Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Traditionally Hawai'i's agricultural system sustained 100% of our land and people. Now Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders are the most underrepresented group (< 9%) of food producers, and Hawai'i imports more than 80% of our food.Hana Mahi'ai is designed and implement by Native Hawaiians (NH) to provision NH new and beginning farmers/ranchers with training, technical assistance (TA) and resources to reclaim agency over feeding all our relations. We offer indigenous, integrated forest-food approaches alongside regenerative agricultural practices and business training connecting to BFRDP priorities of forest management, climate smart farming and livestock practices, natural resource management and planning, and resources/referrals that improve biodiversity, soils, lands, watersheds and ecosystem services.Our goals: (i) increase place-based food production that support viable agricultural livelihoods, and (ii) provide place-based, culturally-relevant plants and processes. NHs can experience up to 180 training hours such that 350 attend at least one workday/workshop and 1,986 native plants are distributed and planted. Those attending 3+ trainings are eligible for TA such that 40 start/improve/sustain their operations, and 50% have a more fully-formed Farm/Ranch Plan. They then invite 50 NHs to learn together to increase native food producers.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Goal: By combining Hawaiian traditional food production with regenerative agricultural production and regenerative entrepreneurship/business trianing, our long-term goal is stronger local economies at the household, neighborhood and community levels via more native food producers;Our project goals are: (i) increase place-based food production, and support viable primary and secondary agricultural livelihoods among Native Hawaiians, and (ii) provide place-based and culturally-relevant plants and processes that respectfully engage Native Hawaiians in 'aina practices and foods once again.Objectives:Waihona Development: Build and maintain waihona, repositories, that include indigenous knowledge, seed banks, nurseries and plant collections of diverse native plants and indigenous canoe crops to engage and supply new and beginning Native Hawaiian training and technical assistance participants with the necessary resources.LaHana Mahi'ai Training:Provide training to Native Hawaiian new or beginning farmers, ranchers and food practitioners to include place-based, traditional Hawaiian and regenerative/climate smart agriculture alongside native forest plants and practices to integrate native habitat, water capture, wind breaks, wildfire protection, agroforestry and/or silvopasture into their operations.Individualized Coaching and Group Technical Assistance: Provide customized technical assistance to individuals and groups of Native Hawaiian new or beginning farmers and ranchers to start/improve/sustain their farm with a focus on localized and collective business practices including and where appropriate, community-based production, aggregation and distribution, value-added, market and capital access.
Project Methods
Waihona Development (e.g. repositories of indigenous knowledge, seeds, native plants, canoe crops). Returning ancestral knowledge and place-based research into daily practice, TKC staff (re)stores the seeds, knowledge, forest and canoe crops and collections in order to provide the tools, training, materials, seeds and plants to participants. We will further develop these repositories to hold traditional biocultural approaches on 1) planting native dryland/mesic forest plants such as koai'e, mamane, 'ohi'a and 'a'ali'i that work together across four native forest layers: upper story, lower story, shrubs and ground cover; 2) planting and harvesting indigenous canoe crops such as kalo, ko, 'awa, and mai'a, 3) soil regenerative practices such as cover crops, pakukui, and mulching, 4) 'ohana or companion planting, and 5) la'au, plant medicines such as 'uhaloa, ahu'awa, popolo et al.LaHana Mahi'ai Training: TKC will provide a series of half- and full-day work days/workshops totaling 180 hours over three years where Native Hawaiian participants learn from our staff, community experts and hoa la'au (plant family) as 'ohana, an interconnected, native feeding system. TKC's staff will guide these on-farm/on-'aina sessions contributing knowledge, skills and experiences on 1) native planting practices, 2) who are the native plants that belong together as "neighbors", and 3) what conditions support growth and viability within that "neighborhood'' including humans. Loea, cultural and place-based experts, will guide appropriate sessions so that generational knowledge gained through family ties and years of working in place will begin to pass to staff and community.Individualized Coaching and Group Technical Assistance (Hui TA):Individual Coaching and Business Development: TKC's staff will provide individualized technical assistance at our office in Waimea to 40 of those who have attended at least 3 LaHana Mahi'i workdays/workshops (a pool of approximately 87 new or beginning farmer/ranchers). TA by staff can include the following: native plant identification, seed saving, pakukui and other native composting practices, cover crops, native forest companion planting and intercropping, indigenous canoe cropping, soil health, 'aina research in English and Hawaiian including native land divisions, streams, winds, rain, plants, genealogy, stories, chants, songs and more. In addition, TKC staff will help participants with feasibility, production, financial and marketing planning and development especially those who reside on DHHL pastoral or agricultural lots that are in the process of creating or updating their Farm/Ranch Plan. After discussing each participant's individual agriculture plan, TKC program staff will work with individuals to help them access information and other resources beyond the scope of services provided by TKC. This includes connecting them especially with partner programs that serve Native Hawaiians.Group Technical Assistance (Hui TA):As needed, TKC will 1) organize presentations by USDA FSA, NRCS, Hawaii Department of Agriculture's Loan Division, and Farm Credit Services of Hawai'i on agricultural loan and assistance programs; 2) arrange tours of local processing facilities, such as the Hamakua's Agriculture Co-op's wash/pack facility, the Kamuela Vacuum Cooling Cooperative, and the Hawai'i Island Meat Cooperative's mobile slaughter facility as well as other partner entities such as Kohala Food Hub and Adaptations as needed by TA beneficiaries; and 3) provide cooperative development and collective economies presentations for groups of TA beneficiaries.'Ohana building:TKC will support communal efforts co-led by TA beneficiaries to include site layout and preparation, project planning, planting, weeding, composting, mulching and harvesting to raise forest, food and community. TKC will conduct mo'olelo practices using our story catching and story-telling methodology during these community gatherings to create three stories to share through TKC's website, presentations, Agricultural Bulletin, social media and/or newsletter.Evaluation Method: We use a culturally responsive evaluation methodology based on an iterative, group assessment for learning process (AFL).Fundamental to this practice is the addition of assessing not just the content but also the context of the experiences. In this way we learn from the environment and better understand the impact we are having on the environment and they are having on us. AFL will take place throughout the project as "way points," looking ahead to upcoming activities and behind based on work accomplished. AFL depends on mo'olelo to reveal conditions and indicators and to nurture relationships in the learning community. We accomplish this through a simple process of sharing mo'olelo through story-telling, story-catching and story-witnessing. This process helps us catch the stories from participants through the learning process. Learners begin to lift-up what was important from their experience, what stuck for them, what mattered to them. Only in the sharing of the stories do we find the deeper meaning behind each post-it, each indicator, each condition. A responsibility to better care for our plant kin leads us to include our own set of 'aina accountability co-created with our external evaluator team from Ho'oulu 'Aina/Kokua Kalihi Valley (HA/KKV). These measures are based on four elements of restoring and restorying: Wholeness, Disruption, Sovereignty, and Ceremony. Ancestral wholeness guides us to our future wholeness. Indicators of Regeneration can include naturally regenerating food and forest plantings, the inclusion of multi-generations in the hana, and the ability to assess health and well-being across cycles and seasons. Stories of disruption remind us we are not alone. Indicators of Resilience can include viability especially after major climate impacts, successful resistance to non-native/invasive species and the willingness to continue with the project despite setbacks. Sovereignty liberates us into the values of relationships. Indicators of Readiness may include taking on more responsibility, willingness to expand and share and openness to diversity. Ceremony is where we heal through connection. Indicators of Reciprocitycan include relationship exchanges between soil, biodiversity and density across plant species, use of protocols honoring all our environmental elementals and eating from 'aina together.