Kanaka Farmers: Our Tūtū Already Farmed This Way

1:40 Keahi Tajon: What we just participated in is a setting of intention. The introduction and the invitation for all of our kūpuna, those that stand before us, those that have yet to come, to kind of enter into our room, enter into our consciousness, and try and give us a little bit more guidance than what we're normally used to. So that's the point of what we do when we set out on this kind of intention. and that's why as cultural people this stuff is really really the first thing the most important thing we pray for every bloody thing honestly we pray for

2:17 everything maybe we don't look like it we will talk to one rock or tree or something that's a rough but that's what we do so Mahalo for participating in welcome Getting to our panelists, we have, starting from the far left, Sister Dana Keawe. I don't even know, I get all kinds of stuff I can say about Dana. She's been such a great inspiration to me, but let me start with the stuff she let me tell about her. Otherwise, we can get off track a little bit. So in 2010, she studied under Master Cho. In 2013, she got a certificate with Kim Chang.

3:02 In kind of like, I guess what we always get in the basics, the basics of the basics. She's been a community advocate very much for food security in the Puna side. Introducing Korean natural farming to things like forest restoration and I mean just, if you take all that kind of stuff and you put them into your native plantings, ho, they're about to go crazy. go crazy but anyway um yeah practitioner cultural person well connected to Kalapana awesome people who know um next to her we have brother Ala Jellings from Nānākuli, Oʻahu, uh, kalo farmer for the last

3:43 eight years, haumana of Kumu Calvin Hoe of Hakipuʻu, I'm sure we're gonna hear a whole lot more about that because I like. Sitting next to him, brother Gene Tamashiro, Kaūmana, Hawaiʻi. Gene is another thing that I could say and I'm not going to say because I'm going to let people introduce themselves. So, found his passions as a musician, natural law advocate, and Hawaiian national. Translating that in action, he strives to protect Hawaii from the over-regulation of traditional and cultural methods of cultivation. He's a promoter of pono agriculture, aquaculture.

4:21 Alika Atay, sitting right next to him. You guys heard his commercials. I hope you guys heard his commercials. I like his commercials. Hāna, Maui, raised in the moku of Kīpahulu, Hāna, Hāmākualoa, Hāmākuapoko, and Wailuku. Currently resides in Hawaiian Home Lands in Waiheʻe. Natural farmer practitioner with farms in the Haʻikū, Wailuku, Launiupoko, Lahaina area. He grows sweet potatoes, kalo, banana, tomatoes, cucumber, basil, and mint. Getting hungry for the local markets and restaurants, and is also the current president for the West Maui chapter of Farmers Union, Mauna Kahālāwai.

4:58 Okay, just making sure I get that right. Chris Chang, Molokaʻi guy, has much knowledge and much understanding in Korean natural farming methods. He's one of my uncles, like the uncle crew, you know the guys you call when you're not getting a handle? Uncle, I need help! That's one of the guys I call. So that can kind of show everybody how much of a backup and support all of these guys are really. Every single one of you on this panel, I give respect for all of you and I'm stoked to get right into this and let's get going. So I guess we're going to start with Dana down there.

5:37 Maybe you give us some. Let's see if the microphone can reach, actually. We got it. OK, OK. If someone not know what you've been doing, your experience with natural farming, we're just going to kind of go down the line. OK.

5:54 Dana Keawe: Hi. What is this? So I believe the topic today was how we are implementing natural, what was the topic for today? I was just asked to speak yesterday. And so I'm just going to. Hi, can you hear me now? Okay. And so the topic was about food security, right? and how we are implementing it as native Hawaiians.

6:39 I think, you know, like, Keahi pretty much summed it up when he did my bio. I feel like my life started again in 2010 when I found natural farming. I've been a political environmental activist all my life here on Hawaii island. I'm from Kalapana, Kaimū. And I love that place. I grew up there before I had development, electricity, running water. And so I got to see how our ʻohanas lived there before that door closed, and the highway came, and the poles came down. And I feel like now I'm striving to get back to that place.

7:30 And so anyway, and so when I say I feel like my life started in 2010, being a political environmental activist, growing up here, being young, and seeing how, you know, like I watched Jeff Melrose's presentation of how agriculture has changed. And I look at that and oh, it makes me sad looking at that, knowing where we came from before. And so knowing that natural farming can clean our lands and regenerate our soils from paraquat, all of these herbicides and pesticides that we have sprayed and actually implementing it myself on dead soils and seeing it come back to life gives me so much hope,

8:16 not just for Hawaii, but for the whole honua. And then me personally, I believe that it all starts with ourselves first. Yeah? And our ʻohana. What our kuleana is, is our family and our ʻohana and where are we from, our ahupuaʻa. You know, what is our responsibility? And so when I started learning about natural farming in 2010, oh, so excited. You know, where do I start? And so for two years, down at Uncle Robert's, down in Kaimū, we, Puna, my cousin, my cousin here, his baby sister Dina, we all started practicing natural farming.

