Extension and Outreach
E lawe i ke ao a malama a e oi mau ka naauao
“Apply our knowledges and our wisdom will increase”
Who does our research serve? Whose knowledges are elevated in our work? I aim to conduct research that bridges multiple knowledge systems and incorporates a justice-centered approach to research and scholarship. I seek to go beyond co-production to promote community-driven research from inception through application. My ultimate goal is to hold research accountable to Indigenous peoples and ensure that the projects done in Indigenous lands and with Indigenous communities uphold Indigenous sovereignty.
My previous work in extension resulted primarily from my role as a graduate fellow with the Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program’s Ulana ʻIke Center of Excellence, beginning in 2021. I remained in this role during the latter part of my graduate studies until my appointment as a Postdoctoral Fellow with the center in 2023, under the mentorship of Rosie Alegado. For more information on Ulana ʻIke, please see our Center’s website and ʻAha ʻIke Pāpālua Report.
Select extension projects are listed below. For a more detailed view, please see my CV.
Featured Projects
Photo top: Workday at Heʻeia Fishpond, Heʻeia, Koʻolaupoko, Oʻahu. Photo by Brenda Asuncion Lima (Kuaʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo and Hui Mālama Loko Iʻa).
Photo bottom: Workday at Waialeʻe, Koʻolauloa, Oʻahu. Photo by Greg Kahanamoku-Meyer.
Indigenous-led Climate Adaptation
Supporting Indigenous communities and local stewards in adapting and restoring Pacific Islands coastal ecosystems. To date, I have helped to fundraise $69 million for projects focused on community-led research, ʻāina (land, ocean resources) restoration, and the development of collaborative networks spanning local, state, and federal levels to enhance community governance of key systems in the Hawaiian archipelago.
Ongoing Funding:
NOAA-OCM (Climate Resilience Regional Challenge): ʻĀina restoration through community governance to advance climate resilience in the Hawaiian islands. PI: Darren Lerner (Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program); Co-Is: Sara Kahanamoku-Meyer, Katy Hintzen, Bradley Romine, Maya Walton (Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program); Kevin Chang, Brenda Asuncion Lima (Kuaʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo); Laura Kaʻakua (Hawaiʻi State Department of Transportation); Brian Neilson, E. Lunaliloʻonalani Kekoa (Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources - Division of Aquatic Resources).
Project activities center on five moku (socioecological zones), one on each of the islands of Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Maui and Hawaiʻi. Building on the foundational activities found in these five moku, the project will support regional knowledge sharing, Native Hawaiian stewardship and cultural practices, collective action, transferable strategies for resource stewardship and climate change adaptation.
Past Funding:
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Provost Strategic Investment Fund: “Hoʻola Lako Pono: Restoring Holistic Abundance at Waialeʻe, Oʻahu.” PI: Rosie Alegado (HISG), Senior Personnel: Sara Kahanamoku-Meyer, Katy Hintzen (HISG), N. Kawelakai Farrant (HISG, North Shore Community Land Trust); Davianna Pōmaikaʻi McGregor, Ty Kāwika Tengan (UHM Ethnic Studies, Center for Oral History); Oceana Francis, Roger Chen (UHM Civil and Environmental Engineering); Wendy Meguro, Bundit Kanisthakhon (UHM Architecture); Noelani Puniwai (UHM Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge); Alex Mawyer (UHM Center for Pacific Island Studies); Melissa Price (UHM Natural Resources and Environmental Management).
Funding Equity
Supporting Indigenous communities and local stewards in adapting and restoring Pacific Islands coastal ecosystems. To date, I have helped to fundraise $69 million for projects focused on community-led research, ʻāina (land, ocean resources) restoration, and the development of collaborative networks spanning local, state, and federal levels to enhance community governance of key systems in the Hawaiian archipelago.
Ongoing Funding:
NOAA-OAR-SG: “Enhancing equity in Sea Grant funding opportunities through community-driven requests for proposals.” PI: Shauna Oh, California Sea Grant; Co-Is: Sara Kahanamoku-Meyer, Katy Hintzen, Maya Walton, Beth Lenz (HISG); Lian Guo (CASG).
Kūlana Noiʻi
A guidance document that provides best practices and guiding questions for reciprocal community-researcher partnerships. The Kūlana Noiʻi were initially created because local kiaʻi (place-based stewards) expressed a need for a set of guidelines to help ensure that the many research projects focused in Heʻeia engage in equitable and reciprocal partnerships with those connected to and caring for the ahupuaʻa. In response to this need, a partnership was formed between the University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant College Program, Kuaʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo (KUA), the Hawaiian Islands Sentinel Site Cooperative, and the He‘eia National Estuarine Research Reserve, among others. This guidance document has to date been institutionalized as a Sea Grant best practice and was cited in the CEQ-OSTP Guidance on Indigenous Knowledge.
Publications: Kulana Noiʻi Working Group (2021)
Indigenous Data Sovereignty
As part of ongoing projects with the Ulana ʻIke Center of Excellence, two recent webinars—entitled Sciences and the Sacred and Who Bears the Burden of Broader impacts—explored how ʻŌiwi relate to conventional (“Western”) scientific research processes and offered suggestions for ways to expand beyond these traditionally rigid boundaries.
Sciences and the Sacred was co-organized with Dr. Rosie Alegado and Katy Hintzen. Topics covered included Indigenous data and data sovereignty, personal health information, creative arts, and practices around stewarding knowledge in Hawaiʻi.
Who Bears the Burden of Broader Impacts was co-organized with Dr. Diamond Tachera and Katy Hintzen. This webinar centered a discussion around the ways Indigenous people experience disproportionate impacts in the process of meeting “actionable” research goals, and provided suggestions for reimagining the process of community-based research.
Webinars: Sciences and the Sacred (Ulana ʻIke Center of Excellence), Who Bears the Burden of Broader Impacts? (Ulana ʻIke Center of Excellence, Sea Grant Traditional and Local Knowledge Community of Practice)
Addressing inequities in research with communities
Ongoing projects with Hawaiʻi Sea Grant seek to assess barriers to funding equity and design new initiatives to improve equity in the grant award process. Most recently part of a team awarded a grant to assess community-based research practices across Sea Grant programs. Part of includes an upcoming workshop co-designed with Drs. Beth Lenz and Faith Kearns titled “Understanding Positionality to Support Community-Centered Extension Activities.”
To further investigate questions of equity in research funding, an ongoing project on parachute science in Hawaiʻi seeks assesses funding flows for research conducted with Hawaiʻi data. This builds off of previous work with Sarah Chin, a former Sea Grant Rappa Fellow, Katy Hintzen, and Dr. Rosie Alegado. For more details, please contact Sara.
