Nisei Veterans Memorial Center recently welcomed former Governor George Ariyoshi, Hawaii’s longest-serving governor, to its ‘Afternoon with the Author’ Zoom series. In Ariyoshi’s newest book, Hawaii’s Future, he talks about leadership on Maui, the importance of values, and how things we do now will have a great impact on the future. An American lawyer and politician, Ariyoshi served as the third governor of Hawaii from 1974 to 1986. He is the first American of Asian descent to serve as governor in any U.S. state.
Concerned about Hawaii’s future, Ariyoshi has spent many years pondering his latest book. It is an insightful guide for today’s leaders and residents to examine Hawaii’s past while asking readers to discover ways to create a better Hawaii. “There are many issues of concern,” he said. “For example, the oceans and our land need to be taken care of. Stewardship is key. The philosophy of agriculture and education are vital now. Plus, it is crucial to engage the community. Setting policies alone does not make a community good, it is reaching out and working with the people.”
As a three-term governor of the State of Hawaii, Ariyoshi set in motion a series of wide-ranging policies that became his legacy. He noted, “During my 13 years as Hawaii’s chief executive, I adopted responsible fiscal strategies, maintained progressive trade relations and steady tourism growth, optimized the development of ocean resources, worked on land preservation and conservation, and strengthened Hawaii’s presence in the Pacific”.
A firm believer in planning, Ariyoshi said his concerns for Hawaii have grown more urgent than ever. “When I was in office, state planning was an important part of the government agenda,” he emphasized. “It is important to pay attention now and ask the question, What about Hawaii’s future? I think we need to look ahead at what needs to be done. We must also consider climate change and homelessness issues in order for us to have a good Hawaii. Every person in the community should work together, participate and be useful to make our state great for our future generations.”
We are never too young or too old to care, participate, and contribute to our community.
In October 2020, STEMworks™ partnered with the Maui Nui Botanical Garden to bring our students a STEMworks Solutions engineering design challenge called “Pots that Rot”. This design challenge asked students to engineer an affordable, biodegradable pot with locally available materials that could replace the plastic pots that Maui Nui Botanical Garden (MNBG) currently uses in their nursery.
The team, “Sus-Attainable” won first place in the STEMworks Solutions Challenge with their ingenious design for a compostable pot that would be made from recycled paper and rice paste. As a prize for winning that competition, STEMworks, in partnership with Kupu and the Kōkua Hawaii Foundation, advanced team Sus-Attainable to the Hawaii Youth Sustainability Challenge where they could bring their compostable pots to life.
Sus-Attainable team members, Samuel Kim, Zitao Li, and Andy Au, received funding, mentorship, and training to support their innovative and grassroots environmental solution to plastic pots. Over a period of six months, this team employed the engineering design process to create several iterations of their pots. “For our first prototype, we plastered wet shreds of recycled paper over plastic pots,” Li explained. “Then, we evolved to filling pot molds, made with a 3D printer, using a blended paste of paper, cooked rice, and water. We are proud of the resulting increase in strength and hope to increase the water resistance in our pots.”
Kim added, “My favorite part of the challenge was working as a team towards a common goal, learning how sustainability affects every part of our lives. This new appreciation motivated us to use recycled paper as the primary ingredient in our pots to help divert waste from the waste stream. We hope that one day our pots will be sold as a sustainable alternative to the plastic pots in nurseries around Hawaii.”
“I am incredibly proud of our Pots that Rot STEMworks Solutions winners,” said Katie Taladay, STEMworks Program Manager. “Since October, they have invested a great deal of work and perseverance to bring their winning design to life using the Engineering Design Process that we teach through our STEMworks programs. I was most excited to see that they were able to use their engineering design skills for good, to produce a necessary and sustainable product for the MNBG.”
I am saving one of our sustainable pots for my grandma, who loves to garden!
There are many ways to invest in the future of energy in Hawaii. It will take creativity and hard work from project developers; the community, including indigenous groups; regulators; and energy service providers to come up with projects that are acceptable for all concerned. Building trust and respect between stakeholders within the context of equitable community development will be a key metric of success. Any viable project will require substantial amounts of financial capital and an adequate return on investment. The skill development and job creation that results must take us towards a new energy economy. Every community faces similar challenges – how can we invest in people while designing energy projects that are financially viable, resilient, and enhance job skills?