9:03 And we were so excited because it was familiar to us. You know, how like in the morning time when we was growing up, the first sound you hear is rake, rake, rake, rake, rake, rake. And then you smelled the fire, all the tūtūs outside cleaning the yard, putting the charcoal back around the trees. And so much of it was familiar to us. And so anyway, that's where I practiced for two years. And then the last two years, I started meeting people like Dave Sansone, Zach Maramel, I I think he's in this room and studying permaculture, studying agroforestry and realizing that we need to combine

9:49 all of our agricultural ways of farming together. One way I learned wasn't enough. We have to grow in biodiversity. We can't just grow in these rows of one thing. With natural farming, it's so forgiving. You can actually do these kind of things because you're taking care of everything underneath. And so for me it started on a personal level. I used to be about a hundred pounds bigger than I am now. And so, cuz no. And so it's been slowly working on my own health, getting healthier, you know, weaning myself off of the three white

10:28 things, yeah? White rice, white potatoes, white flour, you know, those things were hard for me because I grew up with this generation of eating spam and we never had electricity so we had plenty canned food but we were healthy when we were young because we was always swimming in the kai and you know our families we had our churches and so every week we worked together to get the food ready for our after our services and um and so for me it's been weaning myself off of these other ways and incorporating back our native foods like kalo

11:06 and like how we're eating now you know and so anyway what I've been doing the last two years is taking natural farming and creating what I call a hybrid of farming meaning for example last year at the permaculture foundation there's something who knows hugelkultur okay well we took natural farming and on that brown layer we started spraying our natural farming inputs okay and now they break down faster your hugelkultur beds are infused with microorganisms and nutrients that's just one example and then in our permaculture community

11:51 encouraging our our permaculture people to incorporate native plants meaning are legumes. I always hear this nitrogen fixing plants yeah and so I think it was Dave that asked me what native trees are nitrogen fixers? I studied botany here at the University and so I started thinking māmane, koa, ʻohai, all the three different elevation and so now I see like Wade Bauer he's incorporating trees like our kukui, our native trees into their permaculture designs. And so, don't mind me, I'm just speaking from my heart today.

12:41 And so anyway, those are some of the things I've been doing. I can go on and on, but the last year of my life, a really dear friend of mine, Jayadupui, She is restoring Keauohana native forests right above our ʻohana land. And she has a hundred acre plot there. She's restoring the forest and removing invasives, replanting our native plants. And so I was helping her with her volunteers, helping feed them and organize things. And I would watch how they were doing things. And their transplanting success rate was around 40 to 50 percent of our native plants.

13:17 And for those of you that are here that know our native plants, they take a long time to grow. They're not like albizia, yeah? Where ha, you turn around, above your house. And so anyway, one of the things that she just started incorporating was adding biochar that's been infused with natural farming inputs. know our IMOs collected right from that forest and also spraying IMOs around her transplants and what she's noticing is that they're not the ones that she's she's been doing plots where she's doing some not doing some she noticed that the

13:58 ones that she's doing are they're growing bigger they're healthier and she doesn't have to worry as much when the drought when we have those bad droughts and so all of these things are just following my heart listening to my intuition and like Vince I think he's here today you know what are some of the solutions yeah that we can come up with to mālama ʻāina, to aloha ʻāina you know I think if I were to describe myself in any other way that's it you know to be a a proper steward of our honua, yeah. And so the other thing that

14:43 Drake Weinert and I just started doing with our kiaʻi up on Mauna a Wākea, I have a couple of nephews up there, Mikey and Jojo, and they are, they're up there protecting our Mauna. And so one of the things they've been doing is pulling out the weeds. yeah and so when I was talking to them a couple months ago I said hey when you go restore go plant some native plants I hear ʻāhinahina in danger yeah so these boys have a nursery under the māmane trees up there bless their hearts yeah they have all of our native and endemic plants growing underneath these trees and um

15:22 and so we went up Drake Weinert and I and I don't know has anybody else made IMOs higher than 9,000 feet? Wow, we're the first ones? How awesome. So with the kiaʻi we made IMOs at the 9,000 foot level. And then we took mullein and we took the fireweed, which are invasive weeds, and we fermented them. And in just the last two weeks my nephew's been spraying. I just saw a picture on Facebook last night of their babies. Oh, can tell difference already. Okay, they're pushing out, they're coming more healthy. And so we've been going up there, you

16:07 know, because our heart was drawn to, you know, help with this movement of our people rising, yeah? And so, ah, what an honor to be up there on the Mauna. I think I think I can count all my life, I think I went up there two times and I'm almost 50. I've been up there half a dozen times this year and so but with intention with purpose. And so those are the two things that I've been doing this year and I've also been studying with Kahuna Poʻokela Ikaika Dombrigues, he works through Hui Mālama Ola Nā ʻŌiwi. Some of you may have been to some of his presentations.

16:48 He teaches, he travels around this whole island and he teaches how to use our plants as medicine. And so I also realized, you know, food security is important but we must know how to take care of our health as well. And so I've been studying with him for two years and this is something I love about Korean natural farming as well. It's lāʻau. You know, like Kim said, we take our OHNs when we feel a little bit down and it lifts us up too, yeah? And so, you know, for me, I don't want to look at problems anymore. I want to look at what are the solutions, yeah?

17:29 And so where my heart is, is in Kaimū, is in Kalapana, is with my ʻohana. You know, I've been watching my family die in their 40s and 50s. It's a sad story, our history, you know, but our next generations that are coming, they're healthier, they're stronger, they're more ʻeleu, they're educated, they know their history, they know their language, they know their culture, they're practicing it, you know, and so our people are rising out of genocide right now, and it's just a beautiful thing. And so my big dream and my wish is for food security for my ʻohana,

18:10 you know, to help us teach our family how to make no fly, no smell pig pens, chicken coops, you know to grow back our own get back to our roots again yeah you know growing Hāloa and our ʻuala and our you know all of our native foods again and so a special vision and dream that Dave Sansone and I have been working on together is creating a center that is like a puʻuhonua for our farmers a a place for all of us to go and have models of what we know all around this center so that people can come in like this and come and learn hands-on

18:58 and then be able to go out into our community to our tūtū. And if you just want a little thing on your back porch, help our farmers that are struggling with weeds because they're spraying Roundup, all these things. Help. Actually go and help. And so this is something I'm holding on to. It's my life vision. And I'm getting closer. And so I don't know how long I'm supposed to talk, but I think I'm done. Thank you.

