Community Health

We are living longer than we did 100 years ago primarily due to breakthroughs in sanitation, communicable diseases, and development of antibiotics.  However, today our concerns have shifted as obesity, heart disease, and diabetes rates are all on the rise.  We have also seen an uptick in pedestrian and traffic fatalities and serious injuries.  The design of our communities, housing, transportation infrastructure, and open space, strongly influences human behavior and activity, which subsequently brings cascading effects on our health and well-being.&n

Mary Tuti Baker explores the practice of aloha ʻāina as an organizing principle at Hoʻoulu ʻĀina, a garden and forest complex run by a community health center in urban Honolulu, and in more politically charged mobilizations to protect sacred, storied places from desecration. When asked to define aloha ʻāina poet, painter and activist Imaikalani Kalahele replied, “If you leave ʻāina alone, it’ll take care of itself. What we need to learn is how to become a part of the ʻāina – again.