Navigating the Climate Crisis with Dr. Rosie Alegado
By Sharde Mersberg Freitas, Chapter Organizer | Reading Time: 15 minutes
With the ebbs and flows of the seasons, this installment of the “Navigating the Climate Crisis” series comes after much anticipation. In this month’s much-anticipated interview with Dr. Rosie ʻAnolani Alegado, she elegantly shares her personal and professional genealogies that provide a colorful backdrop to her work in better understanding how we can learn from our ʻike kūpuna, and shift our mindset to ensure that our Hawaiʻi remains sustainable for generations to come - just as generations before us have done. Dr. Alegado brings forth a storytelling nature of talking about her work, climate change, and also a clear and fierce call to action.
Photo: Hawaii Business Magazine
Dr. Rosie ʻAnolani Alegado serves under a joint appointment at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Oceanography Department and Sea Grant Program. Her formal educational training is in microbiology. She is a Kamehameha Schools alumna, and earned a degree in biology, with a minor in environmental health and toxicology, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Alegado completed her PhD at Stanford University in microbiology and immunology, and did a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California at Berkeley in evolutionary biology. Dr. Alegado was confirmed to the City & County of Honolulu Climate Change Commission in 2018, and is the current Chair. Dr. Alegado also serves on the United States’ National Committee for the United Nations Decade on Sustainable Ocean Development.
In the beginning of our interview, Dr. Alegado was asked to share more about her personal background. Her personal lineage reflects not just a deeply rooted, familial sense of kuleana to ʻāina and kaiāulu, but ancestral connections to places throughout the planet – both rooted in Hawaiʻi’s unique history and shared by many members of the Lāhui.
My name is Rosie ʻAnolani Alegado, and I was born and raised here on Oʻahu. My [mom] is Davianna Pōmaikaʻi McGregor, and I was raised in Kaʻiwiʻula, which is right below the back gate of Kamehameha Schools. Her parents are Daniel Pamawaho McGregor Jr. and Anita Valerie Branco. My Grandma Anita's family comes from Hawaiʻi Island. Her family lived in Laupāhoehoe and then after the 1946 tsunami, they were forced to leave Laupāhoehoe and move to Hilo, to the Waiākea area and near the beginning of Panaʻewa forest. My Branco ʻOhana comes from Hawaiʻi Island, and their roots go even farther back, from Madeira Portugal, and Germany.
Then my Grandpa Danny Boy - his mother was Louise ʻAʻoe McGregor, who was very active in many, many activities here in Hawaiʻi. She was in the first graduating class of the Kamehameha School for Girls, and she also was very active in getting the voting rights for women in Hawaiʻi and was the first woman to enter her name in the voter registration for her district. Grandma Aʻoe was close friends with aliʻi of the time, like Prince Kūhiō and also had a Hawaiian language newspaper that they ran for many years. And she was a school teacher and her family comes from Waiheʻe, Maui. And then before that, from the Limahana ʻOhana in Honualoa in Kona. And then my Grandpa McGregor, my grandpa Danny Boy's father, Daniel McGregor Sr., his family comes from Hauʻula. And, his grandfather was the konohiki in Hauʻula/Kaluanui. His name was Kalimahaʻalulu. His last name was McGregor so you can see that he also had lineage from Scotland and his great-grandfather was a ship's captain who sailed along the Koʻolau side of the islands and delivered goods. McGregor Point, near Maʻalaea on Maui, was named after him because he was the first European to make the landing during a particularly rough storm.
My father, Dean Tiburcio Alegado, is Ilocano and was born in Zambales near Subic Bay in the Philippines. My grandparents, are Juanito and Rose Alegado. My Lolo Juanito was in the US Navy and immigrated to the Bay Area.
My hānai makuakane is Noa Emmett Aluli, and he and my mom were together for over 30 years so I was also raised by him.
I have had a lot of very wonderful kumu in my life just to begin with who have really participated in activism and organization to empower communities and were part of community struggle as what happened when Hawaiʻi transitioned its economy from being plantation-based to being development-based tourism. My parents, all of my parents were really involved in organizing community struggle around ensuring that regular working-class people, and practitioners, could still have access to those places and spaces that helped perpetuate Hawaiʻi lifeways, and also I guess, the formation of local identity.
We asked Dr. Alegado to share some examples in Hawaiʻi that speak to the ways and practices that our kūpuna adopted and refined over centuries, if not millennia, that allowed them to ensure a sustainable distribution of abundance that provided for all. She began by reminding us to situate ourselves within a Hawaiian worldview, then reflected on a moʻolelo that demonstrates an intimate understanding and careful utilization of our islands’ varied landscapes, to establish what we now recognize as the ahupuaʻa system:
[T]here are these concepts of mauka to makai, kokua uka, kokua kai, that I think were brought across by our ancestors from other Polynesian islands across Oceania, [but] Hawaiʻi is distinct in that our islands are larger, our mountains are higher in elevation. Those were the conditions and the ingredients under which the ahupuaʻa system was conceived.
When [Oʻahu’s first great chief] Māʻilikūkahi conceived of this, it was because he saw that the land -- at least in the translation – Māʻilikūkahi saw that the land was not being used to its full potential. So he caused there to be a survey of all the lands and all the spaces.
