Before the arrival of Captain Cook, foreigners rarely came to Hawai‘i. Only Pacific islanders would occasionally travel between distant archipelagoes to visit each other, but these were epic journeys guided by navigators with almost superhuman abilities. Polynesian navigators had a unique method of navigation that enabled them to travel between distant islands and discover new ones.²

At one time, Hawaiians were making frequent journeys to and from Tahiti. The ocean channel between Lāna‘i and Kaho‘olawe is called Kealaikahiki. Ke-ala-i-Kahiki means, “the path to Kahiki [Tahiti].”³ This channel is a catapult south toward the Society Islands and Tahiti. Hawai‘i island is probably named after Ra’iātea, the second largest island in the Society Islands Archipelago. Ra’iātea has the ancient name of Havai‘i meaning “homeland.”

The Hawaiian Islands were like Kānehūnāmoku to the rest of the world outside of Polynesia. Kāne-hūnā-moku is the legendary “hidden island of the god Kāne.” This island paradise of the gods drifts in the open ocean, randomly appearing and disappearing on the horizon.⁴

Early Contact

Most other ships originating from the continents came across the Hawaiian Archipelago by chance. Fragmentary documentation and Hawaiian accounts in mo‘olelo suggest infrequent encounters over the centuries. Japanese may have had contact with Hawai‘i a handful of times perhaps from as early as 1258.⁵

Spanish ships would regularly cross the Pacific between Mexico and Philippines starting from the mid 1500s. In 1555 the Spanish navigator Juan Gaetano described some large flat islands in the vicinity of Hawai‘i that he named Islas de Mesa, the “table islands.” The group of islands are shown on early Spanish maps at the latitude of the Hawaiian Archipelago but at an incorrect longitude.

European navigators had difficulty accurately mapping longitude before the 18^th century. This all changed around the time the British Captain James Cook arrived in the Hawaiian Islands on January 18^th, 1778. His arrival marked the beginning of the Hawaiian Islands’ exposure to the world at large. The British timekeeping technology Cook used allowed longitude to be accurately calculated. Navigators could now use astronomy to calculate latitude, and accurate clocks to reliably calculate longitude. The Hawaiian Islands were suddenly mappable in the vast expanse of the Pacific using European technology.

The Hawaiian Islands are ideally located as a port in the center of the north Pacific Ocean. It was a convenient place for sailing ships to resupply and make repairs. After Captain Cook, ships from all over the world began visiting Hawai‘i. The mass of tall masts of sailing ships anchored in the harbors of Lāhainā, and Honolulu, were referred to as the “forest in the sea.” The ships brought new people, plants, animals, technology, and new ideas about how to live. Hawaiians did their best to preserve their culture from the overwhelming influences of industrialization and colonialism which followed.

Hawaiian Sovereignty

Native Hawaiians quickly made great progress toward exercising their agency and attaining standing with the rest of the world. Kamehameha the Great unified the eight major Hawaiian Islands, establishing a unified Hawaiian Kingdom that included all eight major islands in 1810. The Hawaiian Kingdom had many advisors from America, and some from Britain and France, who helped develop a modern nation state that could negotiate treaties internationally.

Hawaiians were quick to adapt and embrace new knowledge and technologies. Hawaiians and Protestant Christian missionaries from the United States quickly developed a standardized alphabet and began writing the Hawaiian language. The literacy rate in the 1800s was almost 100%. Between 1834 and 1948, more than 100 Hawaiian language newspapers were published. Hawaiians also adopted the latest technology of the time. The Hawaiian royal palace had electric lighting installed before the United States presidential home, the White House.

Hawaiians were eager to explore the world as much as the world wanted to come to Hawai‘i. Hawaiians joined the crews of American and British whaling ships that sailed across the globe. They also helped Americans and British explore the Pacific Northwest and participated in the fur trade. There are signs of Hawaiian contributions to exploration in Oregon place names, like the town of Aloha and the Owyhee (Hawaii) River. Some Hawaiians married Native Americans and stayed in the Pacific Northwest.

Despite their intelligence and diligence, Hawaiians could not escape the plague of foreign diseases. Before the arrival of James Cook in 1778, the native Hawaiian population is estimated to have been somewhere between 300,000 and 900,000 people.⁶ Soon after foreigners started to arrive in the Hawaiian Islands, diseases like smallpox, measles, tuberculosis, and syphilis swept through the native population. Twenty years after Cook, the native population had dropped by more than half to about 150,000. The native population continued to decline as the population of foreigners increased.

In 1893 the Hawaiian Kingdom was overthrown by American businessmen. The native Hawaiian population at the time was a quarter of what it had been less than 100 years earlier. Hawaiians had become a minority in the Hawaiian Kingdom. There were only 40,000 native Hawaiians left in the Hawaiian Islands.

The overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, and eventual annexation by the United States of America in 1898, led to a government and society that was hostile to the native Hawaiian culture. In1896 Hawaiian language was banned from public schools. Hawaiian was not spoken in public schools again until 1987. Hawaiian people were prevented from practicing the old ways of caring for the Hawaiian ecosystem.

Environmental Decline

The fate of the ‘āina, the land, in Hawai‘i paralleled the fate of the Hawaiian people. Starting from the 1800s, forests were cut down to make space for ranching and plantations. Fertile land that once fed the Hawaiian people was taken away to produce cash crops for export, like sugarcane and pineapple. Watershed forests that collected and directed rainwater into aquifers were cut down and converted to pasture for cattle. Introduced ungulates like cattle, goats, and deer quickly became feral and devoured native species. The degraded native ecosystems were becoming overwhelmed by a flood of introduced organisms and destructive land management.

There were no restrictions on what was being brought into the Islands. New plants were introduced for agriculture and ornament the rest of the world. Animals were introduced for commercial gain, and wild game was introduced for sport hunting.

Many introduced organisms turned out to be invasive. An invasive species is an introduced organism that causes harm to the environment, agriculture, or humans. Sometimes, an introduced troublesome organism would prompt the introduction of a second organism to control the first. Often, the introduced control organism did not solve the first problem, and caused a different problem.

For example, the sugarcane borer weevil (Rhabdoscelus obscurus) is a kind of beetle that was mistakenly introduced soon after sugarcane plantations started in Hawai‘i. The beetle larvae destroys young sugarcane by eating into the stems. The sugarcane borer weevil was widespread by 1865, and causing major damage to agriculture in Hawai‘i. Caribbean cane toads (Bufo marinus)⁷ were released into the fields to control the sugarcane borer weevil. The cane toads were not very effective at controlling the beetles. The toads quickly spread beyond the cane fields and ate anything that would fit in their mouth. The poisonous toads also killed fish and poisoned pets like cats and dogs. The cane toad is one of the worst invasive species worldwide. The toads are still a pest today.

Not all introduced organisms are invasive. Some can even be beneficial to the environment. Most purposely introduced invasive species also have some sort of useful qualities. New species can enhance the diversity and resilience of an ecosystem if the native ecosystem has time to adapt and incorporate new species. Environmental instability and collapse occur when introduced organisms suddenly outnumber native species.

The accelerated rate of change and damage to the Hawaiian ecosystem soon became apparent. By the early 1900s, mountains that were once covered in forests of native trees, became barren wastelands. The deforestation of the watershed caused drought, and erosion. When it rained, water would wash away the topsoil into the ocean. Wells went dry when water no longer penetrated underground. The land became infertile, and the reefs were suffocated with silt. People could not grow food, or find fish in the ocean.

Beginning of Environmental Restoration

The Hawaii Forest Reserve System was created in 1903 to protect the upland forests from further deterioration. Emergency efforts were made to restore the forest watersheds with fast growing foreign trees like albizia.⁸ These early attempts to replace the lost forests worked well enough to partially restore the water capturing capacity of the watershed.

The Hawaiian watersheds are still not capturing and holding as much water as they could. The native forests are much better at capturing water than the non-indigenous forests. Much of what we see today near populated areas, and think of as Hawaiian trees and birds, were introduced in the early 1900s to replace the native forests and birds that had been destroyed.

Hawai‘i has been called the “extinction capitol of the world.” Hawai‘i, one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth, is on the decline. Human activity, and introduced invasive species, are pushing native species to extinction. Introduced invasive plants displace native species in the wild.

Human activity does not inevitably lead to environmental destruction. Disaster follows when people’s motivations are disconnected from the nature around them. Abundance follows when people recognize the ways nature functions to support life. Abundance follows when people recognize our connection. Abundance follows when we nurture and grow ourselves by serving the land.

Effects of Industrialization

The history of Hawai‘i follows a pattern of similar events happening around the world. Most people around the world lived indigenously before the Industrial Revolution. They lived in small rural communities for many generations and had personal relationships with the land. This was true even in the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, Great Britain. British rural inhabitants until the 1700s, before Industrial Revolution, had much in common with Hawaiians of their time.

Many people were able to grow food for themselves directly from the land. Rural villages were mostly self-sufficient, and were governed by an Open Field system of community land, which had some similarities to the Hawaiian ahupua‘a system.

One of the main effects of industrialization was to disrupt the social structure. Starting from around 1750 in Great Britain, factories began to replace the work of many rural craftspeople. Steam powered machines soon replaced agricultural labor too. Enclosures (private land holdings) replaced the Open Field system (community land). People were forced to leave the land and communities where their families had lived for generations. They had to look for work in the factories near towns and cities. City workers could no longer provide for themselves directly from the land and became dependent on wages for all of their needs. People became separated from the land. The land no longer provided for them. Instead, money became the provider for the urban dweller.

