Land and People

Dr. Ty Tengan is a professor in the Department of Anthropology at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa whose work emphasizes ethnic studies in relation to Hawaiian identity and masculinity, sovereignty, land, and militarism. His activism and work extends to running oral history field schools, cultural workshops, water rights and burial site protection. In this conversation, Melissa and Clay talk about Tenganʻs work in native Hawaiian rep...

We continue our two-part conversation with Dr. Ross Cordy, Pacific Island Hawaiian-Pacific studies at University of Hawai‘i West O‘ahu. Trained as both an archaeologist and ethnohistorian, Dr. Cordy’s specialty is reconstructing the history of Hawai‘i as told from multiple data sources. In the second half of our discussion, we consider settlement patterns across the Hawaiian archipelago, as well as the rise of countries and kingdom...

Trained as both an archaeologist and ethnohistorian, Dr. Ross Cordy is a renowned scholar of Pacific Island Hawaiian-Pacific studies at University of Hawai‘i West O‘ahu, specializing in reconstructing the history of Hawai‘i as told from multiple data sources. Beginning with his study of the Hawaiian coastal village of Lapakahi in Kohala, his career in Oceania spans fifty+ years–from Huahini, Aotearoa, and Micronesia to the Hawai‘i ...

Dr. Patrick Kirch is a University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa anthropology professor specializing in historical anthropology, archaeology and the deep-time history of the peoples of the Pacific. In this interview, Melissa and Clay talk with him about how his growing up in Mānoa valley among kānaka maoli and Bishop Museum mentors influenced him early on, and how his field research has taken him from Papua New Guinea and the Solomons, to Ton...

Billy Kinney is a storyteller, cultural practitioner, connector and land back advocate whose family traces its lineage, care and kuleana to Kauaʻi’s north shore. Growing up in the 1980s and 1990s during Hanalei river’s “boating wars,” Billy unpacks the challenges and opportunities for local people to connect and reconnect with ʻāina amidst unrestrained tourism and development, thereby redirecting the future of sacred places like Hā...

Justin Hite has worked with some of Kaua‘i’s rarest forest birds like the ʻAkekeʻe and the ‘Akikiki, down to the last individuals in the remote ʻAlakaʻi rain forests. As the former field supervisor of the Kaua‘i Forest Bird Recovery Project over a decade, he helped track and collect eggs of these incredibly rare birds for captive propagation to establish “emergency” populations in the event of their extinction in the wild. His care...

Melissa Chimera, co-host of the Land and People podcast is a Hawai‘i Triennial 2025 visual artist whose work consists of research-based investigations into species extinction, globalization and human migration. In this interview, Melissa talks with Dr. Jaimey Faris, Associate Professor of Contemporary Art and Theory at UH Mānoa on how environmental justice can be expressed through “undisciplining” or pursuing the links between art,...

Nic Barca grew up on Kaua`i and learned to hunt while in his teens. His hunting experience ranges from bow and arrow, to dog and knife hunting pigs, goats and most recently shooting black tail deer. For the past 17 years, he has worked as The Nature Conservancy’s Field Coordinator trapping and hunting animals from the far reaches of the Alaka`i plateau’s bogs to Wainiha valley. He reveals his insights into seasonal animal movements...

Conservationist Trae Menard has spent decades protecting Hawaiian native ecosystems, with special attention to his home island of Kaua`i for the past twenty years. As the former program director of The Nature Conservancy’s Kaua`i program, his experience is that of an ecologist who moved to Hawai`i from the east coast--first for graduate school in geography at University of Hawai`i at Mānoa, and then later as a natural resource mana...

Lisa Hadway Spain has worked in Hawaiian native species and ecosystem conservation and education for more than three decades. She first entered the field as a zoology graduate student studying endangered land snails at University of Hawaii at Mānoa, eventually transitioning to the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry and Wildlife and obtaining the top position as the division administrator overseeing state...

Keith Robinson of Kaua`i comes from a multi-generational, large land-owning family who has been in Hawai`i for more than 200 years. The Robinsons (descendants of the Sinclairs) owned and operated sugar plantations and cattle ranches across many thousands of acres in Kaua`i, including the entire island of Ni`ihau. A self-described "black sheep", Keith's varied interests range from Ni`ihau defense operations, to ranching and native p...

Aunty Sabra Kauka  is founding member and past-president of grassroots nonprofit, Nā Pali Coast `Ōhana, dedicated to preserving natural and cultural resources of the Nā Pali Coast State Park. Her work and that of the volunteers centers around the ancient Hawaiian village, Nu`alolo Kai, once a thriving, rugged and isolated community on the north shore of Kaua`i. Sabra shares with us the wide scope of her travels and experiences acro...

Jeremie Makepa is a captain for the Kaua`i Fire Department for more than 2 decades in fire prevention side and as a fire fighter. His is a multi-generational Hawaiian homesteading family and most recently he serves as a land steward with the non-profit `Āina Alliance, formed in 2021. His work and that of his partners is award-winning: he’s been recognized by the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement with an E Ola Empowering O`iwi...

Melissa and Clay pivot this season to the oldest island in the Hawaiian archipelago--Kaua`i. They revisit one of their earliest LAND & PEOPLE interviews with retired botanist Steve Perlman, of the Kaua`i Plant Extinction Prevention Program (PEPP). Steve talks about his love of Pacific island peoples in remote places, his start with the National Tropical Botanical Garden, the thrill of discovering new plants, and climbing the hi...

William (Willy) Kostka is a long-time conservationist and islander who was born and raised on the island of Pohnpei, in the Federated States of Micronesia. In 1998, he helped found and became the first Board Chairman and Executive Director of the Conservation Society of Pohnpei, and then transitioned to lead the Micronesia Conservation Trust for 17 years. He has helped to bridge, fund and formulate island ecosystem stewardship and ...

Ann Singeo is a founding member and Executive Director of Ebiil Society, a non-profit organization that promotes environmental education and conservation in Palau. She holds a Masters Degree in Communications for Social Change from University of Texas in El Paso which enabled her to learn from and work with subsistence communities across Micronesia. For two decades, she has helped to facilitate stewardship learning by young people ...

Craig Santos Perez is a poet, essayist, university professor, and American publisher born in Mongmong-Toto-Maite, Guam (Guåhan) Island, formally considered a U.S. territory. His literary distinctions are many. In 2023 he won the National Book Award for poetry,  2015 American Book Award and the 2011 PEN Center USA Literary Award for Poetry. He immigrated to California when he was fifteen, thus sparking his life-long exploration into...

Part II of a two-part conversation with Jermy Uowolo, who was born and raised on the island of Fais in the State of Yap, in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). Jermy's background is as a Micronesian cultural practitioner, anthropologist, historian and Hawaiian ecosystem restoration specialist for the Mauna Kea Forest Restoration Project. He shares with us the value of gathering and recording knowledge from Micronesian elders ...