“Ko ‘emau nofo pē ‘eni ia ‘o pukepuke fonua” we are sitting here, tightly holding onto the land: Kava and fonua in Koʻolauloa

Abstract

The protective actions for Mauna Kea by the Kanaka Maoli in 2019 drew the support of local and other Indigenous communities from around Hawaiʻi. This movement was the catalyst that influenced the Kū Kiaʻi Kahuku movement that sought to protect the Kahuku community from the construction of industrial turbines in dangerously close proximity to the community. It was within these social and environmental justice movements that Kanaka Maoli and Tongan transindigenous solidarity was established not only through shared Moanan ancestry and loyalty to community, but also through Indigenous ceremony and epistemology such as common kava/ʻawa practices. Various studies have explored the sociocultural potency of kava and kava practices within different Moanan societies as well as the importance of kava in nurturing identity and sociospatial relationships in diasporic communities. In this dissertation I explore the different ways in which Tongans and Kanaka Maoli of the district of Koʻolauloa utilize kava/ʻawa practices to connect to the concept of fonua. For Tongans of Koʻolauloa, kava practices are a way to maintain a connection to the Tongan homeland while living in diaspora. They are also a way for local Tongans and Kanaka Maoli of Koʻolauloa to sustain an identity and connection with their home community such as Lāʻie. These kava practices were also essential in facilitating tauhi vā (nurturing of sociospatial relationships) but also in challenging colonial constructs of gender, family makeup, and family obligations. Kava practices were especially essential to generating transindigenous and/or hoa-solidarities that continued to challenge colonial and capitalist narratives of relationality. Kava practices of Koʻolauloa act as modern-day puʻuhonua, spaces of refuge and sanctuary that mediate the connection between people, the land, and each other. This work utilizes the Tā-Vā Theory of Reality as well as environmental/kava-centered frameworks, whereas Indigenous methodologies such as talanoa, noho a kupa, and tauhi fonua were utilized in interactions with the different kava groups and individuals to conduct talanoa and interview sessions with Tongan, Hawaiian, and Koʻolauloa kava users and community members. The stories and narratives told in this dissertation illustrate the importance of Indigenous practices and epistemologies in connecting people to the fonua as the land, people, and culture of the Moana, even while residing in diaspora. It is especially essential for Indigenous peoples like Tongans and Kanaka Maoli who continue to live in Hawaiʻi to utilize ʻawa practices as puʻuhonua to challenge dominant colonial capitalist notions of relationality.