At its peak in the 1700s, the 25-square-mile Kōhala Field System on the northern tip of the Big Island of Hawai’i fed between 30,000 and 120,000 people. Then came the Europeans, bringing disease that decimated the Hawaiian population and destroyed the traditional knowledge of how to cultivate the 50 or 60 varieties of sugarcane and 50 types of sweet potato that once grew there. A non-profit, Ulu Mau Puanui, is now researching the system, guided by culturally centered science, with the goal of restoring that lost knowledge. Atlas Obscura’s Sarah Lohman spoke to Ulu Mau Puanui’s Kehaulani Marshall about the work she and her team are doing, and the question she wishes she could answer: What would the land have looked like without colonization? "We wonder, what the heck was coming up next in their plans. Because we know all ancestors plan for generations ahead,” she says.
#Hawaii #History @histodon@a.gup.pe #Colonization #Agriculture #Science #AANHPIHeritageMonth #Farming
It’s interesting that today, the Big Island has a full time population of just over 200,000. That means it has been almost stable since recovery from disease.
Of course, the ancestors couldn’t have predicted the onslaught of tourists….