To maximize utilization of our ʻāina, he created this ahupuaʻa system that then was adopted across the paeʻāina. I think what's important is that the conception of “utilized to its fullest potentiality” does not mean developing it from shoreline, from ridge to reef. It's important that within the ahupuaʻa space, there was still reserved wao akua [sacred space of the gods] and wao kanaka [space for people].
There was an understanding, that the best utilization of that space was to have spaces that were not developed, that preserved our natural catchment systems and recharge of our water. That's such an important lesson to learn.
Dr. Alegado also reminded us that even before Māʻilikūkahi’s time and the adoption of the ahupua‘a system, mo‘olelo and ka‘ao give us insight into the collective lessons and conditions for innovation that are still relevant today. She went on to say:
What were the stories before then? There are also tons of stories like that too, right? There are so many stories of aliʻi who did not do right by their people and were deposed because the hewa in their governance elicited a drought. That's interesting because that shows that that drought wasn't necessarily environmentally driven, but due to human error and human divisiveness or greed.
And then the stories also show so much innovation. Not only the innovation of the ahupuaʻa. I think one thing that I love is that when we are faced with adversity, that's when innovation happens.
Dr. Alegado went on to describe further how our moʻolelo can help us better understand the adverse conditions that led our kūpuna – and that could lead us – to innovate:
I would like to understand what were the conditions under which Māʻilikūkahi really felt like, “oh, we gotta like innovate, right?” One of my other favorite examples is Kūʻulakai and Hinakapuiʻa (1)- how there was a famine in the land and that for whatever reason, our wild catch, and this is exactly the issue that we're going through today, our wild catch off of our reefs was not enough to sustain us.
Using his knowledge of the interaction between the nutrients from the land and the understanding how that related to the cycles of abundance in the ocean or the nearshore with phytoplankton, he [Kūʻula] innovated and created fish ponds so that we could have stable sources of protein throughout the entire year. I think that is such a wonderful story.
And then even within that story, also shows the weakness of humans, right? Within that is the story of poaching. Within that is the story of jealousy, of wanting to have that knowledge or being jealous of, wow, this person innovated this. And then, you know, unfortunately, Kūʻula and Hina were killed because of jealousy that arose and that was a human thing that happened.
But they passed on that knowledge to their son, ʻAiʻai, to then teach people across the paeʻāina about how to build these structures. So I think it's just very powerful. We have tons of examples and they're all in our moʻolelo and our kaʻao, and I think it's really important not for us to romanticize completely and say like, “yes, we were completely sustainable.” But it's important for us to get granular and peel back those layers because within those layers, our stories have lessons of, “yeah, we screwed up” or “we were really awesome and we innovated at that.”
We can also look at Māui stories: the idea of “ui” is to question to investigate. All of Māui's stories are about somebody who is trying to solve a problem that involves nature and sometimes it works and it's wonderful. Sometimes he gets his butt kicked and dies that metaphoric spiritual death only to come back anew and try again.
Dr. Alegado summarized her thoughts on this question by saying:
So many of our ʻike kūpuna stories are about trying to understand and work with nature. . . .It's not about dominating over nature because nature will always win.
Dr. Alegado also points us to another moʻolelo with Kūikaʻulu that encourages us to think deeper at the philosophical lessons that we can apply to ourselves. She stated:
I think we should look to Maui.
We should look to Kū and Hina as well. Kū stories are so interesting. The other Kū story that I really love is the, is the story about Kū-i-ka-ʻulu. Where there's a drought again, a famine this time on land, not in the ocean but in Kona Hawaiʻi. Kū sacrifices himself, he literally sacrifices himself. What's so interesting is the way that he does it is he buries himself with his head first into the ground. And you can be like, “what the heck is that?” For a really long time, me and my kids were like, “why did he do that? This is so weird.” But then if you think more metaphorically: what does it mean to put your head back into the earth and to reconnect with the earth? It's like there's something so interesting about this masculine Kū - [who] is - really this very ultimate masculine energy - to realize “my masculinity, my knowledge that I have is not sufficient to help my people, I'm going to sacrifice this ultimate masculinity and bury myself head first to literally put myself back in contact with Haumea, with Papa, bury myself back into the earth because there's something that I'm lacking.” And from that sacrifice now opens up and enables this plant, this ʻulu tree to grow, which can feed everybody.
I do think we should be looking for these deeper philosophical lessons and applying them to ourselves. What can we gain when we are vulnerable and say, “we have reached the limit of this masculinity, this thing and we need just to reconnect to the earth.”
The ʻŌlelo Noʻeau, “I ka wā ma mua, i ka wā ma hope,” describes that if we want to know our future, we should look to our past. Building off of Dr. Alegado’s sharing on examples from what we might learn from our past, and looking to our ʻike kūpuna, she was then asked about things that Hawaiʻi is doing or what Hawaiʻi should be focusing on, such as certain policies or systemic frameworks that can support a more sustainable Hawaiʻi informed and led by indigenous knowledge and stewardship.
