Local Partner: Keawanui Aloha ‘Āina Fellowship Program
Their goals for year three are focused on revitalizing traditional food systems, particularly fishponds and traditional agriculture, as a way to increase local food production, preserve natural and cultural resources, and train new practitioners. Participants will restore a 3-acre area into ancestral foodways, and care for the 55-acre traditional fishpond on site. With this project they aim to increase local food production and food security efforts on Moloka‘i, which is currently one of the most food vulnerable islands in the state with one of the highest native populations.‘Āina Momona will be the main implementing entity for this project, however, they achieve their work thanks to a number of partnerships and collaborations.
We are happy to report our expected results were largely achieved. All 20 participants were able to undergo regular training in traditional land restoration, agriculture, and aquaculture practices, learning from elders and knowledge holders in the community as they applied their new skills in real time to our 3-acre work area. ellows were also able to complete building a nursery pond for young fish in the wider fishpond, learning both traditional and modern approaches to collecting data from the environment. Upon completing the initiative, all 20 participants are more knowledgeable on mitigating erosion and utilizing ancestral food production methods, two major skills needed in our community toda.
