Environment
Testing The Waters
Tahiti and Hawaii Youth Start Environmental Dialogue
“You know,” the woman said as she looked across the lagoon, “the harbor at Pape‘ete was just like this when my grandmother was a little girl.” She slowly and carefully formed the words in English so they could understand. They did not understand. “Hmm, yes, our grandmother told us they would dive to the bottom and it was this color here, you could see clearly the bottom, you see?” Now they did understand, but they did not believe.
She continued to steer the motorboat, hand on the tiller, eyes scanning the shore beyond the crystal-clear, light blue water. “But I think it is not long before our lagoon here will be like the harbor is these days. All the new houses and buildings and dirt and rubbish. The coral is dying, the water is not so clean now.”
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Claude Carlson is a languid, beautiful French-Tahitian woman. She is also a retired school principal and member of a political independence movement. On this day she was trying to explain to a group of Hawaiian educators the changes in water quality that were already occurring in the main islands of French Polynesia.
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Last year, 10 high school students and a group of teachers and scientists from Hawaii traveled to Tahiti for an environmental and cultural exchange. The one-week trip was part of a year-long project called I Ola Na Kai, So The Oceans May Live. Its goal was to prepare teenagers to become environmental stewards for their communities back home in Hawaii.
The trip was sponsored by Kai Makana, an environmental nonprofit organization founded by outrigger paddling champion Donna Kahakui. Since 1997, the volunteer group has organized beach and stream cleanup projects to educate the public about the danger of marine debris to the health of ocean animals and humans alike. To focus the public’s attention on such problems, Kahakui has undertaken four solo, long-distance paddles since 1998. The grueling, epic feats of endurance have landed her in the Guinness Book of World Records.
The seed for the Tahiti trip sprouted two years earlier when Kahakui and Kai Makana volunteer Makanani Wong were in Tahiti to paddle in the Havaiki Nui six-man outrigger canoe race. To Kahakui and Wong, the stunning beauty of French Polynesia’s main islands was marred by only one thing: trash, mostly plastic. Just like home in Hawaii, but not as bad. Yet.
Consider Pape'ete. The long beach near the harbor serves as prime parking for outrigger canoes in the undisputed king of sports in Tahiti—canoe racing. Step onto the rocky, black sand beach and look down: empty water bottles, disposable plastic lighters, pieces of plastic rope and fishing line, plastic bags, scraps of rubber, chips of faded plastic in every color, shape and size.
Kahakui and Wong wondered: would the Tahitians be receptive to the kind of beach cleanups done throughout the Hawaiian Islands? Would Tahitian teens be interested in learning how to measure stream water for pollutants or in sharing cultural knowledge with Hawaiian high school students? Would the two sets of students spend a week learning astronomy, archaeology, hula, songs and exchanging Hawaiian and Tahitian language and culture? Kahakui and Wong started calling on their Tahitian friends.
Then they went to work in Hawaii. To prepare for such an undertaking, Kahakui and Wong reached out to communities on several islands. High school students were nominated by their families and schools. Those chosen trained for over six months prior to the trip with workshops and retreats covering water-quality testing, celestial navigation, archaeology, Hawaiian language, chant, hula and song. Generous sponsorship from several Hawaii companies helped pay for most of the costs of both the Tahiti trip and the year-long program.
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Two years later, near the harbor at Pape'ete, the Hawaiian students and their teachers sat down for breakfast to meet new friends—Tahitian students and their teachers—and prepare for a six-day, five-island whirlwind adventure. Their first assignment? Water-quality testing at a stream on the other side of Tahiti island: A technical session on precise chemical measurements taught by Hawaiian students in English to Tahitian students who spoke French. (In French Polynesian schools, Tahitian culture and language is taught, at most, once a week for an hour.) A week of challenges had just begun.
The next morning, students and teachers traveled by ferry to Mo'orea for activities on that island. The most important event was joining the Mayor of Mo'orea and various politicians and community leaders in greeting Kahakui as she completed a 2.5-hour solo paddle from Pape'ete. Hawaiian and Tahitian chants were offered as Kahakui and others made speeches and exchanged gifts. The ceremony noted the reverence both cultures share for the land and the ocean and their commitment to care for them. The event also marked what was planned as the first segment in a 200-mile solo paddle intended to bring attention to marine debris problems in both Tahiti and Hawaii. Ultimately, Kahakui would only paddle three of five segments due to weather and equipment problems.
The Hawaiian students quickly found themselves forming friendships with the Tahitians. Together, students, teachers and staff traveled to Raiatea, Huahine and Bora Bora to tour archaeological and cultural sites, clean up trash along beaches, swim with turtles and stingrays and learn celestial navigation at night. Each evening the Hawaiian students sent email messages back to their schools and families via satellite, with the help of equipment and staff provided by Bishop Museum.
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Nearly all the Hawaii students came from low-income families. Elijah Isaac of Waimanalo lived with his grandmother in a household of more than 20 people. Kahakui had to supply him with basic clothing—including two aloha shirts—just to make the trip. Elijah says the trip showed him “what Hawaii’s waters could still look like if they weren’t so polluted.”
Kahakui feels the trip was a success because of the students. “In one week, I think they grew years in their thoughts. They surpassed any kind of hope I had.” This is a considerable statement, since much was expected from the students. Besides having to teach complicated chemical water tests, students were to serve as cultural ambassadors, be representatives of their families and communities in Hawaii, and incorporate all that they would learn into projects to be carried out back home.
In February 2003, Kahakui will take a larger group of students, educators and crew to New Zealand for environmental projects, cultural exchange and long-distance paddles in and around Lake Taupo, Hamilton and Auckland.
