Among the responsibilities we have as a community, as parents and grandparents, and at Olohana, is to educate our youth. The future of the planet and its inhabitants rests on their knowledge and understanding of environmental and communal stewardship, and on the state of the world when they receive it into their care.
With our partners, Olohana integrates youth education and training into our projects around food, energy, water, and knowledge systems, science and technology, disaster preparedness, and climate-change mitigation.
NATURAL MOVEMENT SELF DEFENSE
Olohana Foundation together with the Honoka’a High & Intermediate School and Kumu Ramsay Taum propose a project consisting of a series of workshops to teach Natural Movement Self Defense (NMSD) as developed by Kumu Ramsay Taum, founder of the Life Enhancement Institute of the Pacific and long-time Olohana affiliate.NMSD is a method of self-protection based on movements and gestures you already know and use in daily life at home, work, and school that can be used to break contact and protect oneself or others in the case of an assault. NMSD integrates the values, principles and philosophies of Lua and Aloha.
Inter-generational Transfer of Knowledge (ITK™)
Permeating all of Olohana programs is the process we call Inter-generational Transfer of Knowledge (ITK). Olohana works with communities to help them pass on knowledge between the generations using the ITK process. Olohana also works through the PRiMO Indigenous Knowledge and Environment Hui to help bring an indigenous voice to efforts such as the National Climate Assessment.
Food Systems / Agroforestry
GLOBALLY UNITED YOUNG AGRO-FORESTERS (GUYA)
In 2016 at the PRiMO annual conference, Olohana launched the Global Breadfruit Heritage Council (GBHC). The purpose of GBHC is to protect the genetic, cultural, environmental, and product integrity of breadfruit and its cultivation; to promote this gluten-free food on the world market; and create economic opportunities for and offer technical support to farmers and communities in Hawaii.
One aspect of GBHC is GUYA Globally United Young Agro-foresters. Using ITK™ Intergenerational Transfer of Knowledge, Olohana and its partners, Agroforestery Net, Intertribal COUP, Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail, the Makali’i Polynesian Voyaging Society, and PRiMO IKE Hui, are working to develop GUYA (the U is short, as in hug) as one crucial component of the Ulu/Breadfruit Initiative and GBHC to actively involve, coach, teach, and train youth in this community-directed program.
10,000 HOMEGROWN FOODFORESTS
Working with 100 communities in Hawaii, the U.S. mainland, U.S.-affiliated islands, and internationally, in commemoration of the 100-year anniversary of Victory Gardens, we will plant 10,000 food forests and conduct a national indigenous phenology study.It is a proposal to the MacArthur Foundation for their 2016 100&Change challenge.
BREADFRUIT HERITAGE FOOD FORESTS
LIVING DEMONSTRATION SITES, HAWAII
In 2015 Olohana initialized two food forest installations: a demonstration site in Waimea for Kanu O Ka ‘Aina Learning Ohana Charter School and a breadfruit heritage food forest for International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) 2016 conference Hawaii in Kaiholena in partnership with Hawaii National Park Service Ala Kahakai Trail Association. These food forest installations and demonstration sites provide real-life, hands-on training and learning opportunities in agroforestry and breadfruit cultivation for local students and the general community and visitors while also restoring and developing land to a healthy, sustainable state of equilibrium between community, flora and fauna, and the larger ecosystem.
PARTNERSHIP FOR ADAPTIVE AMERICA (PAA)
The PAA promotes the education of and skills-training in habitat restoration and agroforesty within two specific demographics: 1) veterans; and 2) youth between the ages of 11 and 21. Our network partners will organize around youth to provide exploratory ritual and rites of passage ceremonies whereby they will be supported in their spiritual, cultural, and personal connection to and knowledge of the land, water, flora, and fauna.
With the Partnership for National Trails System, ATA Ala Kahakai National Trail, NOAA PSC/CSC Pacific Services Center/Coastal Services Center, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, returning veterans will be assisted with reintegration to society through habitat restoration and community building and engagement activities.
Natural Disaster Preparedness
ITK™ RESILIENCE TRAINING FOR YOUTH
The ITK™ Resilience Training program is offered in partnership between Olohana, the Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail, and the Makali’i Polynesian Voyaging Society. It uses a place-based learning model comprised of a land-based component (maha’ai) and a nearshore-based component (‘aukai) aimed at helping to increase a community’s capacity to impart critical skills and knowledge and initiate their youth to act as key players in addressing natural disaster and climate-related challenges anticipated to increase over the coming generations.
YOUTH RESILIENCE COUNCIL
For a project called Youth–Citizen Core 4 Community Capacity, Olohana and its partners established a youth resilience council, leveraging existing youth programs already working in their communities while enhancing the Pacific Risk Management Ohana (PRiMO) network. It connected youth, families, federal, state, and local technical experts and professionals around strategic discussions about natural hazard and climate resilience.