Modern people are compelled to cultivate money to survive. In the early days of industrial capitalism, disputes between workers and their employers often broke down into violent conflicts.Waves of riots and rebellions from the working class followed the expansion of industrialization. Unrest spread from Great Britain to the rest of Europe, and later to the rest of the world.

Conflict was not limited to clashes between social classes. Governments and corporations were competing with each other as well. Rival powers fought each other in wars for resources and markets in Europe and around the world.

When the British Captain James Cook arrived in Hawai‘i in 1778, Great Britain was at war with the American colonies, France, and Spain. The British East India Company was also fighting a private war to conquer India.⁹ European powers were setting up colonies and battling each other everywhere.

Hawai‘i was affected by a pattern of changes similar to those experienced by Britain decades earlier. Kamehameha conquered and unified the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1795 with the help of new technology and weapons. Soon after, industrial agriculture was introduced to the Islands. The farming that existed to feed the people of the Islands was replaced with plantations growing crops for export.

New people came from overseas to work on the plantations and protested their exploitation from the plantation owners. Hawaiians tried to hold sovereignty over their native land, but international competition snatched away control. Eventually, the United States saw the Hawaiian Islands as a desirable target for colonial expansion.

We’re all in the same boats

The idiom “we’re all in the same boat,” tells us that we all face the same challenges in life and our fates are interconnected. But it’s sometimes hard to see how the wealthiest most powerful people are in the same situation as the most exploited and powerless.

Perhaps a more accurate idiom would be to say, “we’re all in the same boats.” Imagine a pool where everybody is floating in their own individual ship, boat, or canoe. We can choose to make waves as individuals and affect the people around us. A group of people can chose to synchronize their movements to make bigger waves that travel further. Whatever we do, the waves will eventually reflect of the edges of the pool and come back to affect us.

What kind of waves are we sending out? How are we affecting those around us? Who are we choosing to follow when we make waves? How will our actions come back to us?

Modern industry and technology are not inherently evil. Knowledge and technology could be used to feed and shelter everyone, end war, restore natural ecosystems, and reverse climate change. Collectively, we have more ability to affect the world around us today than ever before. Yet, we see enormous global problems and feel helpless to change them.

Perhaps we think that we need to fight the world for our individual share of wealth. Many of us are too busy struggling and competing with each other at the individual level to see the global system. What is lacking is the collective wisdom that we’re all connected. Individual destiny is linked to global destiny. Growth and healing happen when we focus on supporting and nurturing each other.

A Path Forward

We’re already on the path toward reconnecting with nature, and living pono. In 1968 the photograph of the Earth from the Moon changed the way people around the world see our relationship to our environment. Seeing the Earth from outer space made people realize how special and vulnerable our only home is.

People have started to make cultural changes. The United States Environmental Protection Act was passed in 1969. The first Earth Day in 1970 drew attention to our need to protect the environment. In 1973 the Endangered Species Act was enacted to protect organisms in danger of extinction.

The 1970s was also the beginning of the revival of Hawaiian culture. Native Hawaiians demanded that the United States military stop bombing the island of Kaho‘olawe for target practice.¹² Native Hawaiians advocated for their rights to control their language, culture, and land. The revitalization of Hawaiian culture made the people of Hawai‘i more aware of Hawaiian values and our obligation to mālama ‘āina.

When we make it a priority, native ecosystems can be brought back to a healthy resilient state. When we listen to and support native Hawaiian voices, the native Hawaiian ecology grows. Since the 1970s the State of Hawai‘i has been more careful to control the importation of new organisms, and to manage and restore the natural environment. Visitors, residents, and government are working together to control invasive species, and restore native ecosystems.

Aloha ‘āina, means “love of the land.” In order to love the land, we must have a fundamental understanding of our relationship to it. Hawaiian culture understands that humans are not separate from nature. Humans are a part of nature. We are an integral part of life on Earth. All of our philosophies, sciences, and technology are part of nature. What is beneficial for nature is beneficial for us, and what is harmful to nature is harmful to us. When we make it a priority, native ecosystems can be brought back to a healthy resilient state.

To make good decisions about how to care for nature, we have to learn how to care for ourselves. Cultivate peace and harmony in yourself, and it will spread to the space around you. If you consistently do just a little more than the least you can do, you will find yourself doing great things. Like a tiny seed, your small everyday actions will grow into a great forest. When we pay attention to what we are doing, and how our actions affect us, the answers to how to live a happier healthy vibrant life will become obvious.

These cards tell the story of how nature has adapted to the unique environment of Hawai‘i. They tell the story of how humans have changed the Hawaiian Islands. The cards show us the connections between people and the indigenous and invasive life of the Islands. Most importantly, they tell the story of how we can heal ourselves and the land.