Kuleana

[kuleˈjɐnə]

Related terms: Care, Responsibility

Kuleana is a uniquely Hawaiian value and practice which is loosely translated to mean »responsibility«. The word »Kuleana« refers to a reciprocal relationship between the person who is responsible and the thing which they are responsible for. It is a concept that melds what in the English language are separate concepts: rights and responsibility, duty and obligation.

Today, Kuleana exists as a lived tradition, but also as a legislative doctrine that is adhered to through the law. It is included as a concept in the Constitution of the State of Hawaii. 

Kuleana offers an understanding of a caring relationship to the ground that acknowledges both one’s responsibility to one’s land and the rights and obligations that derive from caring for a land system that one occupies and depends on.

       There are many ways in which different cultures have historically related to the land itself. Western thought understands territory as geographically flat (cartographically) – however, this process flattens many non-Western perspectives, which largely provide a much more complex understanding of their relationships to the Earth’s surface and how we live with it.