Preparing for the Detroit 2025 Annual Meeting

AAG is hosting Preparing for the 2025 Annual Meeting, a virtual learning series featuring speakers and perspectives to enhance the conference’s connection to the place where it is held. Webinars will be in development as our series continues through 2025.

Building Black Food Sovereignty in Detroit

shakara tyler explores participatory and decolonial research methodologies and community-centered pedagogies in the food justice, food sovereignty and environmental justice movements.

Key takeaways for self-reflection:

• What caused Detroit Black Community Food Sovereignty Network (DBCFSN) to change the name from “Security” to “Sovereignty?”
• With one third of urban space in Detroit being vacant, is the Detroit municipality actively working to support the creation of farms or provide monetary assistance to support DBCFSN’s D-Town Farm or other black farmers and farms across the city?
• Can white people who support racial justice play a useful role in the food sovereignty movement outside of participating in DBCFSN?
• What are some next steps for DBCFSN in the upcoming year and how can we support your efforts?
• What is the ownership structure of the land and places you described? Are they protected from investor acquisitions?

Resources will be in development as our webinar series continues through 2025.

• Boggs, Grace. Living for Change: An Autobiography. AK Press.
• Charnas, Dan. Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J. Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm. Picador/MacMillan, 2022. Note: Dan Charnas will be in conversation with Katherine McKittrick at AAG 2025.
• Cooper, Dara. Reframing Food Hubs: Food Hubs, Racial Equity, and Self-Determination in the South, 2018. [report]
• Darden, Joe T. and Richard W. Thomas. Detroit: Race Riots, Racial Conflicts, and Efforts to Bridge the Divide, Michigan State University Press, 2013.
• Gordon Nembhard, Jessica. Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice, 2014.
• Hill, Alex B. Detroit in 50 Maps, Arcadia Publishing, 2021.
• Miles, Tiya. The Dawn of Detroit: The Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of the Straits. New Press, 2019.
• White, Monica. Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement, 2018.

Additional resources will be in development as our webinar series continues through 2025

• Baker, Rachael. A Century of Grace; Restorative Spatial Justice, Pedagogy, and Beloved Community in Twenty-First Century Detroit [paywall]
• Bastian, Elizabeth; and Jacob Napieralski. Suburban Food Security: Walkability and Nutritional Access in Metropolitan Detroit
• Bentley, George C.; Priscilla McCutcheon; Robert G. Cromley; Dean M. Hanink. Fitzgerald: A Return to the Neighborhood and Its Contemporary Structural and Geographical Contexts
• Chen, Ruidun; Cong Fu; Shanhe Jiang; Minxuan Lan; and Yanqing Xu. The Impact of Spatial Changes on the Assessment of CCTV Effects: An Example of the Green Light Project in Detroit
• Darden, Joe; Mohammad Rahbar; Louise Jezierski; Min Li; and Ellen Velie. The Measurement of Neighborhood Socioeconomic Characteristics and Black and White Residential Segregation in Metropolitan Detroit: Implications for the Study of Social Disparities in Health
• Deskins, Donald R. Race, Residence, and Workplace in Detroit, 1880 to 1965
• Foote, Aaron; and Cedric de Leon. Origins of the Flint Water Crisis: Uneven Development, Urban Political Ecology, and Racial Capitalism [paywall]
• Grady, Sue; and Joe Darden. Spatial Methods to Study Local Racial Residential Segregation and Infant Health in Detroit, Michigan
• Gregory, Siobhan. Authenticity and luxury branding in a renewing Detroit landscape [paywall]
• Mays, Kyle T. Narratives of dispossession: a precondition of colonialism in Detroit [paywall]
• Morgan, Jane; and Sujata Shetty. Regional equity through community development planning: the Metro Detroit Regional Investment Initiative [paywall]
• O’Kelly, Morton E. The Role of Geographic Expertise in International Border Disputes: A Study of the Middle of Lake Erie Through Historical and Cartographic Perspectives
• Robsky, Eric Huntley; and Matthew Rosenblum. The Omega Affair: Discontinuing the University of Michigan Department of Geography (1975–1982)
• Safransky, Sara. Land Justice as a Historical Diagnostic: Thinking with Detroit
• Slager, Emma Jean. Ruin tours: performing and consuming decay in Detroit [paywall]
• Van Lier, Nicole. Regulating Improvement: Industrial Water Pollution, White Settler Authority, and Capitalist Reproduction in the St. Clair–Detroit River Corridor, 1945–1972
• William Widdis, Randy. “Across the Boundary in a Hundred Torrents”: The Changing Geography of Marine Trade Within the Great Lakes Borderland Region During the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
• Wright, Jamaal Willie; Adam Bledsoe; Priscilla Ferreira; Kristen Maye; and Ellen Louis. Beyond Geographies of Race