19:41 Ala Jellings: Okay, aloha mai kākou. So, my name is Ala Jellings. I'm originally from Nānākuli and also Kalihi-Liliha area. My mom's family from Kalihi-Liliha, my dad's family from Nānākuli. And then I moved to the Windward side in 2003. And then I was, I just have to say that I'm super blessed. I'm super blessed to be here. I'm super blessed to be able to eat the food that I eat. I'm able-bodied. I'm able-minded. And I am really, really, really blessed, I feel, to be taught to farm in a way that I was taught to farm.

20:28 The way that I was taught to farm is Uncle Calvin Hoe is my kumu. I worked at Hakipuʻu Learning Center. And then I was just one EA, but nobody liked to go to loʻi and get dirty, so I used to carry spare clothes in my car, so I would trade all the EAs for their loʻi days. And, you know, the loʻi, if you don't love it, you burn out fast. Farming, you know, is like that too. And so people was burning out, and Uncle Cal asked me, what, Ala? Oh, kaina, kain, kain, kain, you like work at the loʻi? And I told him, I love the loʻi, uncle, but I don't know what I'm doing.

21:12 I just do whatever you tell me to do. He go, ah, you love them. That's the main thing. So in 2007, I started taking over Hakipuʻu Learning Center's loʻi. But let me back up a little bit. I'm a child of really unfortunate circumstances, drugs, prison, you know, all those kinds of things. Quit school in seventh grade, somehow graduated in military school, and then went to college somehow. But, you know, I'm of that, you know, huli. I went to the loʻi and I just started crying. And I felt like I'm home. And that has saved my life, that continues to save my life.

22:00 When I put my feet into that mud, I am like a plant, you know. I get to root deep, deep into the soil. I am new to this island, but being up on the Mauna really helped me to connect with the water. Yeah, the water is like the blood. It connects everything in the whole, you know, ahupuaʻa and the land. like the blood in our bodies. And so it's helped me to learn about this place a little bit. So farming saves my life all the time, every day. And so I started working at the loʻi. And the way that I learned farming is walking through the bushes with Uncle Cal,

22:44 you know, making imu, finding bamboo, more walking through the bushes, mostly walking through the bushes. Because he don't like the beaten path, he likes to go through the bushes. So if you ever meet him and you like go walking with him, wear pants and long sleeves because he likes walking through California grass. And so talking story, you know, over a period of time, that's how I learned on the side of him, helping him with all the things that he got to do because he's such a kind of big part of the community.

23:23 He is a Hakipuʻu person, the ahupuaʻa of Hakipuʻu, also farms and lives in Waiāhole with the Reppuns and all kinds of other people. They did the big water fight and the, you know, Con Con in the 70s and all that stuff. But so I'm super blessed to be able to have learned from him. And so, you know, time goes and then, so, oh, so he don't say no to nobody. why he's always busy. If you like spend time with him, you just gotta do what he's doing. You know, whether it's playing those flute, talking, walking through bushes, I don't know,

24:05 grabbing bamboo, drilling his flutes, whatever he's doing, you just gotta go and you just gotta spend time with him and, you know, cause that's what you gotta do if you like learn anything from him basically. And then, you know, a few years in, I call him, I tell him, Oh, Uncle, you know, we used to do camps at the school, and I was training. He trained me to make the imu in the way that, you know, he was taught by his parents, or his mom, I think, or maybe his uncles. And I called him. I told him, Oh, Uncle, you need me for a banana stump? He go, Ah. Ah. So I thought, kind. Kind, kind.

24:51 You get them, huh? That's what he told me and he never came back to another imu. But that's how I graduated in a way. That's how I knew that okay, now he doesn't have to come and babysit me and train me and whatever. I can do him. And then you know he came after and he pat my back and he tell me, no worry, [unclear], he tell me. [unclear] because you know there's 40 people waiting for the imu to open and everybody like eat but luckily you know so far I'm not going to say them but everybody went

25:37 eat out of the imu so far and so I learned important lessons you know from him I've used limu from that our loʻi was in in Heʻeia, we use fish emulsion, we use kukui, we use hau, we use dead, you know, all the dead stuff around. We use prayers, we use chants, we use friendship with the plants. You know, so we, I was taught these kind of things, but I never really taught about them. I just kind of did them. And that's lucky. And then I got introduced to natural farming kind of a long time ago, but I'm not really a listener.

26:27 So it seemed too complicated to me. So I just kept doing what I was doing. But it came again and again and again. And then I was taught to pay attention to those things, so I started to pay attention a little bit. And some stuff still seems confusing, but it's only because I only pay attention to half most of the time. I'm that child. You got about 10 minutes with me, and then I just kind of blank out. Fill up and blank out. But Uncle Cal said, that's the guy he like in the loʻi. Because I get stuff done, and I can go from one task to the next and keep everything kind of going.

27:07 And then I pow, and everything got done somehow. I don't know how, but somehow. you know so so I I tried to use the things I'm super new at natural farming I like just started making some FPJ learning all the acronyms OHN FPJ those kinds of stuff but I've been I've been using them and when I talk about lāʻau My wife is a lāʻau lapaʻau practitioner. Her kumu is Levon Ohai from Kauaʻi, and she trained under him about 12 years before he passed. And so, you know, Auntie like took the words right out of my head. I like to try mesh those things into my farming practice.

27:59 So if this plant does this to my body, what plants do this for the cellular makeup of the plants? So I'm kind of trying to check those things out. It's truly a lifestyle. I live as a mahiʻai, and we live as lāʻau practitioners because that's the two lifestyles of our house. and I try to do everything with those, not rules, but those lessons. Yeah, so everywhere that I go, I try to perpetuate those lessons in my relationships. I learned how to treat people because I knew how to treat plants.

