Transforming Fisheries through ʻĀina Momona

ʻĀina Momona Research Framework

Building on more than 16 years of focused work in ʻāina and community, Nā Maka Onaona developed the ʻĀina Momona Research Framework to center abundance, production, and thriving as both the goal and the lens of inquiry. This approach grounds research in understanding the productive potential of specific places, asking not only what exists, but what an ʻāina can sustain. Through this framework, we have developed, tested, and continue to refine an ʻŌiwi management plan that fosters productivity by aligning stewardship with the ecological and cultural potential of our ʻopihi fisheries.

Intertidal Fisheries and Community-Based Monitoring of Coastal Ecosystems

Investigating the seasonal ecology, reproductive dynamics, and productivity of intertidal systems to inform adaptive, place-based management

Applications of ʻĀina Momona Research Framework

Supporting ʻŌiwi-centered research through ʻĀina Momona into community-driven management strategies, including rotational harvest systems, monitoring frameworks, and policy development

ʻŌiwi-Centered Fisheries Co-Management

Supporting ʻŌiwi communities in models of governance that weave ʻŌiwi science inclusive of knowledge systems, values, practices, and familial relationships to the ocean with tools of western science to support ʻĀina Momona fisheries co-management

Cultivating ethical, equitable, and reciprocal partnerships with ʻŌiwi communities

Centering pilina, trust, and reciprocity in research, with accountability to communities

Managing Biocultural Seascapes Through Ancestral Relationships

My experiences come from working alongside our ʻŌiwi communities in Hawaiʻi conducting community-based coastal research to managing the Native Hawaiian Program for NOAA Papahānaumokuākea. There are many lessons to learn from what meaningful inclusion and visioning of ocean protection led by ʻŌiwi communities should look like in every aspect of research, policy, management, and education embedded in local-scale to large-scale ocean protection.

Papahānaumokuākea is a UNESCO Mixed Natural and Cultural World Heritage Site and Marine National Monument, and one of the world’s largest marine protected areas. But what sets it apart is that it is not just a conservation zone. It is a biocultural seascape governed through Kānaka ʻŌiwi knowledge systems, values, and practices demonstrated in Mai Ka Pō Mai. For more than 20 years, the Papahānaumokuākea Native Hawaiian Cultural Working Group (CWG) is composed of Native Hawaiians who have deep connections and historical ties to Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Marine Monument through a living pilina (relationship) bound by genealogy, cultural protocol, research, and stewardship.

Papahānaumokuāskea is a world-class model of biocultural governance built through meaningful engagement with Native Hawaiian experts, leaders, and communities as part of its foundation and structure. It challenges dominant Western narratives about Indigenous co-management through demonstrating that marine protected areas are not passive reserves, but places where ancestors remind us of our kuleana to protect, learn from, and perpetuate ancestral practices that define protection and access in Papahānaumokuākea. The moʻokūʻauhau (genealogy) of Papahānaumokuākea reflects a deep kuleana many people have felt to care for this ʻāina akua (realm of the gods) through long-standing co-management partnerships among the State of Hawaiʻi, NOAA Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Sanctuary, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and NOAA Fisheries.

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