Ahupua’a, and Reimagining them

Imagine that each island in Hawaii is pie-shaped, with a mountain rising in the center. Now imagine slicing that pie into wedges. That’s how the ancient Hawaiians divided their land. Each pie shaped slice is called an ahupua’a (kind of sounds like “ah-who-pooh-ah-ah” with nearly equal emphasis on all syllables).  This ahupua’a system was very practical and took into account the ecosystem and the flow of water from the mountain to the sea.

This map shows the ahupua'a divisions on Maui.
Map is courtesy of islandbreath.org c. 2011.

The ahupua’a was a self-sufficient unit because it contained nearly every manner of plant and animal that lived from mountain to sea on that island, from seaweed and fish, forest birds, pigs, chickens, koa trees for wood, coconuts, taro…  

Everyone who lived in that ahupua’a could use what was in that ahupua’a and there were rules to prevent misuse. If the people of that ahupua’a did not have something, they could trade with people of another ahupua’a.

One more step. Think about where you live. Imagine there are no state or national boundaries. Instead the land is divided so that each division contains as much natural variety as possible from the highest to lowest elevation. So if you’re in Colorado, maybe you would be in a long wedge that goes from the Rockies, cuts through Arizona and New Mexico and goes down to Baja. 

As a resident, you have access to all the natural resources of that wedge. If you’re in Switzerland, you might live in a wedge that goes from the Alps to the coast of Italy.  There are no groups that control the entire coast line or all the resources in the mountains. The responsibilities and joys of the connected ecosystems are shared by all the residents.

An ahupua’a might not be practical on such a large scale, but it’s interesting to speculate on how our lives might be different if we lived in one.

P.S. If you are blog hopping from the A to Z challenge, please include your link if you comment! I try to reciprocate comments as quickly as I can, though I did get behind last year.

P.P.S. I am running two mini-contests during the A-Z Challenge (and into part of May). Here's how to enter.