the ocean! I saw on Discover Channel! And why YOU PEOPLE--"
I said, "Hey, when did I become 'you people?'"
She gestured up and down at me. "You all a kumu and everything. AND YOU tell us that these damn birds are more than our kids, our keiki gotta play in the hot daytime, because cannot have the lights at night--"
"What you're saying is-- malama i ka aina IF it's culturally important, ONLY IF it's locally important. So we shouldn't put, 'take care of the hawaiian plants and animals' if that's not really what we believe."
Another mom joined in-- "I volunteer to do conservation in the forests to malama the Hawaiian plants-- and we get hunters all the time cutting fences so they can cut through. And I get it! I get it--you wanna feed your family, malama your keiki, I get it."
I said, "It's a communication problem. Here are these groups working to protect the aina in different ways-- but they failed to prove to you that it's important. And so now local culture hates these birds... But it's like this dairy coming in. We want local food, we want to be sustainable, but when the dairy actually comes in, everybody freaks out-- not in my backyard."
Emotions were really high. The anti-shearwater mom kept going after me. I felt personally attacked-- as if I was symbolizing everything she resents.
Okay, so then the next question. Why the antipathy about the Shearwaters? I asked several students and the answer I got was the same across the board: football games. One student told me, as I was writing this, "If one shearwater dies from a football game, it costs money, just because of the birds, the football games are super super early."
So........... in this case, the antipathy about the conservation efforts if fueled not by cultural irrelevance.... but community inconvenience? And not for a unique Hawaiian cultural practice, but for the most all-American of all American games: Pop Warner and High School Football.
So basically-- seals are not culturally or historically important to Hawaiians. Conservation efforts to keep their population viable are just irritating and unnecessary because they are working to conserve something irrelevant to ancient Hawaiians.
So what is the logic here? Only things that had cultural importance to ancient Hawaiians have value and are worth protecting. Rules and regulations that are coming from external (as in, not specifically Hawaiian….Okay, so obviously the rubric for okay conservation is more complex than, "Ancient Hawaiian things are the only things worth being protected." Because football is obviously not an Ancient Hawaiian thing.
I asked kids about plants. What's the state of Hawaiian plants? The kids answered-- some are endangered, some are doing okay. For example--Kauai Laulii, the small-leafed Maile vine is endangered.
I asked, "Is it worth saving?" There was a disgusted snort-- "Yeah?! Because it's indiginous to Kauai. AND because it has to do with Laka and Laka's ahu on Kauai."
Ah, now we're getting somewhere. So, things that are unique to kauai and culturally important are a go.
So then why do we sing Hawaii Ponoi every morning? That is an anthem to the dynasty of Kamehameha-- which brutally subjugated Kauai and slaughtered her chiefs. When I asked about why we would do that, my students said because singing Hawaii Ponoi shows solidarity with all of the Hawaiian islands.
So in that case, it is not an indigenous Kauai practice, it is a general Hawaiian practice that deserved preservation.
So to clarify:
Hawaiian language=from kauai=culturally important=inconvenient= Protect
Seals= not from Kauai= Not culturally important=inconvenient= Don't protect
Shearwaters= from Kauai= Not culturally important=inconvenient= Don't protect
Oiwi-- is Hawaiians speaking for it
These other things it's Hippies telling us, don't do this, don't do that
Capes ==those birds were important, Shearwaters weren't used for anything, they were just there. Turtles? --yes, they would protect them, because they were people's aumakua
Rash of Hawaiian Monk Seal Killings
Who Would Kill This Monk Seal?
Who's Killing Monk Seals?
Hawaiian Monk Seals Blugeoned to Death
Who Who Would Kill a Monk Seal?
Hawaiian Monk Seal
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