Day 12: The Place for Song in Methodology

Source:
Lopes, R.K. (2016). Ua noho au a kupa i ke alo. In Oliveira, K. & Wright, E. (Eds.), Kanaka ʻōiwi methodologies: Moʻolelo and metaphor (30-41). Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

What is Sacred:
This article is exactly why we need spaces within our university to have dialogue around and define in a very broad, layered, nuanced sense what we see as waiwai, valued, and how we can take away the lessons of our ancestors, ʻike kūpuna and create methodologies and frames for ourselves. Each of us are "heard," in small circles, but how can we create those spaces where we can dialogue together in order to be thought agents in the world of research and philosophy, venturing outside of ourselves to be the change?

In short, this article is about taking the lyrics for the "Kaniakapupu Song," more commonly known as "Ua Noho Au a Kupa i Ke Alo" and melding it with the author's moʻolelo about his mentor Uncle Kimo to create a definition of Hawaiian methodology or how we should be doing research.

Connections to Current/Future Work:
Some of the methodology I used from the ʻŌlelo Noʻeau is similar, which just shows me why we need to continue to dialogue not to standardize our thinking but to honor that which reverberates as truth in many different contexts.

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