28:44 It seemed a little bit backwards to most people, but that's what happened to me because I didn't have good relationships in my family, but I had good relationships with the plants. So I try to perpetuate that everywhere I go. And I'm very, very proud to be a haumana of Uncle Calvin Hoe. I was doing a speech, not a speech, just a talk story at one of the natural farming meetings, and his thing is you just plant. You go to the school, you get everything all over. But that guy always get food. and he always happy and he always get something for share and he's always his

29:28 demeanor is so loving and you just want to be around him and that's kind of what I would like to do I would like for people to like to be around me and so But I'm happy, and I'm very excited to see Hawaiians in Hawaii practicing farming, and natural farming, and permaculture, and all these things. We've been doing it for a long time, like get new labels, and we're just trying to figure out what linking them back. But I'm excited because we need to, this is my opinion only, but we need to make it real

30:17 kind of available to the guy who don't like going to meetings and like farm. And the guy that maybe, you know, he don't like read the book right now. later when he sees that his plant's doing good, you can read the book with a girl, you know, anybody. When I say a guy, I just mean a person. So to make the information available to everybody is important. Because here in Hawaii, I'm from Oahu, so I cannot really talk about Big Island. Big Island seems way more inclusive. But O'ahu, we have small communities of Hawaiian farmers, and we do what we do.

31:10 And this is not for everybody. This is just for me. When I hear permaculture, when I hear natural farming, not over here, like I said, on O'ahu, to hear these terms of organic, those kinds of things, for a long time, those things wasn't for me. So I'm glad that it's a little bit different and it's getting different. The only way we're going to do that is to work together and make it accessible to everybody.

32:00 I farm on spiritual concepts more than on thinking about OHN. I'm not real disciplined, that's why. I try to have a fertilizing schedule with those stuff, but I'm not too good at it. But when I go outside, I talk to my plants. I do all these every day, those kinds of things. So I'm just learning. But I'm stoked that we're here. I'm stoked that we have a panel of Kanaka ʻŌiwi talking about natural farming and permaculture and all those kinds of things and mashing them together. because we are at pivotal time right now in our nation as far as sovereignty.

32:52 We're at a pivotal time at saving our sacred spaces. We're at a pivotal time of making our land flourish in a good way and keeping the pono around. and there's plenty of people here. And thank you guys all for coming. And I think that our future is super bright and I think that we have a lot of work, but we can do it and we can do it together as a community. So mahalo nui. Thank you.

33:35 Gene Tamashiro: Aloha everyone. My name is Gene Tamashiro. I grew up on Oahu. My grandparents arrived from Okinawa over 100 years ago. And so I am a Hawaiian national, even though I am Hawaiian, even though I don't have koko because Hawaiian is a nationality. There's only one race and that race get many colors as human race. But I was born in Hawaii and I didn't know who I was or where I was. And this is part of a cultural context

34:23 for healing and for remedy. I'm learning about natural farming in a very haphazard but heart-centered way because some people have the kuleana to to study it and to spend hours and years in the ʻāina and I hope one day that my current kuleana will allow me to more peacefully be in close intimate harmony with the ʻāina under my feet. But I see challenges just like you that is not so much involved with the land or the knowledge base or the labor or the resource. It's regulation. It's regulation

35:14 against the will of ke Akua and the will of and and the ways of natural law. I was very inspired by what Kauai has done, what Maui has done, and our island here to come together and work tirelessly. Alika knows he will talk about that and I'm very inspired to learn from him. To educate people and to rally them together to speak with one voice against a corporate empire that has been co-opted. It's been co-opted by companies like Monsanto. And so no matter what we do, as much as I don't want to think about it because I want to get to the earth, I

35:59 want to play with my son, but I see that the United States which has clearly been co-opted Washington DC some would argue was co-opted in 1871 when they created the District of Columbia and it's gone further and further down the road until the point where now the Pope is calling for everyone to unite absolutely as one family, absolutely, but ultimately to surrender our sovereignty, not just Hawaiian Kingdom sovereignty, but the whole United States and 196 other countries in December in Paris. It's called the Paris Climate Treaty. And so

36:51 if some of you have known about the Trans-Pacific Partnership or the different trade, so-called trade agreements, that really is a cover for sovereign nations that have not been sovereign for years to now officially surrender to an unelected body selected by the United Mafia called the International Bankers. It's the United Nations and ultimately as much as the Pope has fooled in my heart. I was fooled. But I do believe when he says that we're going to all stand down and surrender our sovereignty to the United Nations in

37:38 unelected body, that that is a very dangerous proposition. And that is coming December 2nd. 196 countries, America has been from all, if anyone is doing this kind of research, it's been on a downward slope in terms of our transparency, our accountability. My awakening was at the point of 9-11 and the rabbit hole has continued further down. Now, not to just paint a dark picture because I spoke with Abigail and is Abigail here? No, she's outside. Well, if you guys know Abigail, she's a very aloha ʻāina positive person. She said, gee, don't just focus on the bad stuff. Look at all the good

38:28 stuff that we're doing to heal the soil and heal our lives. I say, yes, I agree. I just want to play drums and get my feet dirty. That's what I'd like to do. However, everyone has a different kuleana. And even though I never joined the U.S. Armed Forces, my father did. And he swore an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution with his life. Even though World War II, World War I, and all the wars since maybe before and since then certainly have been a profit-making enterprise for a few very powerful people. No more war. We war against lies. We war against hewa. We aloha each other.