A Culture of Collectivism: A Story from Detroit | Young Farmers 2024 Eastern Keynote [YouTube Video] – Recommended during shakara tyler’s webinar session, this recording of the Eastern Keynote from the Young Farmers 2024 meeting is from farmer and organizer Tepfirah Rushdan, the director of sustainability for the City of Detroit and a leader of the Detroit Black Farmer Land Fund. Poet Sophie Strand provides a follow-up focusing on storytelling and ecology.

Resources will be in development as our webinar series continues through 2025.

Resources will be in development as our webinar series continues through 2025.

Preparing for the Honolulu 2024 Annual Meeting

Between July and March, the AAG will be hosting a virtual learning series featuring Hawaiian speakers and perspectives with a new approach that connects the conference more strongly to the place where it is held.

Aloha Aku, Aloha Mai: Aloha Given, Aloha Received

This session illuminated Hawaiian ecological insights and perspectives on how to live in harmony with the environment; exploring ways that those views may align or differ from the perspectives of others; and discussing how to foster reciprocity among our Kānaka hosts and our members, discipline, and the AAG.

Key takeaways for self-reflection:

• How can the field trips (or land engagements) and events outside of the main conference engage with local communities in a generative and thoughtful way, avoiding being burdensome to community groups?
• How can we make the presence of indigenous voices impactful and felt throughout the conference?
• Are there ‘reminding,’ engaging rituals that conference goers could participate in individually or in small or large groups on site to help regularly take us into a different kind of place mentally, emotionally, even spiritually, for that brief time, that would reinforce the values and experiences sought by everyone involved and, like the circles of people holding hands, will remain with us after the conference?
• Are there opportunities to engage children and young people in the conference?

Kumulipo: Hawaiian Explication of Creation

Lean in! Tune in! This webinar explored the story of the creation of Pele’s home in Hawai’i, or the Kumulipo: the Hawaiian understanding of the world as interconnected and intimate across all forms of being and nature. Leahi Hall and Kekuhi Kealiikanakaole of Hālau ʻŌhiʻa present this to you all in narrative and poetic chant form. It is an honored gift to receive one of Hawaiʻiʻs Koʻihonua as welcome into this island consciousness.

Key takeaways for self-reflection:

• Although the language may be different and the presentation in poetry & story, rather than data or maps, the Kumulipo reflects recorded observations and conclusions about the same planetary elements that are studied by geographers everywhere. How does this align or differ with your understanding or research? What might you want to do or hear at the conference to better understand your field from the perspective of the host culture?
• “Man is not the center of all things.” Hmm, is that a universal concept?
• “Human kind is not the center of all relationships.” Hmm, is that a universal concept?
• We encourage you to express Mele Komo /Mele Moʻokū upon your arrival to Maui for the conference. Both chants are a request for permission as you enter into the energy of the island and an introduction of the places and features you will be among and that sustain your life.
• For pronounciation and practice, view the webinar recording for guidance from Kekuhi and Leahi.

Hawai‘i Habitation: Consequences of Human Values

For millenia, land in Hawai‘i was organized into wao (realms) that align with spiritual principles and support ecosystem services, as well as water, food, and reproduction cycles. Human habitation and activities were subordinated to foster environmental sustainability.
Join Konia Freitas, past director of the Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawai‘i – Mānoa; and Mark Kawika McKeague, AICP, principal & director of Cultural Planning G70, for a discussion of traditions of Polynesian voyaging, discovery and settlement which were disrupted and transformed by radically different norms, practices and territorial designs of non-Polynesian settlers beginning in the 18th century.

Key takeaways for self-reflection:

• How has the land where the conference is located changed throughout time and history? How can I acknowledge and respect the land during my visit?
• How have foundational Hawaiian principles and practices been preserved and passed down today, whether that is through art, music, architecture etc.?
• How should visitors approach language politics and use of the Hawaiian language when visiting?

