Kaiao Garden, Hilo

Kaiao Garden is a community food-sovereignty effort that began in 2006. We are located in downtown Hilo behind the Boys and Girls Club. The vision of this 1½ acre garden is a gathering place, a kauhale. The garden supports efforts to feed people, teach kids and adults how to plant and harvest food, practice healthy eating, cook creatively outdoors, heal body and mind, create nature-inspired art work, build structures for meetings and workshops, and educate all who share the following Hawaiian values:

1. Ho‘oulu lāhui: mystical development of our communities that begin with self
2. Auwamo kuleana: responsibilities discovered and shared transform the world
3. Aloha ‘āina: loving land and nature develops life-affirming responsibilities
4. Hoea ea: return to freedom through practices and remind us that we are already free
5. ‘Āina oha: joyful appreciation and friendship with land that is lush and nourishing

The name Kaiao describes and guides the essence of this garden. Kaiao is the light at dawn on the open ocean symbolizing consciousness and the wakeful engagement of (k)new knowledge. The image inspires us here in Hilo, this place of sunrises and new beginnings. We also use the acronym K-A-I-A-O to express our activating principles.

Kuleana Responsibility, function, purpose
Ala To rouse from sleep, to be true to the vow at the center of your heart
‘Ike To know, to see, to recognize
‘Āina The source that feeds and nourishes
‘Ohana Family, loving, thriving, spreading, as vines, to grow lush

 

The garden encompasses an intelligence that brings community, education and culture into an essential context of responsibility. We are awakening our responsibilities through loving relationships with land and people. The times we live in make it obvious that a more fundamental way of living is in order. An authentic connection to land is a paradigm shift into a new and old way of being and doing. There is tremendous wisdom in hearing and following the ways of our own ancestral memory activated by current indigenous practitioners who steward this planet.

The focus of Kaiao is to teach and learn how to plant, grow, and harvest food culturally and organically through the practice of pono. We dedicate ourselves to helping others and sharing the abundance of food, knowledge and friendship in our community.