As it happens, we didn’t feel much nostalgia after the boat had disappeared from our sight and instead focused our attention on reacquainting ourselves with a life where we were once again responsible for ourselves and our own explorations. The hostel was a good place to start, as it was also home to an archaeological dig site. Ours was one of a number of rooms which encircled the open space of the dig itself, where old drains, china and other fragments from the daily lives of the first European settlers are still being unearthed. The Rocks area surrounding us housed more of this sort of thing and was an interesting space in own right. As the entire Rocks area and most of the older buildings are owned by the council, the rent is cheap and the area plays host to a huge range of galleries, street art installations ‘pop-up’ shops (which change as often as once a month) and social spaces, as well as the Rocks Discovery Museum. In the 1970s – check dates there was a proposal by a large consortium of property developers to ‘modernise’ The Rocks by bulldozing the entire area and erecting yet more skyscrapers, which the cash-strapped council opted to agree to. Of course, being the dawn of the era of privatisation, the people living and working in The Rocks, mainly dock workers and the impoverished, were not involved in the decision at all, despite the land and most of the buildings being under public ownership. In stark contrast to the fate of Canary Wharf or Elephant and Castle, the Federation of Master Builders was successfully able to boycott the demolition works by putting ‘green bans’ on all the companies involved in the buyout attempt, and some of the last surviving historic neighbourhoods in Sydney are only preserved today because of their successful protest efforts. In the thirty years hence the old residents have slowly left the area, mainly due to old buildings being deemed unsafe and subtle ‘rezoning’ by the council, but the architecture is at least preserved and in contrast to the original plans, the public is able to benefit from a subsidised space for local creatives to make and exhibit their work.

We didn’t venture into the CBD much and aside from the odd excursion, for example to post some parcels home, preferred to watch it from the fringes of the harbourside and the hostel’s roof terrace, where plenty of insight could be gleaned if you looked hard enough – especially on the rooftops:

There were quirky art pop-up shops to explore and an innovative local poetry group called the Red Room had a put on a display of an animated pop-up book, called the ‘Analogue Crusader’, at the old Customs House, which has been converted into a modern-looking library. We were also able to read a two-day old Guardian and some of the Australian newspapers to get back in touch with world events.

In other moments, we explored the beautiful (and free) botanic gardens, where we saw more fruit bats; attended a play at the Opera House (unsurprisingly, we couldn’t afford the opera); visited the Art Gallery of NSW, where we saw some interesting aboriginal sculptures, badly derivative early-settler art and an extremely neglected collection of Polynesian pottery at the back; and explored the ‘Art and About’ photographic festival offerings in Sydney’s Hyde Park. This was also where we heard, and subsequently glimpsed our first Sulphur Crested Cockatoo, which on first appearances looked rather like a barn owl while in flight and seemed just as uncomfortable as one might, perched on a city centre lamp post in the middle of the day. The bird’s shriek seemed prehistoric, and I have still heard nothing like it since. After about four days of exploration, we felt the time was right to find a more solid base for the next few months, and for this we decided we’d head to Melbourne. The Australian playwright David Williamson famously wrote, ‘No-one in Sydney ever wastes time debating the meaning of life — it’s getting yourself a water frontage’, and not presently needing or desiring water frontage, Melbourne it had to be.

Kuleana – means both privilege and responsibility

‘No make big body’ – try to not to act like you own the place

Kane - Life giver or life by Nature

Papa - Earth Mother

Aloha – Most commonly used for hello and goodbye but also encapsulates affection, love and mercy

ʻOhana – the family or community you share with (not necessarily defined by blood)

Kamaʻāina - child of the Soil

and a phrase I particularly like: Holo Holo – to go out for the fun of it, where it’s not the destination but the journey which counts.

Those considered to be native Hawaiians (Kama’āina’s) are descendants of the ancient Polynesians who settled the islands before it was ‘discovered’ by Captain Cook in 1778. In Hawaiian society, children were traditionally raised outdoors and had strong ties with nature, respecting it as the sustainer of life. They grew up to be caretakers of the land on which they lived and this land was traditionally divided into sections known Ahupuaʻa. Every person living on each Ahupuaʻa had access to shared tools in order to work their land and were also entitled to share in all its produce. The concept of land ownership did not exist in Hawaiʻi until the flurried arrival of Westerners (in the form of traders, whalers, missionaries and politicians) who put pressure on King Kamehameha III to introduce a land ownership system similar to the ones they were used to in their home countries. The Great Mahele (land division) took place in 1848. Two years later The Kuleana act of 1850 was brought in, which did grant ‘commoners’ the right to apply for ownership of land they cultivated and had Kuleana over, but for many the concept behind the application was a new and foreign notion and the application itself required the ability to read and write. The majority of islanders were illiterate and so were therefore ultimately cheated out of their land.

