Explore how pono, ‘ohana and malama guide moral, social and spiritual responsibilities today
Responsibility in Hawaiʻi begins with understanding one’s place—both physically and relationally—through a Hawaiian concept known as kūlana nohona, said Sione Funaki, an adjunct faculty member with the Faculty of Culture, Language & Performing Arts and the Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian & Pacific Studies. The concept holds that identity, knowledge and experience are shaped by place and ancestry. “If you know who you are, then you know what you’re supposed to do relative to where you are,” he said.
This place-based sense of responsibility helps explain why Hawaiian values such as pono (righteousness), ʻohana (family) and mālama (to take care of) continue to guide behavior today, Funaki said. While often described as Hawaiian values, he said they are not unique to Hawaiʻi. “Every culture has similar values—balance, family, caretaking and responsibility,” he said.
Connection beyond blood
For Rivers, the concept of ʻohana is expressed through responsibility in how people treat cultural and personal differences. Growing up in Hawaiʻi and now living at BYU–Hawaii, she said being surrounded by people from diverse backgrounds made respect a daily practice rather than a conscious effort. ʻOhana, she explained, means accepting others without judgment and remaining open to learning from differences. “People may do things differently,” Rivers said, “but that allows me to learn more, to be curious, but still respectful.”
Nelson said ʻohana has shaped her life through a small but deeply bonded family. Growing up without a large extended family, she said closeness mattered more than size. “My family isn’t very big, but when we were together, I always felt like we were the strongest family,” she said. What sustains ʻohana, she said, is showing up—even during conflict or distance. After losing family members, she said caring for her remaining ʻohana felt more like a natural responsibility. “I have to mālama that ʻohana more because they’re really all that I have,” Nelson said.
That understanding of ʻohana, Nelson said, challenges ideas of complete independence—a concept that emerged lately in modern day. “We weren’t meant to do things alone,” she said, pointing to family, education and faith as examples of shared effort. ʻOhana offers support when people allow themselves to reach for it, she explained. “You can’t create life by yourself. You can’t create a huge corporation by yourself. It always takes hands. Yet, individualism is a good thing when you know when to use it.”
Choosing balance and integrity
Funaki said pono is often translated as righteousness or goodness, “but in a Hawaiian worldview it emphasizes balance and harmony in how people live and relate to others.” Acting pono, he said, requires awareness of how one’s actions affect others, particularly within Native Hawaiian communities.
One way Funaki practices pono is through pule, or prayer. “Pule is not just asking for things,” he said. “It also means reflecting, meditating and having conversations with God, ancestors and yourself.” Through prayer, he said, he asks whether his decisions create balance, build harmony and strengthen relationships.
Iliana Rivers, a senior biology major from Waiʻanae, Oʻahu, said the phrase “live pono” means living well through moral standards, health and integrity. Pono, she said, works alongside ʻohana and mālama, allowing people to stand for their beliefs while remaining respectful. “For example, you can stand for what you believe in while still being respectful in how you express it.”
Kaleʻa Nelson, a junior majoring in elementary education from Waiʻanae, Oʻahu, also described pono as living with integrity. “It’s doing the right thing even when nobody’s watching. You don’t allow anybody else to make you waver from that,” she said.
In an era of artificial intelligence, Nelson said acting pono in schoolwork means doing the work oneself and making ethical choices by avoiding plagiarism. That approach, she said, aligns with her faith and builds trust.
Care as shared responsibility
For Rivers, mālama reflects a reciprocal responsibility between people, land and resources. Ancient Hawaiians did not view land as an object to be owned, but as an entity akin to family, she said. “The land provides for the people, and the people give back to the land.” That ethic extended beyond land to the ocean and community life through systems such as the ahupuaʻa, where resources were shared rather than accumulated, she said. Abundance, she continued, was measured by a willingness to give rather than consume.
That responsibility does not disappear when resources are limited, Rivers said. Practices such as hānai—accepting individuals into families regardless of blood ties—reflect mālama in action. When someone is struggling, she said, family members and the broader community step in to help.
For those visiting or living in Hawaiʻi, practicing these Hawaiian values begins not with learning terms but with acting with respect and care already present within their own cultures.
Nelson described mālama as a responsibility for what is immediately in front of her. On campus, that can mean picking up trash rather than waiting for someone else to do it, conserving water or caring for shared spaces. “That’s just basic morals,” she said. Mālama toward people, she added, means showing up—mourning with others, listening and remaining present.
Both Nelson and Rivers said mālama also includes self-care. College culture often glorifies exhaustion, Nelson said, but neglecting personal well-being undermines the ability to care for others. “When you take time to mālama yourself,” she said, “you’re in a better place to mālama others.”
What responsibility requires
For Rivers, living Hawaiian values today requires integrity—doing what one commits to even when no one is watching. “These values aren’t just something I talk about; they’re habits I practice every day.” Nelson described that responsibility as requiring sacrifice. Living pono, she said, can mean giving up comfort, time or even relationships in order to act with integrity. Sacrifice also shapes how she approaches ʻohana and mālama, from financial support within her family to choosing how she spends her time and energy. “It’s very expensive to live in Hawaiʻi, but my family is sacrificing so I can have more of a future. On my end, I sacrifice my time to be here at school rather than … going out.”