Wisdom
Cultural wisdom is essential to the success of regenerating and repairing the earth through our work.
Cultural wisdom is the guide to a resilient, sustainable future. Uniqueness of place can only be recognized when culture and wisdom play a key role in projects in process.
CHALLENGE
Hauula, a remote indigenous community on the north shore of Oahu, consists of six villages of native Hawaiians. The community is the most isolated on the north shore and routinely experiences climate change-related infrastructure flooding and storm surge. These situations have exposed the extreme poverty and vulnerability to food insecurity, inaccessibility, and a host of other serious problems suffered by the villages. As a coalition, they sent +LAB and his office a letter explaining their plight, “Being invisible and vulnerable”, requesting help to build resilience in the face of these challenges.
ROLE
Our director and the +LAB experts assembled a team to work directly with the community and to advocate for the creation of a resilience hub that could incorporate current and future needs. The concept of a resilience hub grew out of a series of intimate community-based workshops that brought tribal leaders to the table and were designed to capture cultural influences and folkways, building on some listening sessions and tours of significant archeological sites. Illya Azaroff brought in FEMA, State Government, Oahu's Chief Resilience Officer, and the SHADE Institute (Sustainable, Humanitarian, Architecture & Design for the Earth) as part of the workshop process to resolve issues of invisibility that so many indigenous communities confront and endure.
OUTCOME
The community is now “visible”. Through the efforts of +LAB, we have established the first community resilience hub in the Hawaiian Islands, which is now part of Oahu’s overall resilience plan. Together with the leaders of seven indigenous communities, we identified grants to fund this resilience design effort. This work continues.
Training scores of building crews in proper reconstruction techniques. Working with local builders in US. Virgin Islands, Dominica and the Bahamas crews have incorporated essential techniques into their recovery and rebuilding efforts.
As trained second responders, members of the +Lab team have deployed to disasters around the world, including post-Tohoku Japan, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Dominica. Our Director has coordinated disaster relief in Nepal, Colombia, Costa Rica, Haiti, the Philippines, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Bahamas.
Huli Wa’a - Ko’olauoa Community Resilience Hub
From Pencils to Shovels:
Keeping Hau’ula above the line through community engagement
The North Shore of Oahu is home to 26,000 Hawaiians, American citizens who live with the effects of climate change every day. One of the most vulnerable communities in the United States has been fighting for resilience for decades. This film is a window into the communities journey with an architect and his team to become visible and strong through the creation of a culturally significant community resilience hub. Relying on ancient wisdom, indigenous knowledge, and modern science they have come together to determine a new future. A resilient, sustainable, and regenerative future giving hope and dignity to Hau'ula and the people of Ko'oauloa.
2021 AIA Film Challenge
Hau’ula needed a strong planning team member with knowledge about climate change science and resilient design. Illya has a deep skillset that includes the ability to engage people and answer questions about a wide array of climate science and resilience issues, and has become our partner, encourager, expert design architect, and has always made himself available when we are in need of support and direction.”
— Dotty Kelly-Paddock
President of Hau`ula Community Association
and Executive Director of Hui o Hau`ula
I have now witnessed Illya jump into many significant and complex challenges that can only be solved through deep community engagement, design, planning, policy, and long-term trust network relationship building often in stressful conditions where stakes are high in terms of health and human security.
— Michael D. McDonald, Dr.P.H.
Executive Director of Health Initiatives Foundation,
Chairman of OVIAR Global Resilience Systems
