Maile Bowen
“Kuleana”
Responsibility, of my blood
Is to return to the remembering
These words are new to my ancestors, when written on paper
They were actions
Communicated via the movements of body
Mouths calling out to the language of the gods
Spoken to the earth
Via feet
Crafted instruments, made from the trees
Listened tentative to our songs
Heard stories as lesson
Heard the personal in all teachings
Kuleana, kuleana,
What does this mean?
To be responsible for a land that is not your home
To be in reciprocity with a land that does not know your body
To long for something across vast seas
And sit in this place that birthed you,
Kuleana, kuleana,
May i return to the practices
Know that i am held even from across the seas
Pray for healing to this land and her peoples,
Recognise their languages when the wattle has come into full spring,
And the birds outside my window crave shade i try to create for them,
In a vast and intoxicating heat.
Maile Bowen is a writer, editor and mindful movement facilitator based in Walyalup. She emerged into the literary world at the tender age of 17 when she launched her feminist publication Accidental Discharge in collaboration with Gemma Mahoney which they ran for 5 years. Maile is a proud kanaka maoli (native hawaiian) woman and her work is strongly influenced by her relationship to place and to culture. She recently completed a bachelor in Community Development and Indigenious Studies and is interested in the intersection between her work in mindfulness, writing and Hawaiian teachings with community resilience. She runs workshops centred on rest as a resilient act combining rest based practices with journaling and somatic movement.