“Back home there’s a place called Mākua beach. It’s where I spent so much of my childhood. My grandfather had a little beachside camp area, and every day after school my dad and I would drive to the camp and visit my grandfather, and we’d go out fishing either on a rubber tube or a small fishing boat. There are so many memories of being with my dad and my grandfather and all of my calabash uncles there. My grandmother and my grandfather were both strongly connected to the beach. They actually both passed away on the beach, so that place has a special place in my heart. It’s a beautiful, beautiful quiet little pocket of sand and water, and every time I go back, I think of them and all of those memories.
“The Hawaiians have been there for a thousand-plus years. And I have written documents that show my grandfather’s great-grandfather had an association with the area. It was a letter he wrote to a commission voicing his support for Native Hawaiian land rights in the valley. I love to go back every time I go home. Sometimes when it’s low tide, you can even find petroglyphs engraved on the rocks. There’s always something new to discover.
“I know fishing is not as plentiful as it was before because of overfishing and likely other factors. Climate change is impacting a lot of coastal areas not just in Hawaii but also around the world, from erosion to coral bleaching. It’s powerful that we continue to learn how everyone and everything on Earth is interconnected. It’s what Native Hawaiians have long understood through our cosmology and approach to resource management.
“That’s what makes communicating Earth science meaningful for me — knowing that indigenous Hawaiian wisdom and NASA research both point to the responsible management of and respect for the environment.”
— Samson Reiny, NASA Earth Science News Editor, Goddard Space Flight Center
Image Credit: NASA / Joel Kowsky
Interviewer: NASA / Thalia Patrinos