In response, she noted the complexity of the many legislative and policy efforts going on, but that what is also needed is a mental shift:
What I would say is, in order to truly ensure a Hawaiʻi that is informed and led by Indigenous knowledge and stewardship, we need to deeply and authentically, put Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous practices at parity with Western knowledge, with Western ways of collecting data. I'm not sure whether or not the practices, the policies that are actively being pursued right now, address that to its fullest. The White House Office of Science and Technology and Policy has issued a key guidance that we need to take into account or consult Indigenous knowledge. But it's a very big gray area of what that means in terms of operationalizing that. And even if you operationalize that, I don't know that that changes the mindset.
I really believe that the mindset we need, needs to address everything from embracing environmental justice and equity, not just for Native Hawaiians, but for chronically marginalized people. So it's not just Native Hawaiians. When we look at a transition from plantation to tourism, it's definitely not just Native Hawaiians, it's all local people who were brought here as working class and were marginalized. So that's what I mean is I think that Indigenous mentality extends beyond just Native Hawaiian. I think it starts with a social justice equity framework, and within that then you have the mentality of equality, and in some cases acknowledging that the lineal descendants of place and the practitioners of place might actually know more than what Western data has collected
I think that's really the key. I think that there are a lot of well-intentioned policies out there that may help us to get more resources and that is always good. But I think for me, the baseline foundational philosophies of how we have this movement is important because, when we think about the conservation movement, when we really do a deep interrogation of the conservation movement, even the Sierra Club, we know that there are roots of racism within conservation. And that is founded upon, again, the idea that man is a negative impact on nature and that is implicitly in conflict with an Indigenous mindset that we are part of nature.
That's what Hawaiʻi has to focus on. I think we are much farther along than other places. Way farther along. But I think that if you look at the policies that are in place now on the books, those perhaps do not reflect where we are now, where we need to be.
Aside from frameworks and policies themselves, Dr. Alegado was also asked about the role of Indigenous leadership in climate solutions.
Indigenous people across the world are stewarding and protecting 80% of the world's biodiversity. How does that relate to climate? It relates to climate in that biodiversity is what keeps us resilient against large shocks and stressors. So I think that we absolutely need to have more [indigenous] voices at the table, and this again relates to the barriers to the mindset that “Those people don't necessarily all look like me. When we say we need Indigenous leadership, it's not gonna be me.”
We need Native Hawaiian climate professors. We have to acknowledge Native Hawaiian farmers, Native Hawaiian fishermen. They have this implicit knowledge. When I think about Uncle Mac Poepoe, yeah he's this awesome fisherman. Guess what? He's probably like the best fisheries ecologist that we have in Hawaiʻi. Guess what? He's probably like low key, a really awesome physical oceanographer for his area. Probably a really awesome atmospheric scientist for his area. And guess what? Climate and climate change is very regional, so we do need regional experts. Who are those regional experts? It’s practitioners that are on the ground every day.
Considering the climate destabilization impacts Hawaiʻi is experiencing, Dr. Alegado was also asked about how such a crisis as the Red Hill water contamination compounds our sustainability. Dr. Alegado responded clearly and succinctly:
There is no other issue more important at this moment than our water security at Red Hill. There is no other issue. To me, it supersedes climate because at this moment, because we are a sole source aquifer island, and if and when our water resources are exhausted, nevermind about climate change, we're not even gonna be able to live on this island...if anything will help us to regain our island mentality, the issues around Red Hill should remind us that it's about survival, and if we don't take care about the basic resources that ensure our survival, nevermind about adapting to change, we could not even be here.
Water is the basis, right. We know that. When we hit the COVID[-19] crisis, we reassessed and reassigned and redistributed resources to be able to deal with that. That's what we should be doing today with Red Hill. All eyes on that. And I still say, I mean still I say that, in different aspects with the [City & County of Honolulu’s] Climate Change Commission. We're still working on that, don't get me wrong. But to me, the Red Hill situation is the most important thing, and I don't only mean it from a water pollution standpoint -- which I do teach about -- I also mean it in terms of the bigger issue of militarism in Hawaiʻi and looking at the impacts of militarism, also looking at the intersectionality of that. We need to look at what other factors that are also endangering this water. Have we really done a true accounting of the impacts of tourism on our water resources? Because those are all issues that we have to come together. I will say on a positive aspect, with the City and County, we do have a One Water Framework (2) that is used that is a very helpful process and mechanism and framework by which all of these things can coordinate.
In closing, we asked Dr. Alegado if she had a specific message for Sierra Club members. She responded:
I fully commend the Sierra Club, particularly want to mahalo Marti Townsend. Marti Townsend really never let this issue go and always continues to bring this issue to the fore. Number two, is of course, Wayne Tanaka. The Sierra Club in Hawaiʻi has played such an important role in continuing to bring consciousness to us.
So I would just say the members should continue supporting all the wonderful work that you guys are doing, and we need you. We need those voices. We need people to show up and not let us forget and not let us get sucked into other issues that are important, but, I really do feel like with the case of Red Hill, there is no other issue that is as important. Really.
I just mahalo the Sierra Club for fighting the good fight and its membership for continuing to support those activities.