Estate development remains a large problem for the native population of Hawaiʻi as foreign investors continue to drive up land prices. Western control of Hawaiʻi also had other consequences in the form of the suppression of native culture, language and history. Teaching the Hawaiian language in schools was banned until the 1980′s and the agricultural system was changed beyond all recognition (to date, a large proportion has been set aside for mono-cropping, mainly consisting of pineapple and sugar cane crops, though both are now in decline as a result of factories moving to cheaper production sites in Asia and South America).

However, by the 1970′s – perhaps in response to the growing Americanised view of Hawaiʻi held by tourists and the wider world – what has been termed as the ‘Second Renaissance of Hawaiʻi’ began to take shape. This centred around a resurgence of Hawaiian culture and tradition, through which people began to trace back their roots and rediscover their language, traditional ceremonies, voyaging techniques, storytelling and other indigenous practices. Today, there are groups whose mission it is to promote Hawaii’s Hawaii through offering alternative travel experiences to visitors and tackling the agricultural problems with an organic/sustainable agricultural programme – see the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation for more details. The island of Moloka’i has also seen success through protest action which was aimed at blocking cruise liners docking at, or near, the island. Back in 2002, a Holland America liner tried to dock and was greeted by over 100 protesters waving banners and wearing t-shirts displaying the slogan – ‘No Cruise Ships on Moloka’i’. The protesters were mainly taking action on environmental grounds but were also keen to show that “if you’re going to do business on Moloka’i, you’re going to have to go through a community process first”, something the cruise line had thus far avoided. Their protest was successful and to this date no liners have docked on the island. The islanders do welcome visitors who journey by ferry from other islands and arrive in smaller numbers, thereby limiting their impact on the natural features of the island and the reefs which surround it.

See our next post for our time in Hilo, Kona and Honolulu…

Santa Barbara Mission by Frank Kehren

Like many Californian towns and settlements along the coast, Santa Barbara bears the mark of Spanish occupation in the form of its Mission (definitely worth a visit for the view from the tower alone – Santa Barbara’s was the tenth to be built in California by the Spanish Franciscans, who came to convert the Chumash and other indigenous tribes to Christianity in the late Eighteenth century). Although it is still widely spread that the Spanish missionaries aimed to promote peace between different tribes, the non-native diseases they introduced along with this ‘peace’ decimated the population of Native California.

Chumash Hut by The City Project

In 1822, Spain ‘lost’ control of California to Mexico, the result of which was further deterioration of native housing (dome-like structures made from willow branches and whale bone), cultural practice and further deaths from introduced diseases such as the Malaria epidemic of 1833. Chumash land was taken, divided up and given to high ranking Mexican families and even Spanish settlers who became ‘loyal’ to Mexican rule. Surviving displaced tribe members had to make do working on ranches or as labourers for the new ‘land owning’ families. In 1834, the United States ‘took California’ from the Mexicans but did not recognise the rights of its indigenous people.

In 1901, a small but significant change came with the founding of the Santa Ynez Reservation land on which Chumash Indians could freely set up home. The settlement of the land took a while as the people had to cope with adapting traditional practice to modern living. But adapt they did and today there are a number of Chumash descendants living on this land who are now on their way to attaining economic self-sufficiency due to revenue created from the nearby Chumash Casino, hotel and spa.

Like their ancestors before them, who lived in balance with nature, protecting the environment and natural habitat is a prior concern for the Santa Ynez Chumash community. They have set up their own environmental office which is in the process of developing several management programs. These include: renewable energy development (focusing on solar power and alternative fuel for vehicles); natural resource protection (which not only involves habitat management but also educating their children about the importance of natural resource protection); solid waste management; ‘greening’ tribal operations in the casino and beyond and forming an environmental advisory committee made up of people from the community to ensure that all voices are heard and that all remain engaged with the schemes.