This guide offers a structure for building and sustaining long-term relationships between communities and researchers.
“Getting dirty, physically being there, listening to voices, sitting and working alongside – it’s not always built into people’s schedules in the academic world. But you need to force it and sit and listen to understand the issues.”
Hundreds of research projects are conducted each year focused on the natural resources of Hawai‘i’s upland, coastal, and marine ecosystems. However, the consistency with which community perspectives and cultural practices are integrated into research efforts and decision making processes that impact Hawaiʻi’s resources and ecosystems is highly variable. In particular, these natural resources are integral to the livelihoods, cultural practices, and religious traditions of Native Hawaiians, who too often have not had a voice in decision-making processes involving natural resource management. Our motivation for developing the Kūlana Noiʻi arose from a very real and practical need for establishing reciprocal, non-extractive research partnerships in the communities where we and our students practice science.
These kūlana (standards) may be applied to a range of communities. Support for the development of the Kūlana Noi‘i was provided by the University of Hawai‘i SEED Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access and Success (IDEAS) Program, He‘eia National Estuarine Research Reserve, University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant College Program, Kuaʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo, and Paepae o He‘eia.
Kūlana Noiʻi Working Group. 2021. Kūlana Noiʻi v. 2. University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi.
