Story weavings to foster connections and stewardship of East Maui’s waterways

Methods

Summary

The project gatherings will engage participants in lauhala weaving circle protocols as shared by Keanahala, a weaving group of Pu'uhonua Society of which I am a member. This project will also invite participants to share where they are rooted and who or what they bring into the space with them. All data, knowledge and stories collected will be accompanied by lineage of knowledge credit. As an alumni of the Purple Mai’a Ka Maka ʻĪnana that focuses on design with an Indigenous lens, I will bring this knowledge to this project space. I will create accessible resources similar to the Pono STEAM kit page: https://nestmakerspace.weebly.com/pono-steam-kits.html and aim to also label this project with relevant Enagagement and Disclosure Local Contexts Notices

Challenges

Challenges include the trauma and controversy surrounding water access from over a hundred years of privatized water control in Maui, coupled with climate change. A risk factor is if there arises deep anger and opposition to the meetings by specific stakeholders who are used to the water system the way it currently is, or who do not see the value of sharing space to discuss water stories, past, present, and future. I plan to overcome this challenge by focusing on the art, craft, and talk story circle sharing space aspect of the project, especially focusing on play in weaving and joy and healing in sharing

Pre Analysis Plan

I will analyze findings by creating both qualitative and quantitative findings. For qualitative, I will be tracking demographics of participants, duration of engagement, and number of weavings and stories collected. I will code the written and audio transcript and will use In Vivo coding, descriptive coding to capture authentic voice, and values coding to capture participants' attitudes, beliefs, and values. 

I will explore using thematic analysis to identify and report patterns or themes within the data as well as axial coding to explore relationships and linkages between codes and categories.

The final woven installation piece will be organized compositionally to reflect pattern coded groups that reflect a pattern. Additionally, using the codes and categories, I will construct a visual narrative or theory that answers what are the directions participants wish to see the future of East Maui Water flowing, and a mapping of memory stories that reveal more a granular human and ecological mapping of the ditch system across time.