The Poʻe Aloha ‘Āina : Kauaʻi women leaders on land, food sovereignty, & the next generation

This study utilized an Indigenous Determinants of Health framework to tell the story of a group of Kānaka Maoli women leaders on Kaua'i, referred to here as the Poʻe Aloha ʻĀina. Several Hawaiian women leaders from both the kūpuna (elder/grandparent) and mākua (parent) generation engaged in talk-story sessions--a form of open-ended, qualitative interviews that allowed the participants to direct the session. The women began with their own stories, and ended with their vision for the next generation, for their communities, and for their occupied Nation. Their data was subsequently coded using a Modified Grounded Theory. Early stages of this research explored Hawaiian Food Sovereignty and Hawaiian health disparities through these sessions. After coding the data, the research evolved into a larger project about disrupted access to Hawaiian land and usurped Hawaiian governance. The dissertation includes an exploration of the history of how Hawaiians have such restricted access to land within their own homeland; furthermore, it explores the interlocking issues that the next generation of Hawaiians are facing on Kauaʻi in hopes to address some of the simultaneous crises of housing and suicide. A small portion of this research was a collaborative dance with a Hawaiian women-led nonprofit, Kūkulu Kumuhana O Anahola (KKOA), working in the Hawaiian Homelands community of Anahola. The research, and the work of KKOA, culminated by the end of this dissertation in the first stages of establishing an agricultural training & youth center in Anahola.Graduate and Postdoctoral StudiesGraduat