All around us, people are saving historic places. Whether they are community activists, grassroots advocates, architects, or formally trained preservationists, they each bring with them a passion for the past and a drive to protect the cultural heritage all around us. During Women’s History Month—and as part of our campaign for Where Women Made History—we are interviewing five women who illustrate the many ways we can protect historic spaces. In this interview we hear from Kelley Lehuakeaopuna Uyeoka, a cultural heritage preservationist working to save cultural spaces in Hawaiʻi.

Kelley Lehuakeaopuna Uyeoka is the founder and executive director of Huliauapaʻa, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to grow Hawaiʻi’s communities through culturally based forms of innovative learning, leadership development, and collaborative networking.

A cultural heritage preservationist and archaeologist by training, Uyeoka looks to collective action and a focus on developing the next generation of stewards to build community capacity and give Native Hawaiians a role in protecting their own heritage.

Listen to Kelley Uyeoka describe, in her own words, her work to protect the heritage of Native Hawaiians.

In Her Own Words

Aloha nui kākou (Greetings all)
'O wau o Kelley Lehuakeaopuna Uyeoka (I am Kelley Lehuakeaopuna Uyeoka)
‘O Moaninuiākea koʻu moana (My ocean is Moananuiākea)
‘O Honuaiākea koʻu wa’a (My canoe is Honuaiākea)
'O Lononuiākea koʻu mokupuni (My island is Lononuiākea)
'O Mauna-a-Wākea koʻu mauna (My mountain is Mauna-a-Wākea)
'O Hakalau koʻu awa (My river is Hakalau)
‘O Kīlauea koʻu piko (My spiritual center is Kīlauea)
'O Puhi a me Pohina ko'u mau 'ohana (My family names are Puhi and Pohina)

Nohopapa Hawaiʻi is our social enterprise that has embarked into the cultural resource management industry to integrate Indigenous methodologies and advocate for higher standards of professional services

And the Kaliʻuokapaʻakai Collective is our cross-sector community of practice made up of individuals and agencies that have organized together to advocate for best management practices, and community-led stewardship of our cultural heritage.

So, while cultural resource management has historically held the decision-making authority over Hawaiʻi’s sacred sites, through these Indigenous-led efforts there has been a concerted effort to build a system that empowers community-led stewardship.

This Wahi Kūpuna Stewardship paradigm promotes culturally-grounded and meaningful preservation practices, and increases the opportunities and abilities of Native Hawaiians to revitalize relationships with their ancestral sites through direct management of policy, resources, and practices. This approach also acknowledges that the cultural and environmental health of a place and its people are interconnected, valued, and worthy of protection.

In Hawai‘i specifically, thereʻs been an ongoing crisis in historic preservation that has been left unaddressed for decades. Despite having an incredibly rich landscape full of important historical places, cultural heritage here has been destroyed at an alarming rate. Economic development has driven land transformation in our islands with little concern about the memory of our past and aspects of our cultural identity that is being lost.

The erosion and loss of our cultural heritage, and the lifeways that are connected to these resources has not received the level of attention needed. Historic preservation laws and regulations exist, but state and federal governments do not consistently uphold these laws, or professional standards and best practices, and have often failed to manage information and heritage responsibly.

These problems are systemic and have many layers, but a core issue is the limited role and power of Native Hawaiians to make decisions on how our cultural heritage is protected, cared for, preserved, and restored.

Who better to be the stewards of our cultural heritage than the people that are genealogically connected to these places? They are the ones that intimately know the language, traditions, stories, chants, and functions of these places, sites, and materials.

What brings me hope is our future generations. Through our training programs, such as our Wahi Kupuna Internship Program, we strive to develop leaders and advocates in Hawaiʻi’s Cultural Heritage Management field by training Hawaiian and local students and emerging professionals in both the cultural and technical aspects of historic preservation, so they have a strong cultural foundation, can elevate their roles and responsibilities to our lands and communities, obtain higher education degrees, and gain practical professional skillsets.

The internship takes on a progressive and holistic teaching and mentoring approach that creates an authentic experience for students outside of the classroom, on the land, and in their communities.

The skillsets the students obtain through participating in our internships are ultimately aimed at re-connecting them to the land and the places of their ancestors and instilling a sense of pride and responsibility to properly caring for these places, as a foundation of their Native Hawaiian identity.