Uncle Mac Shares a story with MaryAnn Wagner. Article Contributions by Melissa Poe and Emily Akamine.
Kelson “Mac” Poepoe remembers the old days when He‘eia loko i’a (fishpond) on Oʻahu was buried under a jungle of growth. “There was no view of the mountains from the pond,” he said, describing how a crumbling fish pond wall lay hidden below a sea of mangrove trees.
One spring afternoon at Heʻeia, he sat down on a picnic table bench remembering those early days before he and his community organized the effort to teach others about sustainable Indigenous fishing practices. He smiled with a look of satisfaction spreading across his tanned face. Today, when he looks around the loko i’a, the mountains are in clear view and the fishpond wall is now sturdy and growing larger — and it is much the same at Moʻomomi on his home island of Molakaʻi.
Uncle Mac, as he is called among friends, is a Native Hawaiian fisherman and respected community leader who has dedicated his life to sharing his deep knowledge of traditional fishing practices and marine resource management. Uncle Mac understands the ocean and fish. But beyond practicing and honing his skill in the ancient art of fishing, he has worked hard to pass along to the next generation traditional Hawaiian aquaculture practices that date back to 900 A.D.
Uncle Mac Cutting Fish
Uncle Mac helped lead the effort to bring small fishing communities throughout Hawaii together to share traditional practices. In the early 2000s, he helped envision and bring to life Kuaʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo (KUA), the organization that supports a network of community-based natural resources managers to restore Hawaiʻi communities’ traditional role as caretakers of their ʻāina (land or earth—literally, “that which feeds”). In his Moʻomomi community, he worked to unite local fishermen and subsistence practitioners. Together, this group —the Hui Mālama O Moʻomomi— organized, proposed, and passed legislation for a mile-long stretch of community based subsistence fishing area designated for subsistence communities on the northwestern shore of Molokaʻi, part of a larger community-based fishing area program across Hawaiʻi.
As a lifelong fisherman of Moʻomomi, Uncle Mac participated in the giving and taking of the ocean and its resources; he was a part of this environment and its equilibrium. Uncle Mac used Hawaiian science methods such as kilo (observation) to note imbalance and decline of marine life throughout years of fishing experience. The loss of marine health along the Moʻomomi shoreline can be attributed to overfishing, commercial fishing and climate change, but for Uncle Mac, the necessary action to restore the marine environment was to unite community stakeholders and restore the role of subsistence fishers as receivers and caretakers of the environment. Having a community based subsistence fishing area dedicated to the Moʻomomi community would allow people to continue to derive their food, health and nutrition in balance with the ocean, and to designate rest time when there is no fishing to allow the marine ecosystems to replenish.
Today, Uncle Mac’s efforts go beyond Hui Mālama o Moʻomomi – he is now coaching other communities as they work to restore their ancient aquaculture systems and cultural fishing practices. As of April 2022, the Moʻomomi Community Based Subsistence Fishing Area final rule-making decision is pending, with public scoping for community-based subsistence fishing areas in Maui and Hawaiʻi islands. If passed, these additional areas would support progress toward the U.S. President’s Executive Order to conserve at least 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030, the “30×30” for climate resilience.
Uncle Mac Poepoe’s leadership together with the teachings from other kūpuna (elders) and mentors is part of the learning model shared across the Indigenous Aquaculture Collaborative. His contribution exemplifies the importance of centering community priorities and environmental justice, and acknowledgement of Indigenous wisdom that guides us towards an environmentally sustainable future. “Instead of waiting for government to help us, we take action,” he says with conviction. Uncle Mac observed that, “Lots of our resources are still intact, we just need to continue educating each other so we can restore our islands. If current practices continue, we will be in trouble. We depend upon the land to feed our families. We can learn from each other and turn that learning into action.”
Uncle Mac Teaching on the Beach
Although not a man of many words, when I asked what inspired him to participate in this ambitious undertaking, he said he wanted to “see the difference, to see the changes.” Uncle Mac went on to explain in his own words how the fish ponds of Hawaiʻi fit into a sustainable ecosystem: “When the rain from the mountains travels down the valleys to the ponds, it is blessed by the gods; that is where the spirits dwell.” He says, “Like a backwards pie, the pond is the crust and everything that flows to the pond is blessed. The spirits tend to the health of the land and people, they are separate from the gods, but interconnected with us. So, we are in the pond, but we work together with the mountains.”
Uncle Mac views the world holistically and when he looks back on all the strides made by his community and sees the progress of the Hui Mālama Loko Iʻa fishpond stewardship network, he says it is awesome to see the work contributing to a interconnected system, the ahupua‘a from mountains to ocean. On his own island, he feels fortunate to have witnessed how sustainable fishing could once again function as an integral part of a Hawaiian community. As Uncle Mac got up to leave, he commented that the big takeaway is: “I can go home [to Molokaʻi] happy knowing that our communities are making strides. It is satisfaction for my eyes, ‘kilo’ for my eyes, they are happy.”
—