Join us for the 8th Annual Hawaii Energy Conference as we explore how to invest with knowledge and respect in Hawaii.
Every year the Rotary Clubs in Hawaii have held ‘Rotarians-at-Work Day’ to coincide with the week of Earth Day. This year, Maui Rotarians, alongside community partners and volunteers, joined to pick up plastics and trash throughout the island. “Our goal was to pick up trash on the beaches, the shorelines, in parks and on trails,” said Dennis Bagshaw, President of Rotary Club Kihei Wailea. “We hope to continue to protect Maui’s natural beauty, marine life, and the health of residents and visitors from the damages of plastic pollution. Plastics threaten Hawaii’s water quality, vulnerable marine ecosystems and public spaces around the island.”
Eight Maui Rotary clubs engaged in the clean-up as part of the statewide Ridge-to Reef Clean-Up Day event. The plan was for Rotarians to partner and clean microplastics (pieces smaller than 5mm in size) from different areas around the island. For example, the Wailuku Rotary Club did a clean-up of the area adjacent to the Nisei Veterans Center, and the other clubs did their clean-ups.
Mariko Higashi, Assistant Governor Maui Coastal Rotary Clubs, explained, “Much of the litter we find on the beaches, trails and public spaces are plastic. Plastic of any size, particularly microplastic, is a health concern to both humans and animals alike. By not only collecting but also classifying the collected litter, we can better understand the source of the pollution, where the pollution is concentrated on our islands, and how we can best tackle this problem. The data will help advocate for policy and regulatory changes as has been done in the past such as with the banning of single use plastic bags at stores on Maui in 2011, and of smoking at beaches in Hawaii in 2015.”
Higashi added, “While clean-ups can help, it is also clear that we cannot recycle or clean-up our way out of the plastic pollution crisis. It will take sustained changes in our behavior, the products we purchase and the food we eat, to begin to correct this problem. The good news is we still have a chance to fix these problems, as we continue to explore ways to reduce or replace the plastic from our everyday lives.”
The Rotary motto, ‘Service Above Self’ keeps Maui club members involved in numerous projects throughout the year. Protecting the environment and growing the local economy are one of many areas of Rotary’s focus.
Dennis Bagshaw, President of Rotary Club Kihei Wailea
Brandy Nālani McDougall recently took part in the W.S. Merwin Maui Conservancy Green Room Series. Led by U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo and six other Pacific Islander poets, the event celebrated National Poetry Month. McDougall is now an established author who has deep Maui roots: originally from Kula, she graduated from Kalama Intermediate School in Makawao, and later Kamehameha Schools. Her most recent book, ‘Finding Meaning: Kaona and Contemporary Hawaiian Literature’ is the first extensive study of contemporary Hawaiian literature. It recently won the Beatrice Medicine Award for Scholarship in American Studies. Currently, McDougall is a University of Hawaii associate professor of Indigenous American Studies.
“In ‘Finding Meaning’, I examined a selection of fiction, poetry and drama by emerging and established Hawaiian authors,” McDougall said. “At the center of the analysis is kaona, the reference to a person, place or thing in a common experience and the intellectual practice of finding meaning that encompasses the symbolic and the figurative. I interpreted examples of kaona, by guiding readers through olelo no’eau (proverbs); mo’olelo (literature and histories); and mo’okū’auhau (genealogies). Kaona and indigenous stories connect the past to the present by unveiling complex layers of Hawaiian identity, culture, history, and ecology.”
Aside from her scholarship and poetry, McDougall is the co-founder of Ala Press, an independent press dedicated to publishing creative works by indigenous Pacific islanders. In addition, she currently serves on the board of managing editors of the American Quarterly, as well as the board of the Pacific Writers’ Connection. Her current research focuses on the aesthetics of indigenous women’s activist fashion within land and water protection movements.
“I am researching the role of visual arts in Hawaiian culture in addition to literature and theater,” McDougall explained. “Fashion in land and water movements plays a vital role in making a meaningful statement. For example, silk-screen t-shirts, hand-made printed shawls and other items made in Hawaii, make a difference. Fashion is sometimes seen as superficial; however, it puts Hawaiian women in the place of being educators in the community. Fashion is a way of carrying an important message about the āina.”
Understanding kaona in Hawaiian literature is a journey to find meaning in the lives of others, as well as the commonalities we share as humans in different cultures.
Brandy Nālani McDougall, University of Hawaii Associate Professor, Indigenous American Studies
