On the other side of the Pacific, Native Hawaiians have been learning and growing with other Indigenous communities.
Kuaʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo, better known as KUA, recently participated in the 2023 Salish Summit, a multi-day gathering in Washington State for Pacific Islanders and Native tribes.
The event brings together tribes in the Cross-Pacific Indigenous Aquaculture Collaborative.
Participating groups came from Alaska, Guam, Canada, and beyond.
The summit — which emphasized Indigenous aquaculture and food sovereignty — brought participants to a clam garden in the Kukutali Preserve, where groups like KUA could share their knowledge and traditions.
Brenda Asuncion, a KUA coordinator, manages a network of fish ponds across Hawaiʻi.
She was struck by the way the clam gardens were “so different from fish ponds, but really serve the purpose of enhancing abundance in the same way that fish ponds do.”
The summit also allowed participants to consider the ways they will continue to preserve their culture in the face of climate change.
“We talk a lot about the long, long timescale of the practices that we're trying to perpetuate,” Asuncion recalled.
“It really is the Indigenous knowledge and practice that is tied to these places that can allow this kind of work to adapt and then be sustained way into the future,” she added.
Thus far, efforts have been directed toward restoration and protection. Asuncion said people at the summit discussed what it would mean to start building new fish ponds entirely.
“I think people really feel that in order for the practice to continue ... we often need to adapt our practice for a changing climate,” she explained.
As their time together comes to a close, the collaborative has already started planning a 2024 event in Alaska.
This interview aired on The Conversation on June 21, 2023. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1. This interview was adapted for the web by Emily Tom.