39:24 I want to also briefly address for those of you because I didn't know what happened to our queen. I really do believe that even though the hewa was done by people not even related to folks in this room, hewa is hewa. And so when false jurisdiction occurs at the point of a gun, we have to find a way to heal that. We have to find ways to not protect ourselves in a matrix of denial so that we can live in the matrix of oppression and tyranny and lies. And indeed, that's what we have. But we can address these complex truth-based issues with evidence and aloha.

40:15 I look forward, because it is happening, because of what has happened on Mauna Kea, that Hawaiians of every color realize, man, our backs are against the wall. It doesn't matter because whether you're Kanaka Maoli or you're Haole or you're Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, you want to participate in remedy. And if you go to the U.S. judicial system, I did get arrested on the mountain on June 24th, like many others. And there's no remedy in that system. because it's actually a corporation. And so we do have remedy. And you guys work on remedy every day

41:00 when you work in the soil. And in my small way, I do too. It's called natural law or common law, which the Magna Carta for those Westerners is founded on common law, universal law, ke Akua's law. And this law is the foundation of the US Constitution. And I don't know if we have law enforcement or politicians in this room, but they swore an oath to tell the truth and uphold the U.S. Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Okay? If people would have honored their oath, we wouldn't be in this situation today in Hawaii or the world. And also Hawaiian kingdom law.

41:38 God hath made of one blood all nations of men, people, to dwell on earth in unity and blessedness. Maybe Kauikeaouli, Kamehameha number three, was a natural farmer. He probably, because that, yeah, could be, yeah. And Hawaiian culture is all about natural. So natural law is pono and enforceable both in U.S. Constitution and in Hawaiian Kingdom Constitution. There's no separation of the truth. There's no separation of God's people. We only choose to separate ourselves because of our ignorance and our fear. And I come forward not knowing what the future holds.

42:23 But I do know that if we allow ourselves to look at the evidence of what's really going on, still focus on your particular kuleana, but don't hold those of us who have a natural kuleana to speak truth with aloha to power and to hold people who have sworn an oath to protect and serve to do that. And I'm so grateful that I was invited to speak on that aspect of cultural service and protection for our lives, our relationships with each other and with the ʻāina. So, in closing, we do have a small group.

43:12 It's called Project Aloha. And if anyone is interested, we're going to have a meeting this Sunday. But I don't advertise a whole lot of stuff. I think we all find each other in our natural course of time and change. But I'm glad to see that, and I'm glad to feel that people are in a pono place. and this is a great place. This has been a pono place. Thank you very much.

43:54 Alika Atay: Aloha. Once again, my name is Alika Atay. I come from Maui. I'm just looking at this thing here. It says cultural connections, growing food was an important and integral part of Hawaiian culture and supported a large population. And so they've asked us to touch on some of the ways that these practices are being revitalized, trying to connect over to the involvement of natural farming. So right now I wear my hat as a natural farmer and not as the activist. But actually I was listening to him and I said it's all connected.

44:40 It's all connected. Last night you saw, yesterday you saw Ashley Lukens present on pesticides in Hawaii. But in there, hidden in there, that message was kuleana. kuleana. We all get responsibility. But listening to that also, the other topic is aloha. It's all about love. And as a natural farmer, the word is aloha ʻāina. So my position, or a lot of people refer, you know, our activities on Maui, my actions and activities in Maui in the so-called anti-GMO activity is all connected and it was all done

45:27 on the basis of aloha ʻāina. And I always said I'm an aloha ʻāina protector. And so the things we do, especially in natural farming, is protecting our ʻāina. Imagine being an ancestor from this land. Imagine that thousands of years they were the stewards of this land. And then they gave us this gift. I give you the best I could do. Now your turn.

46:16 What they going to tell us about today? Our ʻāina was 100% organic, was 100% chemical free. Our ʻāina was 100% natural. This morning you see the presentation from Jeff Melrose. You can see the change of our ʻāina. You can see the change and demise of the activities of our farmers. What we need,

47:08 what the solution from the maps we saw. We need more farmers. Look at reality. I remember not that long ago they told me, oh we're eating 70% of food that is imported. And then I heard 80%, and then I heard 90% and then I heard the DOE lunch program imports 92% of the food the kids eat. Then they say our kuleana is lower the islands imports.

47:56 increase the food production. What does that mean economically? It means, not mean, doesn't mean go 100%, no import. We're gonna try 10%. From 92, can we get it down to 82? What does that 10% mean? About 300 million. So as farmers, don't you want a piece of that 300 million? We should be taking a piece of that 300 million. Grow more food. Yeah, that's where we stay. How to connect our past to where we stay today, to where we evolve, to where

48:50 with things we forgot. What can we do right now? One of the things we do, we currently do, and it's been at our access, is just encouraging people to pay more focused attention on it, is a practice of studying and practicing and living with the Hawaiian moon calendar. So this is something that we do and I'll share this with you. Welcome to the Hawaiian moon calendar. In ancient Hawaii, the kanaka did all of his fishing and farming in accordance to the various moon phases. Utilizing acute observations, a unified system of practice

49:41 was created and developed through countless years of the transference of generational, traditional, indigenous knowledge from one's own area or moku, one's own section of each island, and knowledge and or from one's own family. When one family member would travel and reside on another side of the island, or if they crossed the ocean's channel and decided to reside on a different island, one would make their adjustment of practice according to their acute observations and combining the ʻike of the various local subtleties of that area.

50:30 According to the Hawaiian moon calendar, the year would be divided into two seasons, the the wet season, hoʻoilo, and the hot season of kau. The seasons were also divided into lunar months with the names descriptive of what was taking place on the honua. Currently, we are in the hot season of kau. We are currently in the Hawaiian month of ʻIkuā. And during this month of ʻIkuā, one should be well stored up for the approaching winter season. The fields should be harvested and sugarcane planted in this period will produce long stalks.

