Land and People

Billy Kinney is a storyteller, cultural practitioner, connector and land back advocate whose family traces its lineage, care and kuleana to Kauaʻi’s north shore. Growing up in the 1980s and 1990s during Hanalei river’s “boating wars,” Billy unpacks the challenges and opportunities for local people to connect and reconnect with ʻāina amidst unrestrained tourism and development, thereby redirecting the future of sacred places like Hāʻena. As the Assistant Director of the Hui Makaʻāinana o Makana he carries forward the group’s mission to interpret, restore, care and protect the natural and cultural resources within the Hāʻena State...

Justin Hite has worked with some of Kaua‘i’s rarest forest birds like the ʻAkekeʻe and the ‘Akikiki, down to the last individuals in the remote ʻAlakaʻi rain forests. As the former field supervisor of the Kaua‘i Forest Bird Recovery Project over a decade, he helped track and collect eggs of these incredibly rare birds for captive propagation to establish “emergency” populations in the event of their extinction in the wild. His career as a birder spans decades across multiple continents and countries to Kauai where he spent over 1,000 field nights camping in remote terrain. He talks about h...

Melissa Chimera, co-host of the Land and People podcast is a Hawai‘i Triennial 2025 visual artist whose work consists of research-based investigations into species extinction, globalization and human migration. In this interview, Melissa talks with Dr. Jaimey Faris, Associate Professor of Contemporary Art and Theory at UH Mānoa on how environmental justice can be expressed through “undisciplining” or pursuing the links between art, science and ethics of deep care. They talk about how her paintings (Inheritance: Maui Nui, Not Even the Fiercest Wind, Endless Blue: Mauna Kahalawai) address endangered species, the Maui fires and the transformative potential of Chimera...

Nic Barca grew up on Kaua`i and learned to hunt while in his teens. His hunting experience ranges from bow and arrow, to dog and knife hunting pigs, goats and most recently shooting black tail deer. For the past 17 years, he has worked as The Nature Conservancy’s Field Coordinator trapping and hunting animals from the far reaches of the Alaka`i plateau’s bogs to Wainiha valley. He reveals his insights into seasonal animal movements, the evolution of efficient trapping and snaring programs, and the importance of documenting invasive animals–from determining what they are eating, how often...

Conservationist Trae Menard has spent decades protecting Hawaiian native ecosystems, with special attention to his home island of Kaua`i for the past twenty years. As the former program director of The Nature Conservancy’s Kaua`i program, his experience is that of an ecologist who moved to Hawai`i from the east coast--first for graduate school in geography at University of Hawai`i at Mānoa, and then later as a natural resource manager. Trae tells us how Kaua`i has seen the seismic shift from opposition to fencing for conservation purposes, to support for the establishment of the...

Lisa Hadway Spain has worked in Hawaiian native species and ecosystem conservation and education for more than three decades. She first entered the field as a zoology graduate student studying endangered land snails at University of Hawaii at Mānoa, eventually transitioning to the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry and Wildlife and obtaining the top position as the division administrator overseeing statewide programs. Lisa shares with us her experiences working at the forefront of shifting paradigms in forestry as well as the controversy over critical habitat designation on private lands. Her perspective is that of a w...

Keith Robinson of Kaua`i comes from a multi-generational, large land-owning family who has been in Hawai`i for more than 200 years. The Robinsons (descendants of the Sinclairs) owned and operated sugar plantations and cattle ranches across many thousands of acres in Kaua`i, including the entire island of Ni`ihau. A self-described "black sheep", Keith's varied interests range from Ni`ihau defense operations, to ranching and native plant restoration. His passion is as a one-man operation in growing, planting and helping to sustain in some cases rare plant species across Robinson-owned land. He shares his unusual upbringing, as...

Aunty Sabra Kauka  is founding member and past-president of grassroots nonprofit, Nā Pali Coast `Ōhana, dedicated to preserving natural and cultural resources of the Nā Pali Coast State Park. Her work and that of the volunteers centers around the ancient Hawaiian village, Nu`alolo Kai, once a thriving, rugged and isolated community on the north shore of Kaua`i. Sabra shares with us the wide scope of her travels and experiences across the continent to Alaska and then back home to Hawai`i where she has held anthropology and journalism positions, and taught Hawaiiana and cultural protocols for decades.

Jeremie Makepa is a captain for the Kaua`i Fire Department for more than 2 decades in fire prevention side and as a fire fighter. His is a multi-generational Hawaiian homesteading family and most recently he serves as a land steward with the non-profit `Āina Alliance, formed in 2021. His work and that of his partners is award-winning: he’s been recognized by the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement with an E Ola Empowering O`iwi Leadership award for his “community partnerships rehabilitating areas that have been abused and neglected" particularly in Anahola, on the north shore of his home island.

Melissa and Clay pivot this season to the oldest island in the Hawaiian archipelago--Kaua`i. They revisit one of their earliest LAND & PEOPLE interviews with retired botanist Steve Perlman, of the Kaua`i Plant Extinction Prevention Program (PEPP). Steve talks about his love of Pacific island peoples in remote places, his start with the National Tropical Botanical Garden, the thrill of discovering new plants, and climbing the highest sea cliffs in the world to save the last of a species.