Islands and Agriculture: The coevolution of agroecological systems and society in Hawai‘i

The Hawaiian Islands are commonly referenced as one of the most ecologically diverse locations on planet Earth, a fact commonly highlighted in conservation and natural ecosystem science. Yet, we often fail to take the next step in acknowledging and understanding the intensive cultural and knowledge-based adaptations of Native Hawaiians as they made use of highly diverse landscapes traversing multiple ecotones.

Noa Lincoln explores coevolution through the lens of agriculture, as a fundamental way in which humans and their environments interact. The application of agroecological systems over time and across space are summarized, along with their manifestations on social, cultural, and knowledge systems, and is concluded by emphasizing the pathways of island cultures have tremendous value to offer the world in terms of understanding the transition to sustainability for our “Island Earth.”

Key Takeaways for Self-Reflection

• What historical or contemporary data do we have to understand the upper boundaries so precisely? Are any of the maps or data online for public access?
• How have modern industrial methods influenced the analysis of soil fertility and island age?
• When lines are drawn for environmental performance, how is that different than the post-contact society of drawing lines to create land-use districts and zoning designations?
• How do we continue to disrupt false binaries, and possibly romanticism, that mainland people may oppose of Hawaiian history and current ecologies?

Troubling the “American Lake”: Archipelagic Perspectives on Militarization in Oceania

In the context of great power competition between the United States and China, this webinar will help to situate Hawaiʻi within the U.S. geopolitical “pivot” to the Pacific region from the perspective of the islands confronting hyper-militarization. Join our five panelists as they provide brief reports on the state of militarization and resistance in their respective islands: Okinawa, Guåhan (Guam), Chamoru (of the Mariana Islands), Northern Marianas, and Hawaiʻi.

Key Takeaways for Self-Reflection

• Given the diversity of political relationships between the respective islands and the US Military, what tangible actions for solidarity and political transformation does the panel imagine? What is the path to change political statuses?
• Do indigenous people see tourists as another threat, as a chance, or both?
• What are the next steps for a desired state?
• What are groups or organizers we can follow, learn from, and support in the work of demilitarization and de-occupation of the areas discussed?

Aloha: A Reciprocal Relationship among People, the Environment, and the Spiritual World

In this collaborative webinar, learn Hawaiian greetings, proverbs, and chants, relation building, and cosmic genealogy of the islands. Gain an appreciation and deeper understanding of the islands and their native inhabitants, by explicating the value of aloha (love, compassion, and kindness) and its importance not just in daily life in Hawai’i, but in education, research, and environmental stewardship with Dr. Kū Kahakalau, native Hawaiian educator, expert in Hawaiian language and culture, and the first person in the world with a Ph.D. in Indigenous Education.

Key Takeaways for Self-Reflection

• ‘A’ohe pau ka ‘ike i ka hālau ho‘okahi. – Not all knowledge is contained in one school. One can learn from many sources.
• Lehulehu a manomano ka ‘ikena a ka Hawai‘i. – Great and numerous is the knowledge of the Hawaiians.
• Mele Ko‘ihonua O Papa A Me Wākea. – Cosmogonic genealogy that describes origins of Hawaiians and connect Hawaiians with the cosmos (earth and sky), the islands and the taro, our primary staple.
• Pedagogy of Aloha: Relations + Relevance + Responsibility = Rigor + Fun
• Hawaiians do not have a concept or sense of the “other” in the language or culture. Does this carry over to nonhuman elements?
• There is no ʻĀina (land) without Kānaka (people/man). How can we further explore the relationship between humans and the earth or land?
• If a non-Hawaiian person makes a greeting or closing in the Hawaiian language, can we ensure that it is welcome?
• What are important diacritical markings we should be aware of in the language and will often encounter?

ʻĀina — In the mother tongue, ‘āina refers to that which feeds, that being the land and its produce, as well as the sea and the all the things from it we can collect and harvest to sustain our selves with.