51:11 Weather-wise, the weather will begin to show signs that the winter and rainy season is approaching. There will be a greater variety of weather, but the severity of bad weather has not reached its potential. The north swell from the westerly direction with swells and surf heights are slowly picking up but the very high surf is still more than a month away. Southerly surf action is decreasing but there's still a chance of higher than normal surf conditions. Fishing wise this is the period of the yellowfin ahi tuna, the albacore tuna, the blue marlin, and mahimahi in the deep offshore waters.

51:59 For deep bottom fishing, success will be had going after uku, the gray snapper, and the sea bass. For inshore fishing and waters along the coastline, this is the period for the ʻōmilu and the halalū or young akule fishing. This all in the month of ʻIkuā that runs from September 13th until the next rising of the new moon taking place on October 13th. Soon we will move into the rainy wet season of Hoʻoilo. According to the Hawaiian moon calendar, each day of the month had its own individual characteristics for favorable or unfavorable results and activities.

52:47 According to our family's practice, each Hawaiian day would begin at the rising of the moon, and one would remain in that lunar day until the next rising of the moon, of which a new Hawaiian day would also then begin. At today's rising of the moon, which actually took place last night at 9:36, It marked the beginning of a new day. Today, Lāʻau Kū Lua is the second day of the three Lāʻau days. Early morning fishing would be fair with a rising tide. The seas will be rough in the evenings with the approaching and returning of the ole winds.

53:35 This would also be a good day to plant anything but vine types of plants. The Lāʻau days are the days that one would gather medicinal plants. A period of gathering, preparing, and administering lāʻau medicinal plants. The next notable planting period begins right after the three upcoming ʻOle days. So today is Lāʻau Kū Lua, tomorrow Lāʻau Pau, and then the next day could be three days in a row that is ʻOle. ʻOle days. Those are ʻOle days. For planting, so the planting

54:20 period will run from Tuesday the 6th of October which is going to be Kāloa Kū Kahi and it will go all the way through Sunday, October 18th which will be Kū Pau. And then most of these days are all going to be excellent days for planting. And this is the manaʻo pertaining to the Hawaiian moon calendar. So our kūpuna mastered that knowledge, paid attention, acute observation, paying attention to the change of your plants. Yeah, the plants tell you what's going on.

55:07 Yesterday down below Kim shared that the different times when you're gonna use your FPJ, when to use your water soluble calcium, when to use your calcium phosphate, you know the one with the bone. She names it the changeover. Yeah. You use that when you see flowering. Yeah. So your sweet potato. When you see the sweet potato flower come, you can spray that. Yeah. Help the plant for the changeover. Yeah. The, you got to kind of like understand the plant as a person. So I kind of use the plant as a wahine person.

55:54 Yeah. So when the plant go into flowering on a human side, what is that period? When you're changing over, when you just one get pregnant, yeah, when you just get pregnant, what you supposed to take? What you guys take? Huh? You guys take the kind extra vitamins, what? Natals, yeah? Yeah? Same thing, right? The plant need that phosphate. So calcium phosphate, spray them on. Dr. Park shared, he said, for you young women and if you like avoid morning sickness, take the spritzer of your calcium phosphate, spray them in your salad, introduce calcium phosphate.

56:46 Because when you get morning sickness, it's a sign saying that you're missing something. Yeah. So yeah, Dr. Park is many years pediatrician. So that was his hint and I see that oh wow. I will tell that to all the young women now. To avoid morning sickness, make sure you eat you know in your vinaigrette, calcium phosphate. Okay. Now when the flower fall off the plant disappear right after you see the flower. What the plant telling you is now I get baby, I have a bud, I have a spud. Now your kuleana is as a farmer, you like make the biggest

57:36 potatoes you can make, right? Spray calcium. Yeah, so Kim showed you guys the one with the eggshell? Yeah, add the calcium. So you have to pay attention to the plant. As the plant goes through its different nutritive cycles, that's going to tell you when you add those amendments that she just shared how to do it. I had time when I first, I've had many classes, but my first introduction went, oh wow, this is the same kind of stuff my tūtū was doing. When he showed me about the fish and I said, wow, all I know was my tūtū told me he buried a fish

58:23 by this tree. I didn't know that they were putting fish amino acid into the tree. Until this, the connection of science. My tūtū would always make sure I planted a sugar cane stalk next to where we planted a tree. Like if I planted one ʻulu tree, oh boy, plant two sugar canes. The tree grows strong. Today, now I reflect back, oh, she was putting the sugar to feed the microbes to feed the tree. Okay? So there is a lot of practice or intended biodiversity that our kūpuna was doing.

59:12 Biochar. The imu. Yeah? I mean, for me, what's the thing? Oh, yeah, Scott never come, yeah? For me, I wish the day that I could just burn my valley. Yeah? Because that's what Tūtū did. They would burn. Yeah? They would use fire as an advantage for growing. But now I got to go see Uncle Ricky, go borrow his charcoal, get the biochar, and go, I got to bring the biochar to the ground. So I was kind of thinking back about the imu. And Queen Emma, on record, she was an avid kalo grower.

59:58 Queen Emma would, where the imu was, he's already charcoal. So I was like, biochar? All the ʻōpala, put them back in that puka, go get more dirt, all the banana stems, all the stuff is all there. Cover, let it ferment, let it decay, and then she plants the kalo, right there. Today, the practice, so I said, oh, so they would move the imu. Yeah? Little by little, the area gets rejuvenated.

