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Ryse Kahikuonalani Akiu
Birthplace/Hometown:
Pauoa, Kona, Oʻahu
High School:
Kamehameha Schools Kapālama
UHM Degrees:
BA Philosophy (2019)
MA Philosophy (2022)
PhD Political Science (currently pursuing)
Current Occupation:
Educational Specialist, Ka Papa Loʻi ʻo Kānewai
What inspired/inspires the path for your academic major?
Like a stream, my sources are many. Like the varied sources and punawai which give life to ʻāina, all aspects of my life influence my thinking and being and those sources help to give structure to my understanding. As a keiki, sports taught me many lessons – I come from a family of athletes. I also was interested in art and drawing. As I grew older, much of my life was dedicated to music and drumming. Then, it became philosophy. And then I encountered Kānewai. All these things built upon each other, mutually informing and evolving. But I understand that my journey is part of a longer moʻokūʻauhau – extending from my kūpuna who gave me the iwi in my body – to ʻāina that structure the iwi of reality. These sources reside in the dense uplands, extending up toward the stars, and down toward the sea depths and at the core of the earth. I could not walk without those who walked before me; I mahalo all those who helped create and clear the paths and possibilities – to Kaʻimi and to the many forms of wai that nurture and continually branch. All these things inspire.
What are your goals in your work?
A goal of my work is to constantly make connections. My experience has taught me that the academy seeks to divide – to make more and more categories of things – to be more and more definitive, more correct, more right. That was my engagement with Philosophy as a discipline. However, spending time in ʻāina has allowed my thinking to expand and make connections. To understand that what we experience is not only a product of many types of genealogies but is vast and many-layered – it is important to acknowledge all sources of knowledge. The lyrics of Steel Pulse are just as important as what was written in the academic book. The security guard aunty at Mānoa shopping center has manaʻo just as important as the professor eating lunch. The academy exists because of what is not the academy.
How do you see your time at UH shaping the way you aloha ʻāina?
One of the most influential moments that has helped to shape my path is my time at Kānewai. I am grateful for all those kūpuna and kānaka who have helped to make Kānewai what it is and am grateful for the opportunity to mālama Kānewai right now. The best way to engage with Kānewai is he alo a he alo.
What does UHM being truly reflective of Hawaiʻi mean to you?
It means having a different kind of awareness of and relationship with the things that give life, especially our island resources because we live on an island. We know the rain cycle is a cycle, what is upstream affects downstream; what happens downstream affects upstream. It also means understanding a future where it is possible to rejuvenate your own soil with the things of your own place, rather than needing to go elsewhere and take someone else’s stuff. We use hau and kukui to fertilize our loʻi as was taught to us and like it shows in our moʻolelo – the ʻāina takes care of the rest. The ʻāina is just as much an active participant in the process of growing kalo as the mahiʻai.
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