Welcome to the PAA Blog

Papahānaumokuākea 'Ahahui Alaka'i (PAA) is a ten-day experiential leadership program that brings together teachers, business people, policy-makers as well as potential community leaders interested in learning and being inspired by science and traditional knowledge management practices. Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument encompasses roughly 140,000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean, an area larger than all the country's national parks combined. The area around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands is an important safe haven for wildlife such as the threatened green turtle and the endangered Hawaiian monk seal. ‘Ahahui refers to society, club or association. Alaka’i is Hawaiian for ambassador or leader. The Hawaiian word /acronym PAA means steadfast, learned, determined, strong, to hold, keep, retain.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

PAA 2010 Reflections





Reflection #5
by Norbert Larsen

Pihemanu—sounds of birds, loud sounds of birds, coming from all around you. Everywhere you look there are birds! Not the fleeting flight of an `i`iwi across the canopy of an `ohi`a forest, nor the magical congregation of `apapane lighting upon lehua blossoms. Here are seabirds! Thousands upon thousands of seabirds! Nesting, fledgling, feeding, flying seabirds…everywhere…in the sand, in the grass, in the trees, soaring over the still blue water, sitting on eggs, dominating the sky hundreds of feet above, diving, clacking, gasping, waiting…. So many seabirds you can’t imagine it!


The color blue—surrounded by all shades of blue, coming from all around you. Everywhere you look there is blue. Blue reflected off a lagoon…shallows…coralline sand…onto the floating white clouds above. A blue sought by Polynesian voyagers heading for landfall. A tropical blue…uninterrupted by mountains green. This is a blue you have not seen…a blue that seeps under the pores of you your skin…seeps beneath your eyelids…sings a new song. Seeping still beneath your skin.


It has been about one month since I returned to O`ahu from our trip to Pihemanu. The images of that place are like a transparency overlay on my familiar landscape here at home, and at first I was completely astounded by the new way in which everything appeared. With the passing of time, this new dimension has woven itself comfortably, easily, naturally into the scenery I wake to every morning, and I’m newly aware how the environment in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands is our environment here. Pihemanu seems so far away, and it is, but we are just as isolated here in the middle of our Pacific Ocean, and nature rules above the bustle of the city.


A monk seal sleeps at the beach where I spend the afternoon, white fairy terns flitter in the trees at the park, puffy white clouds move gracefully across the mountains and out to sea, the shades of blue surrounding O`ahu are no less surprising, my swims in the ocean are in the same waters that surround Pihemanu.


It doesn’t take much for me to see thousands of seabirds flying through the ahupua`a of Waikiki…surely a sight that once graced this land…or huge ulua, and turtles and scores of reef fish gracing the offshore reefs. So much of nature has literally vanished from this landscape…for real…but the possibility of restoring nature exists for me now…where my hope has waned over the years, and I’ve tended to become more cynical and pessimistic about our future…this has changed…having spent time with an awe-inspiring group of individuals committed to making a difference in our communities has reinvigorated me and given me a “souped-up” sense of optimism!


Kuleana takes on a whole new meaning now…another layer unfolds. I molt like the monk seals. I shed my downy feathers like the fledgling moli. I grow from being an awkward juvenile into being a more graceful adult…soaring over the sea…being pono…doing what is right by nature. As the 2010-2011 school year quickly approaches, my mind is dominated by this new sense of mission that Papahanaumokuakea `Ahahui Alaka`i has given me. As daunting as this responsibility seems, I don’t feel alone. I know that there is a large community of people who “have my back”, and I feel very grateful and humbled to be in this position.


Mahalo na akua, and mahalo to all the amazing people who cleared this path before us, and to the beautiful friends with whom I shared such a unique experience on Pihemanu. Imua!