Day 7 Sacred Reading: Reverberations

Source:

Ah Nee-Benham, M. (2016). From the Dean. In K. R. Oliveira & E. K. Wright (Eds.), Kanaka ʻōiwi methodologies (pp. vii-viii). Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.

What is Sacred:

This is a two-page introduction to a book I am reading every day until I am done, but I am reading this because Maenette Ah Nee-Benham's name keeps coming up this month in different conversations so I am following some of her writing and she is currently the dean for Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge at Mānoa, but there are rumors that she is on a short list for something closer to me. I last wrote about her on Day 4, again just an introduction. I hope I am not following a pattern here.

the authors contributing to this book have intentionally engaged in learning, exploring, and teaching through stories. This very courageous act of framing and articulating knowledge regenerates ritual (knowledge and wisdom of ceremony), responsibility (role and obligation), and reciprocity (the vibrant action of indigenous education that sustains legacy).

Kanaka ʻōiwi methodologies: moʻolelo and metaphor speaks to the importance of moʻokūʻauhau as the grounding force of our ontological pathways to the power of moʻolelo as the source of spiritual wisdom, and to the leo of our kūpuna that calls us to action.

Connection to current/future work:

I am not trying to be unique in my thinking. This is not a competition for individual knowledge, or at least I think it is not. What I want is to be true to what reverberates within me, and it is so nice to find that others are reverberating to the same frequency. The last block quote reverberates with my own dissertation, "the importance of moʻokūʻauhau (genealogy) as the grounding force of our ontological pathways to the power of moʻolelo (lineage of stories) as the source of spiritual wisdom, and to the leo (voice) of our kūpuna (elders) that calls us to action (conscientization)." ʻAmene, ʻamene, ʻamene.

I also love the phrase "courageous act of framing," and I continue to look for a space to share my moʻo dissertation frame, not as an answer to the 5-chapter dissertation but more as a dialogue starter for more Hawaiian authentic dissertations frames. This kind of work takes courage to face scrutiny and judgment, but I need to keep trying and realize that I keep working in order to regenerate ritual, live my kuleana (obligation) and reciprocity as the only way to make this work sustainable beyond us.

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