Ahupuaʻa — term for a large traditional socioeconomic, geologic, and climatic subdivision of land

Aloha [Aloha mai; Welina; ‘Ano’ai] — Greetings; hello [has many other associations in the English language]

Aloha a hui hou [Aloha] — Good-bye; farewell; alas

Aloha Akua — love for the divine or spiritual world

‘A‘ole pilikia — No problem; you are welcome

Haole — Foreigner, not from Hawai‘i

Hōkūleʻa — a contemporary voyaging canoe or vessel

Ho‘okipa — To entertain or treat hospitably

Iwi — human remains (bones)

Kilo — observation (how ancestral knowledge has been obtained, passed down, and practiced – “what is ancient is modern”)

Kinolau — lau: many bodies of manifestations; kino: body

Koʻi-honua — A creation chant, the carving of earth at many scales

Kuleana — responsibility

Kūpuna — Grandparent or ancestor

Le‘ale‘a — to have a good time; have fun; enjoy amusement and laughter (important Hawaiian value)

Loko iʻa — indigenous aquaculture systems

Mahalo — Thank you

Mālama — Give back

Mana — Spiritual energy of power or strength

Moko — island; land

Mo‘opuna — grandchildren

Kanaka — Native Hawaiian

Kuleana — Responsibility; especially personal and distinct contribution to a community

‘Okina — An actual consonant in ʻŌlelo Hawai, the Hawaiian language, that creates a glottal stop to recognize that a consonant that was once present in a word has been dropped over the years and will always separate two vowels and never two consonants.

Ua Laulau — literally meaning “is a wrapper”; also a native Hawaiian dish made of fatty pork and salted butterfish wrapped in lu’au leaves and ti leaves; another word for a pregnant woman

• ʻĀina Aloha Economic Futures Declaration: “drafted by a group of Native Hawaiian community members who came together organically after separate discussions brought forth common sentiments regarding the need to have Native Hawaiian voices, values, and experiences influence the economic recovery for our ʻāina aloha.”
  — Consider adding your name to the supporters of the ʻĀina Aloha Economic Futures initiative via their Google form.
• ʻĀina Aloha Economic Futures Huliau Action Agenda: high-level framework of community-defined actionable goals intended to guide the development and prioritization of more specific proposals
• ʻĀina Aloha Economic Futures Assessment Tool for Policies, Projects, and Programs: This tool advances the values set forth in the ‘Āina Aloha Economic Futures Declaration. This assessment also embodies key ideas in the Huliau Action Agenda, which incorporated comments from over 200 participants who helped to develop it.
• Hawaii Conservation Alliance Conference: This conference envisions thriving, abundant lands and seas with native Hawaiian ecosystems actively cared for by generations of stewards, steered by excellent science, Hawaiian values, and practice. The alliance provides unified leadership, and collaborative action to conserve and restore native ecosystems and the unique biodiversity of the Hawaiian Islands. Past selective recordings of sessions are available to view at leisure.
• Ulukau: This website is the Hawaiian Electronic Library and aims to make archival, Native Hawaiian cultural resources available for the use, teaching, and revitalization of the Hawaiian language and for a broader and deeper understanding of Hawaiʻi.

• Change We Must: My Spiritual Journey by Nana Veary
  • Shared during Aloha Aku, Aloha Mai: Aloha Given, Aloha Received webinar
  • Authored by Nana Veary, it describes how “her family, surroundings and the ways of an innately spiritual people shaped a lifetime search for the truth. At the core, binding the threads of the story, is the practice of silence and a strong belief in its power.”
• Dominis Holt, John. Waimea Summer
• Emerson, Nathaniel B., Unwritten Literature of Hawaiʻi: The Sacred Songs of the Hula
• Goodyear-Kaʻōpua, Noelani, Ikaika Hussey & Erin Kahunawaika′ala Wright. A Nation Rising: Hawaiian Movements for Life, Land, and Sovereignty
• Hānai, Hui. Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen Liliuokalani
• Li, Wei. From Urban Enclave to Ethnic Suburb: New Asian Communities in Pacific Rim Countries
• Trask, Haunani-Kay and Ed Greevy. Kūʻē: Thirty Years of Land Struggle in Hawaiʻi
• Pukui, Mary Kawena– ‘Ōlelo No‘eau; Book of Hawaiian proverbs & poetical sayings that contains the philosophy of the ancestors and understand their history from their native ancestors [available as an audiobook] 
• Queen Regnant, Liliuokalani of Hawaii. Kumulipo  – Wā ʻAkahi; An Hawaiian Creation Myth

