Celebrating Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

On Oct. 5, 1978, Congress passed a joint resolution signed by President Carter creating Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week, which stood until 1990 when Congress expanded the observance to one month. The name was changed to Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month by President Barack Obama in 2009, which was then updated by President Joe Biden to Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in 2021.

Today, we're celebrating the month by recognizing some of the incredible work being done by the accredited Hawai‘i Land Trust.

History of the 50th state

But first, some history.

The debate over when Hawai‘i was first settled is ongoing, but recent carbon dating evidence suggests the first Polynesian people arrived sometime between 940 and 1130 AD. The first contact with Europeans is also a bit unclear — the first documented contact with a European explorer is with the British captain James Cook, who undertook three exploratory voyages across the Pacific between 1768 and 1779. The door, however, has been left open to the possibility that Spanish trading ships happened across the islands decades or even centuries earlier, as this KHON-Honolulu article notes.

It should be noted that James Cook is a controversial figure in the state’s history — check out this CBS News piece for more on his legacy.

The Kingdom of Hawai‘i was founded in 1795 by Kamehameha I, who gradually extended his kingdom outward from the Big Island, with the unification of all islands occurring in 1810 with the assistance of Great Britain. The Kingdom of Hawai‘i remained until its overthrow in 1893, and the islands were officially annexed by the United States in 1898. To this day, King Kamehameha I Day is a public holiday in Hawai‘i celebrated on June 11.

You can learn more about the history of Hawai‘i through Hawai‘i Land Trust’s Ka Moʻolelo o Waiheʻe blog series.

Today, Hawai‘i is America’s youngest state, admitted to the union on Aug. 21, 1959, with Hawai‘i residents overwhelmingly voting for statehood — close to 94% voted in support.

Hawai‘i is unique as the only state not on the mainland of North America, the only state that is an archipelago and the only state located in the tropics. While Hawai‘i ranks 40th in population and 47th in land area, it ranks 14th in population density. Adding to its uniqueness: While Hawai‘i is one of seven majority-minority states in the country — California, Georgia, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas are the others — it is the only state with an Asian American plurality.

Celebrating private land conservation in Hawai’i

Today, several land trusts are working in Hawai’i to preserve its land and culture, but only two are based in the state itself: the accredited Hawai‘i Land Trust, based in Honolulu, and Moku O Keawe Land Conservancy, based in Kailua Kona.

Hawai‘i Land Trust was founded in January 2011 through a merger of four island land trusts: Maui Coastal Land Trust, Kauaʻi Public Land Trust, Hawaiʻi Island Land Trust and Oʻahu Land Trust. Through its work since 2011 as well as the collective efforts of its predecessors, Hawai‘i Land Trust has protected more than 22,000 acres of the state's most precious lands and biocultural resources. It describes its role as taking “a uniquely Hawaiian and holistic approach to land conservation. We conserve lands that enable Hawaiʻi's long-term well-being, prioritizing the protection of coastlines, wahi kupuna (Hawaiian cultural landscapes), and lands that grow healthy food for Hawai‘i's people.”

Current projects include a partnership with Marine Corps Base Hawai‘i to protect the adjacent Waikalua fishponds complex via a perpetual conservation easement. Funding comes from the Department of Defense’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Program — or REPI — and additional partners include the Pacific American Foundation and the city and county of Honolulu. The land trust described them as “the last two remaining ancient fishponds in the Kāne‘ohe ahupua‘a.”

“There used to be about 40 different fishponds in Kāne‘ohe Bay,” said Leah Rothbaum, environmental protection and REPI specialist at Marine Corps Base Hawai‘i, in an interview with Hawaii Business Magazine. “These stone structures were an ingenious use of natural systems such as tides and currents. They were often filled in and built over during development, and so much culture and understanding of climate resilience and coastal change were lost. Yet after 800 years, some remain and are being carefully stewarded, and are neighbors to the Marine base.”

Land trust projects include agricultural conservation as well. Hawai‘i Land Trust recently partnered with Island Harvest — a business dedicated to sustainable farming practices — to protect 28 acres of food-producing lands in the Kohala community on the Big Island.

"We are thrilled to finalize the protection of these farmlands with values-aligned landowner stewards like Island Harvest," Lu'ukia Nakanelua, manager of ʻāina (land) protection at Hawai‘i Land Trust, told Big Island Now.

The conservation project was funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service Agricultural Conservation Easement Program.

Protecting island culture and history is also important to Hawai‘i Land Trust, and the organization’s work there includes the permanent protection of a 642-acre stretch of land on the Kohala Coast of Hawai‘i Island of “immense cultural, historical, and environmental significance.” From KHON-Honolulu:

Mahukona is more than just a piece of land; it is a living cultural landscape. For centuries, this area has been a vital training ground for traditional Hawaiian navigators. The land includes Koʻa Heiau Holomoana, an ancient site of worship revered by navigators from across the Pacific.

This heiau (place of worship) is located on the bluffs of Kamanō Bay and has been central to the practice of traditional navigation, offering ideal conditions for training due to its dynamic winds and currents.

Today, Mahukona continues to serve as a hub for teaching and practicing these ancient skills.

The land is also home to hundreds of ancient cultural sites, including villages, shrines and ancient trails.