UH Hilo’s Uluākea program travels to Molokaʻi for professional development retreat
A group of faculty and staff from UH Hilo and Hawaiʻi Community College traveled to Molokaʻi for a professional development retreat based in Native Hawaiian culture.
By Susan Enright.
A group of faculty and staff from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo and Hawaiʻi Community College traveled to Molokaʻi earlier this summer for a professional development retreat based in Native Hawaiian culture. The trip was hosted by UH Hilo’s Uluākea, an Indigenous-based program housed at the university’s Kīpuka Native Hawaiian Student Center.
The program is cosponsored by the UH Hilo Office of the Chancellor and a cooperative Title III grant called Pāʻieʻie from the U.S. Department of Education that focuses on developing UH Hilo into more of a Hawaiian place of learning.
“We have applied for and received Title III funding which has enabled us to incorporate the Kaʻao Framework into much of what we do,” says Chancellor Bonnie Irwin, referring to an initiative set forth in UH Hilo’s Strategic Plan on using Hawaiʻi traditional myth culture as a framework to transform the student experience and the culture of academia into one based in Native Hawaiian cultural values. “Our Kīpuka staff and students provide cultural and language training through our Uluākea program,” says Chancellor Irwin.
Currently, the chief aim of Uluākea is developing a faculty and curriculum program that teaches faculty in various academic disciplines at both UH Hilo and Hawaiʻi CC to gain a more authentic and practical understanding of Indigenous ways of knowing the world. Participants are then expected to apply these ways of understanding the world to their classes.
Throughout the year, Uluākea conducts on-campus workshops on Native Hawaiian protocols, ʻōlelo (language), crafts, and more; off-campus activity is done through huakaʻi, ʻāina-based journeys that immerse participants in experiential learning or research.
Huakaʻi to Molokaʻi
The huakaʻi to Molokaʻi on June 11-13 was an Uluākea professional development retreat for faculty and staff from UH Hilo and Hawaiʻi Community College.
“The purpose of the retreat was to solidify what each participant has learned throughout the year-long program and to learn how other educators integrate Indigenous knowledge and practices into their curriculum, pedagogy, research, and service to our respective campuses,” says Malu Dudoit, lecturer in Hawaiian studies and the facilitator for Uluākea.
Participants on the trip were Dudoit, who is from Maui and Molokaʻi; No’el Tagab-Cruz, coordinator of I Ola Hāloa Center for Hawaiʻi Life Styles and assistant professor of Hawaiian studies at Hawaiʻi CC; Hawaiʻi CC instructors Drew Kapp (geography), Meidor Hu (art), and Jesna Nissam (mathematics); and from UH Hilo, Visiting Professor of Physics and Astronomy Nicole Drakos and Associate Professor of Geography Christopher Knudson.
On the first day of the retreat the group visited with Mac Poepoe, a native of Molokaʻi acknowledged by his community as the konohiki (head person) of the ahupuaʻa (land division) he resides in. This honor is usually given to someone who stewards all land, farming, fishing practices, and rights of the area.
“ʻAnakala (Uncle) Mac Poepoe shared with us stories of his upbringings, traditions of his familial practices, and current issues he faces when working with modern technologies in the practice of ʻāina stewardship and sustainability,” says Dudoit.
During the second day of the retreat, the Hilo group met with staff at the Molokai Education Center, an outreach facility run by UH Maui College, and Liliʻuokalani Trust, a private foundation established in 1909 for the benefit of Native Hawaiian children in need.
“The group shared the implementation of the Kaʻao Framework at each respective campuses and programs, and how the framework is translatable to our duties and responsibilities outside of the classroom or within our communities,” says Dudoit.
At the end of the second day of the professional development retreat, the group was taken on a huakaʻi wahi pana o Molokaʻi (journey to storied places on Molokaʻi) by Kīpuka peer mentor Kahaku Poepoe, a graduate of Molokaʻi High School from ʻUalapuʻe, Molokaʻi, who is entering his sophomore year in Hawaiian studies at UH Hilo. He is the grandson of ʻAnakala Mac Poepoe.
Pāʻieʻie: Indigenizing UH Hilo and Hawaiʻi Community College campuses
The Pāʻieʻie grant, that funds Uluākea, is a five-year $2,998,734 grant awarded in 2021 by the U.S. Department of Education to support the indigenizing of UH Hilo and Hawaiʻi CC. This cooperative grant, led by UH Hilo, aims to increase Native Hawaiian student enrollment and retention through Hawaiʻi Island place-based service-learning activities; increase Native Hawaiian students, faculty, and staff engagement through the creation of Indigenous resources and spaces at UH Hilo and Hawaiʻi CC campuses, including Hawaiʻi CC’s Kō Education Center in Honokaʻa; and increase Native Hawaiian student graduation and transfer through faculty professional development activities.
The Uluākea program aims to continue serving UH System campus locations on Hawaiʻi Island to promote and sustain Hawaiian worldviews integrated within curriculum, the campus environments, programs, services, and leadership.
Story by Susan Enright, a public information specialist for the Office of the Chancellor and editor of UH Hilo Stories. She received her bachelor of arts in English and certificate in women’s studies from UH Hilo.