William (Willy) Kostka is a long-time conservationist and islander who was born and raised on the island of Pohnpei, in the Federated States of Micronesia. In 1998, he helped found and became the first Board Chairman and Executive Director of the Conservation Society of Pohnpei, and then transitioned to lead the Micronesia Conservation Trust for 17 years. He has helped to bridge, fund and formulate island ecosystem stewardship and marine protected commitments from islands and countries across the nearly 7 million km2 of Pacific Ocean. Willy speaks to us about growing up in Pohnpei, as well as the traditional land tenure and...

Ann Singeo is a founding member and Executive Director of Ebiil Society, a non-profit organization that promotes environmental education and conservation in Palau. She holds a Masters Degree in Communications for Social Change from University of Texas in El Paso which enabled her to learn from and work with subsistence communities across Micronesia. For two decades, she has helped to facilitate stewardship learning by young people in Palau in both science and traditional knowledge.  Students and researchers are involved in everything from giant clam and sea cucumber restoration, dugong and turtle monitoring, fish weir restoration, marine debris removal, to w...

Craig Santos Perez is a poet, essayist, university professor, and American publisher born in Mongmong-Toto-Maite, Guam (Guåhan) Island, formally considered a U.S. territory. His literary distinctions are many. In 2023 he won the National Book Award for poetry,  2015 American Book Award and the 2011 PEN Center USA Literary Award for Poetry. He immigrated to California when he was fifteen, thus sparking his life-long exploration into what it means to be of a tropical and culturally rich place, and then separated from his CHomorro  homeland. His poetry and scholarship settles into the question of identity, navigating place and also challenges man...

Part II of a two-part conversation with Jermy Uowolo, who was born and raised on the island of Fais in the State of Yap, in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). Jermy's background is as a Micronesian cultural practitioner, anthropologist, historian and Hawaiian ecosystem restoration specialist for the Mauna Kea Forest Restoration Project. He shares with us the value of gathering and recording knowledge from Micronesian elders and culture keepers, as well as the challenges and opportunties of his own immigration story--from Yap to Guam and eventually Hawai`i Island. 

Part I of a two-part conversation with Jermy Uowolo, who was born and raised on the island of Fais in the State of Yap, in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). He received his bachelors degree from University of Hawai`i at Hilo and served as a conservationist for the Watershed Alliance in Hawai`i, the Mauna Kea Forest Restoration Project and is the President of the Micronesians United – Big Island (MU-BI) organization in Hawai`i. His knowledge spans the remote atols of his home state, to Guam, Palau, the Mariana Islands and beyond. He shares with us the pr...

Archie Kalepa Is a retired ocean safety officer who served the County of Maui for 32 years. Archie is not only a world renowned ocean safety expert and dedicated advocate for Hawaiian culture with decades of experience in rescue operations, cultural preservation and team leadership. He is a pivotal leader in West Maui, as one of the first responders on-scene after the Lahaina fires organizing the ocean delivery of needed food, water and essentials to people stranded and desperate for help. While his big wave surfing and ocean rescue accolades are many, he tells us about how helping and connecting...

Abigail Romanchak was born and raised on Maui and is a native Hawaiian printmaker who conveys the Hawaiian environment–the sounds, bird songs, human footprints across Haleakalā–through the medium of printmaking. She has both a Bachelors and Masters in Fine Art with a specialty in printmaking from the University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa and her work has been shown and collected by museums and institutions throughout the world. She takes her inspiration from uncovering the hidden, sometimes minute patterns in nature and art–from nearly invisible watermarks made by Hawaiian kapa beaters on wauke (or mulberry) to the rings...

In this live recording for the 2024 Hawai‘i Conservation Conference, co-hosts Melissa Chimera and Clay Trauernicht interview keynote speakers Kapuaʻala Sproat, professor of law at the William S. Richardson School of Law and Kekai Keahi, Maui Komohana community leader in the opening session “What Water Rights in West Maui Can Teach Us About Fire & Conservation."  In an emotional interview for 1,400 attendees, they revisit the 2023 Maui fire catastrophes one year later, recounting historical land care battles dating back more than a century, as well as their own personal struggles, triumphs and lessons. They demonstrate how the fight for land, people...

Born and raised on Maui, Hina Puamohala Kneubuhl is an artist, co-founder of Kealapiko clothing, rare plant botanist, Hawaiian translator and scholar. Her knowledge base spans both conservation and the humanities, as her lineage of healers and musicians includes her great-grandmother Nana Veary and her grandmother, renowned Hawai`i singer Emma Veary. We traverse many worlds--from her work in Hawaiian language translation, her work in rare plant conservation to her recent activism against the proposed military telescopes atop Haleakalā, Maui. She connects economic and environmental sustainability for all of Hawai`i's people to the importance of indigenous sovereignty both i...

Co-hosts Melissa Chimera and Clay Trauernicht give you a *sneak peak* of Season 3 coming up very soon!