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Sugarcane’s complex legacy and future in Hawaiʻi

Mahealani DuPont, right, tends to sugarcane in Hawaiʻi.
Mahealani DuPont
Mahealani DuPont, left, inspects sugarcane in Hawaiʻi.

Mahealani DuPont is Tahitian Mā’ohi and is a Co-host and producer for Hawaiʻi Radio Hour. Our Living Lands Producer Daniel Spaulding spoke with DuPont about her reporting on sugarcane's complex legacy and future for food sovereignty in Hawaiʻi.

“There is no way that the only history of sugarcane is that of the colonizer's history,” DuPont said. “So, that kind of led me down a rabbit hole of asking the question, who is Kō? Who is sugarcane as a person, as an ancestor, as a Kupuna?”

I joined Boise State Public Radio as the Indigenous Affairs Reporter and Producer for Our Living Lands, a weekly radio show that focuses on climate change and its impact on Indigenous communities. It is a collaboration between the Mountain West News Bureau, Native Public Media and Koahnic Broadcast Corporation.