Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 27, Number 12, 1 December 2010 — ANCESTORS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ANCESTORS

[?]

[?]

As Hawaiians, mueh of our culture is eonnected to the land. "You have to have spaces where you ean walk with your ancestors. Where you take the lessons that they learned and do the exact same work that they did, to understand their technologies of sustainability, whieh are what the world is looking for now." This is something that farmer Kamuela J.N. Enos lives and breathes as he works the land and helps the next generation of leaders grow at MA'O Organic Farms in Wai'anae. "When you grow organically you have to grow with the mindset that the ancestors had," said Enos, the farms' Youth Worker/Community Organizer. "You have to know the heahh of your soil, the winds and the rain, the whole ecology around your farm. That kind of awareness of your landscape is the root of the words aloha 'āina." Walking through the farm, surrounded by vibrant rows of fragrant herbs and mouth-watering salad greens, Enos discussed leadership as practiced by MA'O, whieh stands for Mala 'ai 'opio, (youth gardening food). "We believe 21st century leaders for the Hawaiian community need to be able to grow their own food the way the ancestors did with the kuleana to the land and eaeh other," he said. "They also need to be fluent and eloquent in the Westem world." Combining a college education with the ability to grow food, Enos calls the farms' program "Pracademics" - ealluses on your hands with academics. The ability to guide people of our ahupua'a to self-sufficiency, he said. "That is what we want to see in leaders." A young leader himself, the 37-year-old Wai'anae resident sits on the board of the Hawai'i Rural Development Council, a nonprofit organization committed to promoting and supporting the rural-based eeonomie welfare of the State of Hawai'i. Its Chairman, Alan Murakami, nominated Enos to the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Paeille Islanders (AAPI). "I got this eall from the White House, (and I thought) wow, this is big," Enos recalled. President Barack Ohama appointed Enos a Commissioner on the AAPI. Now he is bringing a voice for Native Hawaiians to Washington, D.C., serving along side his fellow Commissioners, including Sefa Aina, Director of the Asian American Resource Center at Pomona College in California; Debra Cabrera, a social science faculty member at St. John's School in

Tumon, Guam; and Hines Ward of the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers. "Our nation will be well-served by the skill and dedication these men and women bring to their new roles. I look forward to work-

ing with them in the months and years ahead," Ohama said in a White House press release in September. The AAPI Advisory Commission

serves by increasing access to and participation in federal programs in whieh the

AAPI remain underserved. "I have the opportunity to bring awareness to the general puhlie. We are a community of great assets, and there are wonderful things we are doing," Enos said. "Yes, we have deficits and challenges that we have to face, but the best way to face challenges is with our assets." As a model, the MA'O Farms social-economic education project could work in other places. The farm is essentially run by the young adults in MA'0's Youth Leadership Training (YLT) program, made up of 17- to 24-year-olds who live on the coast, have graduated high school and are interested in going to college. This program is unique not only in the state, but the nation. Candidates participate in an agricultural boot eamp for the summer, to see if it is really something they would like to do. Up before the sun, they work on the farm until noon every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and on some Saturdays at the farmer's market. If they survive boot eamp and choose to continue, it's a 2 !4year commitment. In exchange for that sweat equity, the farm provides them a full tuition waiver to Leeward Community College and a $500 a month stipend. After a year, they are also eligible for an individual development account (IDA), a savings account that MA'O matches 2 to 1, with the understanding that the matched money, up to $2,000, ean only be used for education. Currently, 30 Wai'anae residents are in this post-high school/work program, many of whom are first-generation college students. At MA'O, they learn to run a business and are taught specifically how to run the farm. Every step, from preparing the fields to creating the beds, installing the irrigation, planting, weeding, nurturing the crops, harvesting, wash-

ing, taking orders from the restaurants, packing and delivering. Like a welloiled maehine, the farm engine is growing food and young educated entrepreneurs with hands-on . 5xperience.

"To live within your eeological bounds, you have to be

accountable and responsible," said Enos, who holds a bachelor's degree

in Hawaiian Studies and a master's in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. "If they fail a class they have to pay for us back for it. We have educators on staff to provide guidance and help students succeed." Enos said: "We are the largest organic farm on O'ahu. Projected to do about $500,000 in sales this year." Expanding during this recession, they hope to double their sales two years from now. Some of the top restaurants in the nation like Alan Wong's, Chef Mavro, Nobu Restaurant, Roy's, and Hawai-ian-owned Town and Downtown receive their produce from MA'O Farms. Onee a semester MA'O visits one of these restaurants. "They'll eook the interns eight-course meals using the produce we farm. The interns are able to see what their product looks like on a plate," said Enos. "They've learned if you have good produce, you don't cover it up, you highlight it. They know their produce ean be on plates that cost up to $60." It instills in the intems a sense of pride, and they know that this is mueh more than a farm. It is a vehicle for them to develop the skills to heeome leaders and to change the community. "That is our model and it is embedded in the name YLT, Youth Leadership Training." "We want them to recognize their kuleana to themselves, and understand why it is important to work hard and make the sacrifices they need to make now for their future," Enos explained. "Then we teach them their kuleana to their families and their community. They have to be a voice for their community and work on behalf of their community. "My vision is to see the universal good in all people and find ways that we ean mutually thrive." ■

m Follow us: twitter.com/oha_hawaii | E Fan us: "Office of Hawaiian Affairs"

tiative on liian Con"a formi-