Hawai‘i-Futures Earth Model:
Moku System Framework for Ahupua‘a Recovery

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CONTENTS

I. Introduction

II. Logic and Organization

III. Recovery Parameters

IV. Parameter Outcomes

V. Conclusion

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Knowledge of our past culture is a precious source of  inspiration for living out the present. Albert Wendt, in Towards a New Oceania

O kau aku, o ka ia la mai, pelā ka nohona o ka ‘ohana “From you and from him--so lived the family.” The farmer gave to the fisherman, the fisherman to the farmer.
‘Ōlelo No‘eau, No. 2441

I.

Introduction

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The Moku Systems Framework for Ahupua‘a Recovery is an open-source conceptual model that envisions an ocean-earth-island-cosmos systems recovery program to transform the degradation of Hawai‘i’s contemporary built environment into wellbeing and sustenance using Native concepts. The American-style zoning currently implemented in Hawai‘i fails to foster a healthy biocultural relationship between people and environment, and instead perpetuates the agromilitourization of the Hawaiian Islands by the United States. proposes replacing American zoning paradigms imposed since 1898 with indigenous knowledge, and prioritizes the unique realities of Hawai‘i in service of wellbeing and culture.

Source

The Hawaiian word 'moku', as a verb, means to cut and divide, while as a noun, denotes both an island and a district that organizes the island into tangible land divisions called ahupua‘a. While there are always variations to the rule that correspond with profoundly ecological, political, or phenomenological circumstances, ahupua'a are generally encompassing spaces between the mountains and the sea, including the sky and reef. Moku and ahupua‘a are examples of indigenous built environments that foregrounds a culture of ceremondy and care to safeguard resources like land, water, food, materials, family, and daily life.

Hawai‘i-Futures presents an applied theory of ahupua‘a that centers the concept of “ahupua‘a recovery,” a term coined for Hawai‘i-Futures to encapsulate the “process and ecology of reclaiming lost, stolen, erased, corrupted, or destroyed land, water, and other island resources.” This strategic approach to reclaim Āina (that which feeds) emphasizes climate resilience, demilitarization, and social justice as viable strategies to transform the built environment into a source wellbeing. Despite ongoing debates on the contemporary relevance of moku and ahupua‘a concepts, Hawai‘i-Futures asserts their value. Seen through the lens of design thinking and information science, ahupua‘a can be understood as data visualization and navigation tools. Furthermore, the ahupua‘a’s continuing significance is largely due to Hawaiian female scholars’ efforts, framing it as a feminist construct, the survivance of which has become a beacon for revolution, civil and human rights, justice, sustainability, familiy, joy, and love.

Vision

Hawai‘i-Futures summons the habits of mind in which the cycles and surfaces of wai (water) organize the physical and emotional processes that craft city life. It advocates for an ecological revolution—driven by infrastructural adaptations that advance biocultural regeneration and demilitarization—supporting a future where the built environment pulses in harmony with the rhythms of the land, sea, and sky. This aims to secure wellbeing and the enduring vitality of life and culture in the Pacific. In Hawai‘i's future, a revitalized built environment will shepherd global communities towards paths of sustainable and equitable development. A future where seismic shifts towards the recovery of Indigenous systems of sustenance fortify cultural practices, food sovereignty, homebuilding, and land justice.

Methodology

Hawai‘i-Futures unites perspectives from diverse fields like art, architecture, infrastructure, and regional planning to stimulate a built environment transformation. The Moku Systems Recovery Framework employs a digital platform of animated cartographies that simulate a holographic comprehension of the built environment, integrating geological, ecological, and biocultural dimensions responsive to the distinctive cultural experience of life on volcanic islands, in Hawai‘i Nei. The dynamic graphics bridges modern planning and traditional ecological wisdom to communicate parameters for recovering ahupua‘a with a moku systems approach.

Intent

Hawai‘i-Futures reveres the wisdom of the ahupua‘a, the moku, and the wider Indigenous knowledge systems, advocating for their relevance and compatibility to sculpt a world that is deeply rooted in tradition yet gazes resolutely into the past while moving towards the future. Embarking on this transformative journey together, we initiate the reimagining and reshaping of our relationships with the land, with each other, and with the myriad forms of life that inhabit our shared world. Hawai‘i-Futures transcends speculative exercise; it is a clarion call to action—a call to cultivate a future that is not only just and regenerative but vibrantly teeming with culture and life.