1:00:45 But today, every year, we use the same imu, the same puka. There's no move on, yeah? So where did we, in our practice, stop that cycle? So then now I come to the IMO. And then we're doing the IMO. And for those of you who make the IMO, I use the same concept, or I recommend the same concept. Make your IMO pile over here, this year. When you use up all that IMO and the next batch IMO you're going to make, don't make them in the same spot. this patch is already juiced so we will move over there we make the batch over

1:01:37 there you finish that one then you move them over there right so as you make your IMO batches move it I recommend moving around because you're gonna have to make them on the ground I know for for the demonstration Dr. Park had them on the blue plastic. But recommended, you make them on the ground. So that the microbes of the soil is also participating into your IMO. Other thoughts? I don't know if she covered Mineral A. If they'll cover Mineral A. Mineral A

1:02:23 is a very important part that is needed. Minerals, trace minerals. From Korea style is they say water fall down at least, I don't know, 20 feet into the stone and you're capturing the water that splashes. So when they shared that with me, I said, My tūtū used to force me to go get that water from that waterfall, that the waterfall would hit the stone, and I would get the water from that pond. Why that pond?

1:03:09 So they in their own mind knew about this thing called mineral air. We get Mineral A. I know Master Cho say, oh, you only can get them from us in Korea. Just like we only can get brown rice vinegar from Sempio. But we have. If you know where there is waterfall that hit the stone, go catch the water. Yeah? Turn around, sell them for $40 a bottle. Mineral A. The other thing, seawater. So important. Yeah? The ocean water.

1:03:56 On Maui, I live Waiheʻe. So Waiheʻe, the stream comes all the way from the mauka. Yeah? The fresh water from mauka. So I would go all the way up, get that water. Before, I used to germinate my seeds only from the water from ʻĪao River. Before, I used to catch them off the roof. Then my tūtū said, no, boy. Get metal. You gotta go up ʻĪao. You know, so I always went up to ʻĪao to gather water. And that's how I used to start my seedlings, was fresh mountain water that would come down the river, hitting the rocks. Okay?

1:04:41 Mauka, from [unclear]. Come all the way down. You guys get this one, because the last part, the last pool, yeah? the ocean wave come, going to come inside. That's where you want to get that water. Kind of diluted. Ocean water, fresh water. The water from the mountain, the water from the kai. That's the water. What are you going to use that for? Besides being an amendment in the natural farming cycle, being introduced in your sprays. I look at that as the finisher. That's the one that can bring flavor,

1:05:31 taste onto your fruits and onto your vegetables. The ocean has 82 or 83, 82, 83, 83 trace mineral elements. That is all in the ocean already. Yeah. So when you spray onto your plant, the plant, I believe, my concept, each plant has its own DNA. And each plant knows what minerals it needs. So you're going to spray them. You're going to give them 83. But maybe this plant only going to take up four.

1:06:19 The other plant might take up a different form. But what you're trying to do is bring out the freshness and the flavor of that particular vegetable and fruit. It's not just, yeah, I used to before, I was like, oh, I'll grow the biggest. Yeah? Then my tūtū said, oh, your papaya, no more taste. okay back up now and i think back at all what did i do or what did i not do yeah one papaya. LAB. LAB, you guys saw Dr. Park make, the one with the milk,

1:07:05 LAB. Very potent amendment when your plant is in the vegetative and growing stage. You can probably get away using it a little bit after the flowering stage. But for me, as soon as I see reproduction and fruiting, no LAB. LAB takes away the flavor takes away the taste yeah just like how you can use the LAB for chase away the flies so no more smell that's what you can use those are the pigs

1:07:51 you guys can spray the LAB no flies, no smell or you can spray LAB on top of your fruit no flavor no taste okay so really important secret because i learned that i was i was all proud giving my tūtū the papaya oh jump the papaya so i go oh i give them the biggest but i gave them one that never tastes yeah so you want to bring out the taste you don't use LAB and you use the ocean so these are kind of things that I add together of what I mean

1:08:37 I connected real quick Dr. Park said, well you catch on that well this is what we was doing I just never know the science part but now we know now things we do definitely what we did the opening session we pray we enter with that intention but then the next thing we observe we learn what moon we stay speaking of that why i give you guys this look at your calendar uh our kūpuna had much acute knowledge of what is going on but you know we get technology after that so use the technology so this is a good calendar this used to be put out

1:09:24 only by Young Brothers but now I think plenty of people put it out. Yeah? The real critical part of this calendar is, on my calendar it's red above the day. There's like a line, a solid line. You guys see them? It's black. You guys? Get extra calendar. These guys, So get one black line above the... Where we stay? One day today. Second. Okay. So you see our minds is red, but there's a solid black line. Yeah? That is telling you, this is really important, important information.

1:10:13 That is telling you when the moon is up above you. You guys hear us saying, plant with the moon, plant with the moon. Us, the day is from sun up to sundown, right? No, you got to change that mind. Your day is when the moon is up, yeah. From the time the moon come up, that's the beginning of your day and go all the way to the next moon come up. But the planting, this is the information to give you. So looking at this, what time you should be planting? When the moon is, if I say the moon is above you, what time you should be

1:10:57 planting? Right. Okay and then the next day but then okay so then I shared with you the moon calendar from what was it October 6? Yeah October 6 all the way through October 18th is excellent planting period. But you follow the moon, the moon going later and later. So the beginning on the 6th, you're going to plant in the morning. But if you look the moon on the 18th, you should be planting at the end of the day. You guys understand? So there is, although what a difference. There is a difference. Although to you is manini difference, but to the plant,

1:11:51 it's a big difference. Yeah. So if anything, I would say, try get one calendar like this, the Young Brothers calendar gives you the tide and the charge, the sunrise, the moonrise. But the most important information is the moonrise, the moon information. I know I stay hogging the time but I was just listening to what Sister Dana shared. She talked about making IMO at 9,000 feet. I like some of that. No, no, no. Why? No. Hey Dr. Park, we're trying man.