• Explore the Cultural and Political Ecology (CAPE) Specialty Group’s Collaborative Reading List with relevant resources for engagement in Hawai‘i and topics of interest in political ecology that relate to Hawai‘i: indigeneity in/across islands, critical island studies, geographies of the Pacific, settler colonialism, and more. 
• Aikau, Hōkūlani K. Mana Wahine and Mothering at the Loʻi: A Two-spirit/Queer Analysis [paywall]
• Gould, Rachelle K., Cheryl E. Morse, Jill Brooks & Alison Adams. “So Much For Access:” Difference, Benefits, And Barriers At Hawaii’s Shorelines [paywall]
• Herman, R.D.K. The Aloha State: Place Names and the Anti-conquest of Hawai‘i
• Kahanamoku, Sara, Rosie’Anolani Alegado, Aurora Kagawa-Viviani, Katie Leimomi Kamelamela, Brittany Kamai, Lucianne M Walkowicz, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Mithi Alexa de los Reyes, & Hilding Neilson. A Native Hawaiian-led summary of the current impact of constructing the Thirty Meter Telescope on Maunakea
• Keānuenueokalani Williams, Liza and Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez. Indigeneity, sovereignty, sustainability and cultural tourism: hosts and hostages at ʻIolani Palace, Hawai’i [paywall]
• Kolivras, Korine N. Mosquito Habitat and Dengue Risk Potential in Hawaii: A Conceptual Framework and GIS Application
• Marshall, Kehaulani, Chloe Koseff, Amber L. Roberts, Ala Lindsey, Aurora K. Kagawa-Viviani, Noa Kekuewa Lincoln, & Peter M. Vitousek. Restoring people and productivity to Puanui: challenges and opportunities in the restoration of an intensive rain-fed Hawaiian field system [free access]
• Marusek, Sarah. The aloha paradox: law, language, and culture in Hawai‘i [paywall]
• Miyares, Ines M. Expressing “Local Culture” In Hawai’I* [paywall]
• Nunn, Patrick D. Fished Up or Thrown Down: The Geography of Pacific Island Origin Myths
• Peterson, Brian A., Rachel D. Shively, Sarah K. Jackson, Julianna Rogowski, J. Adam Beeco & Damon Joyce. Using ADS–B Data to Understand Overflight Altitude Characteristics at Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park
• Pau, Stephanie, Glen M. MacDonald &Thomas W. Gillespie. A Dynamic History of Climate Change and Human Impact on the Environment from Keālia Pond, Maui, Hawaiian Islands
• Woodcock, Deborah. To Restore the Watersheds: Early Twentieth-Century Tree Planting in Hawai‘i

• Waikiki the Film by Christopher Kahunahana

• Explore Maui hosted by Sam Peralta
• Legends From The Pacific hosted by Kamuela Kaneshiro
  
• Morning Manaʻo Podcast hosted by Luana Kawaʻa
• The Blue Hawaii Podcast hosted by Josh Michaels and Ryan Little
• Transmissions from Hawaii hosted by Wasabi Magazine
• HaveAlohaWillTravel  hosted by Catherine Toth Fox and Kevin Alle with Hawai’i Magazine

We hope that you will join us in offering support to the residents and their families on Maui, nearby islands, and the mainland after the devastating wildfires consumed the historic town of Lahaina, the former Royal Capital of Hawai‘i. We have provided a list of local rescue and recovery efforts and foundations:

• The Maui Strong Fund is currently being used to help aid communities affected by the Maui Wildfires. You can donate online, or you can send a check to Hawai‘i Community Foundation, 827 Fort Street Mall, Honolulu, HI, 96813. Make checks payable “Hawai‘i Community Foundation”.
• Maui Food Bank is accepting both physical drop-off donations at various locations across Maui as well as online monetary donations on its website.
• The Salvation Army is providing food and resources to those in need, and it is accepting Maui donations on its Hawaiʻi site.
• Maui Mutual Aid Fund is a local effort run by volunteers looking to get funds and support to vulnerable residents, such as kūpuna (elderly), those with physical disabilities, renters and individuals without insurance.
• Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement is matching up to $1 million in donations for Maui fire victims as of Thursday night. Learn more
• The Maui Humane Society expects an influx of animals who need help as wildfires have displaced thousands. The group is currently accepting online donations.
• Baby 2 Baby, a non-profit organization, is getting ready to send supplies for babies and children who have been affected by the Maui fires. Visit their website for more information or to donate.