Cover image credit: Photo by Erik McLean (Introspective Design), Pexels Free-to-Use License. Originally sourced from Pexels.
Before the island was invaded by white colonizers, Indigenous Hawai’ians maintained their land and fed themselves through an ingenious system called ahupua'a.
This setup featured complete watersheds, rock terraces, fish ponds, food gardens, and more over a vast plot of land designed for these purposes. Any excess food and materials were used for trade.
This way of life came under threat post-colonization, particularly after the Māhele, or redistribution of lands under the colonizers’ monarchy in the mid-1800s. Only a handful of ahupua'a were left intact — those that were belonged to the monarch.
Today, local communities are coming together to restore the ahupua'a of Hawai’i. Watch the video to learn more about the history of ahupua'a and meet the courageous folks working hard to restore them.