1:12:37 Here's the concept. When you collect your IMO, you collect your IMO, you should be collecting it a hundred meters higher than where you're farming. Right? Because you're going to collect the IMO that is surviving at the higher elevation. So I'm listening to her. I'm going, bro, if you can get one IMO that's surviving at 9,000 feet, and then I'm going to bring them back down to sea level. That bugger is going to be like Superman. He's going to be pounding that ground. Yeah? Oh, he's going to say, oh, this is dark soup. I can go through this like nothing. Right? So what?

1:13:22 Going to be collecting IMOs up there. Yeah? No, but really, try to practice that concept. Can you go higher in a different microclimate, Collect the IMO and bring it back down into a climate that is easy. Yeah? Easy working for the microbes. So that's why you go to the forest and bring them back to your farm. Look for that. Look for that elevation change or microclimate change. come from a harsh climate bring them down to an easy tropical climate the brother up there oh this is the guy [unclear] over here, okay, uh, brother over here, I want to say, I was a haumana to Uncle

1:14:15 Calvin, I was counting how many years 43 years ago yeah so give my hello to Uncle Calvin but anyways you know, he brought out the idea for me. It's how do you do the transference of traditional knowledge? How you know that your knowledge was transferred? Uncle Calvin's way was he don't show up at the imu. That's his acknowledgement. You don't need to give one diploma certificate of completion. His absence was a statement of his confidence, of his

1:15:00 teachings. Yeah, so that is, if you don't pay attention, that is the Hawaiian's way of knowing that the knowledge has been transferred. Yeah, it's been passed on. Where they no longer gotta go look behind you and see if you did a good job. because they know. Yeah? So that one day that you the teacher not going need to show up because you the teacher know that He know. Yeah? So it all goes back to understanding kuleana, understanding aloha ʻāina.

1:15:49 Chris Chang: Hello everybody, my name is Chris Chang and I'm actually visiting here from Molokaʻi for learn this natural farming and stuff, trying to take it all back there. And initially I was asked to speak on what we're doing on Molokaʻi and what's happening over there, but the topic got changed. But after all of this, I don't need to get on the topic anyway. you know so i just i mean i don't much time anyway so basically i acknowledge that there is a god that is a creator and that there is love and if we don't employ love in any of all of this we do

1:16:26 you know nothing gonna get done because if i loving you i'm not going you know steal from you lie to you cheat with you do anything that is you know not really pono and so you know i don't kind of philosophize a lot of what just you know got said you know if we doing what is right we should at least know who our neighbors are you know much people don't even know their neighbors today because we're not interacting with them because we should be actually you know uh working together because we should be trying to feed each other i don't like grow all the taro

1:17:05 you know somebody else can grow somebody everybody got to share the responsibilities in the community And so, you know, if we are, you know, taking what we get and giving them to our neighbors, then we're probably going to have a better response and better relationship with our neighbors. The people that go into the ocean, coming up with their catch, stopping at auntie's house, grandma's house, cousin's house, friend's house, whoever's house. at home. By the time he get home, he get all the fish he need. Just like the hunter, he

1:17:41 going to go out there, get his, by the time he get home, he going to have just exactly what he need because he going to get something back from somebody later on without wanting it or needing it. Somebody going to give. If everybody giving everybody products that we are growing and sharing or collecting, gathering, hunting, whatever it may be, if We giving to one another, that's what this society was based on. So in our culture, you know, the cultures is all different. We in one different culture. Everybody was talking about a different culture right here.

1:18:16 You know, but yet we are in a Hawaiian culture because we, you know, like Drake said last night, the generation for a microwave is, what, 30 minutes? You know, our culture is changing all the time. And, you know, natural farming, you know, how natural is farming? We're not really doing something that is natural by farming. You know, we should be collecting out there. Using our natural resources, probably the most underused natural resource that we have is a coconut. And it's probably the most healthiest food out there.

1:18:51 But all this stuff that's growing out in the forest or wherever, it's not being used. You know, Molokaʻi, everybody, I mean not everybody, the people who have problems with deer over there, I keep telling them, you gotta eat them. Because deer don't come in my yard because I eat them. You know, so even though I like them coming in my yard, he not. So, you know, like, you know, get a lot of invasive stuff. If I was doing something with them, there wouldn't be no invasive things. And I don't know how much time I get, but I'm sure I can say something. Okay, mahalo, aloha. Thank you.

1:19:36 Keahi Tajon: Well, it's a little bit unorthodox. It's not exactly the form you're used to, but for me, I had to do what was culturally appropriate. Because when you go and into somebody else's hale, you sit down and you pay attention, and you listen. And if you talk to them after, that's fine, because we're going to be here all day long. So now you guys know exactly what each and every one of us is kind of up to and what's going on inside our head. That helps us to cultivate a better relationship because now we're not going to spend time trying to do this back and forth, back and forth thing.

1:20:13 You guys know exactly what we're up to. Come out, check us out. For me, it's all about relationships. This whole thing is all about relationships. Relationships with my plants, relationships with all of these people on the board, relationships with all these people that I'm just going to meet and we're going to have all kinds of relationships. That's what it's all about. That's really the basis of everything we talk about is the relationships with Aloha. And hopefully we can leave off with that kind of thought. Mahalo all you guys for coming,

1:20:40 and I hope you guys got whatever you guys needed to get, and even more, we're going to be here. I'm not going anyplace. I've been here 31 years. I'm not going no place. So even if I don't see you today, come check me out at Komohana. Talk to Mike, however you got to get a hold of me. I just got business cards printed out, and I'm kind of excited about it. So if you like one, let me know. But up and rocking and rolling. So mahalo nui, kākou.