IWRA Proceedings

AbstractThis paper examines the central role of freshwater (wai) in traditional Hawaiian resource management and governance. It highlights how intimate knowledge of hydrological cycles informed sustainable economic systems modeled on principles of balance, reciprocity, and regeneration. Wai is considered the source of all life in an indigenoua Hawaiian worldview. Ancestral water deities like Kaneikawaiola represent its sacred, life-giving properties. Traditional laws used terms like "kanawai" (“belonging to the waters") to encode protections. Scientific observations of evaporation, rainfall, and groundwater recharge patterns were encoded in mythology, poetry, and place names.