The Importance of the 'Aina' (Hawa'iian Indigenous Natural Farming)

The Importance of the Aina

Aina is the Hawaiian word for land, but it really means 'that which feeds us.' This isn't simply at a material level, though it includes the material. This begins with food, food production, yet what feeds us is immaterial as well as material. What we are talking about is spiritual and cultural as well.

This beautiful interview, from our partners at the Haiku Aina Permaculture Institute, featuring Alika Atay, interviewed by Jeffrey Bronfman, delves deeply into the Hawaiian cultural, spiritual, and agricultural practices of connecting to the Aina.

The Hawaiian islands are some of the youngest lands on earth. Formed by volcanic activity exploding from the Pacific Ocean a mere 5 million years ago, they are a constant ferment of life and brightly Sacred.

Ancestrally, the Hawaiian islands fed an indigenous population of hundreds of thousands with the resources of the islands. The Hawaiian ancestral agricultural system, which is always deeply cultural and spiritual, evolved from a deep and specific relationship with the land, its specific plants–taro, sweet potato, mango, guava, and marine life–the fish. This is a deep insight into the Indigenous Hawaiian view of the relationship between spirituality and farming, or said slightly differently, between place and sustenance.