Staff Education and Training Programs

To help your organization function in the unique physical and cultural environments of the Hawaiian Islands, we present Hawaiian cultural and environmental education in easily understood, lively and entertaining fashion to help outsiders become more familiar with the Islands, giving you surer footing to navigate situations and conduct yourselves appropriately and effectively. Whether you are a business person, government employee or military, our workshops can help you gain the knowledge and experience you need to connect with the people of Hawai‘i and understand our unique history, culture and environments.

Presentation Formats:

Orientations: Single presentations of 45 minutes with and additional 45 minutes for questions and discussion, to provide a general orientation to to a single topic.

Workshops: To go deeper into a topic, workshops can run for as little as a few hours to half-day, full-day or even two-day experiences. These workshops engage the participants more directly with interactive or hands-on experiences.

Courses: When you need a traditional education on a particular topic, we can provide online or in-person courses of a length tailored to your needs.

Immersion experiences: The best way to understand and connect with Hawai‘i is to get your feet on the ground in an actual community setting, working with local people on a project while getting informal education and participating in traditional protocol. We can arrange half-day  community engagement experiences in which participants will work with local people on a specific land-based project.

Recommended Topics:

The Unique Physical Environment:

  • The formation of the Hawaiian Islands, and why each one looks different
  • Understanding Hawaiian Weather, Climate and Water
  • Hawaiian Ecosystems and Living Beings
  • Individual Island Geographic Overviews
  • Natural Hazards and Safety

Traditional Hawaiian Culture:

  • Oceanic Navigation and Land-Finding
  • Canoe Building: Oceanic Science and Technology
  • “Raising Tahiti”: Lessons from the Canoe for Working Together to Achieve Goals
  • Rocks as Family
  • Ahupua‘a: Traditional Environmental and Resource Management
  • Understanding Hawaiian cultural landscapes
  • Ho‘oponopono: Hawaiian Method of Conflict Resolution
  • Understanding Hawaiian Sovereignty

Contact Us for more information.

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