“E lele le toloa, ae ma‘au i le vai”—the toloa bird may fly far, but it always returns to the water. This Samoan proverb guided me through one of the most meaningful experiences of my teaching career: returning to Samoa in September 2025, to present at the 49th Pacific Circle Consortium (PCC) Conference. As a Samoan raised in Hawaiʻi, standing on the land of my ancestors to share my work, teaching career, and Ethnomathematics felt like a spiritual homecoming—a moment where identity, purpose, and culture aligned like the constellations, guiding me home.
My journey as an educator began in Hawaiʻi, nurtured by the values of aloha, kuleana, and pilina. These teachings grounded me, Hawaiʻi hānai and raised me. Over the years, the demands of standardized curriculum made me feel disconnected from the cultural foundations that shaped my upbringing. I taught lessons, but I longed to teach with intention—to honor the stories, languages, and knowledge systems of the students in my classroom.
That longing led me to the Ethnomathematics Program, where everything shifted. I began to see mathematics not as abstract content, but as a living language woven into cultural practices, innovation, and ancestral knowledge. Hawaiian and Samoan ways of knowing share a common thread: observation of the land, ocean, and sky; attention to relationships and cycles; and respect for intergenerational knowledge. As my tita Tiana Henderson reminds us, our ancestors were not only intelligent—they were “INDIGENIUSes.”
Ethnomathematics and STEM Curriculum Library
The Ethnomathematics and STEM Curriculum Library serves as a repository—a central place where educational resources, lesson plans, activity guides, and digital materials are collected, stored, and shared from our Ethnomathematics scholars. In education, repositories make it possible for teachers and students to access culturally grounded curricula anytime, supporting both classroom instruction and community-based projects. Our repository connects cultural knowledge with STEM learning, digital tools, and real-world applications.
Grounded in frameworks such as Ethnomathematics (D’Ambrosio, 1985), Place-Based Education (Gruenewald, 2003), Indigenous Epistemologies, and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (Paris & Alim, 2017), the library ensures that Indigenous knowledge systems and local context are central to student learning. It emphasizes identity, wellbeing, and equity, positioning learners as active contributors to both their communities and the environment.
A key highlight of the library I presented was my Māla Positional System lesson, which participants explored during our presentation. This lesson integrates positional notation, environmental science, and Hawaiian cultural practice through hands-on activities like propagating plants, observing lunar cycles, and mapping traditional planting sites. Digital tools such as GPS, GIS, Google Earth, and Desmos graphing software extend these experiences, allowing students to visualize, analyze, and share their learning in innovative ways.
The lesson connects to the Moʻo Meheu Exhibition, highlighting the philosophy of “cultural imprint”—sustaining and transmitting ancestral knowledge through tangible and digital forms. By documenting and sharing these activities in the repository, educators and learners can continue building knowledge while honoring Indigenous ways of knowing.
Pacific Circle Consortium 2025: Returning Home
At the PCC 2025, I co-presented with Susan Saka, and my sister also presented with her team of administrators and educators from Wallace Rider Farrington High School. Susan and I shared not only our unbelievable Ethnomathematics Curriculum Library but also Papahana Kuaola programs and projects, emphasizing place-based, ʻāina-based learning. Beyond the formal session, our family hosted PCC members to immerse them in Samoan cultural practices, including:
● Preparing an imu and demonstrating sustainable food practices hosted by my family
● Harvesting from our family plantation and observing phenology
● Learning natural cooking methods, including preparing koko Samoa from cacao pods over an open fire
● Exploring mathematic equations, geometry, and design through weaving coconut leaves into baskets and plates
● Meeting the Gaualofa crew, who educate the Samoan community on voyaging, navigation, and ocean stewardship
● Visiting and honoring the villages, graves, and ancestral sites of our family
● Exploring Samoan history, including the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum, connecting cultural storytelling and historical context to teaching
Conference participants engaged in hands-on ethnomathematics activities, discovering how Indigenous STEM knowledge can be integrated across multiple disciplines while fostering wellbeing, engagement, and cultural pride. Educators from Aotearoa, Fiji, Tonga, Australia, Japan, the U.S., and Samoa shared their own experiences, reinforcing the interconnectedness of Pacific knowledge systems.
One reflection from a participant resonated deeply: “This work doesn’t just teach students math—it teaches them who they are.”
A Return to Purpose
Returning to Samoa for PCC 2025 was a profound personal and professional homecoming. It reaffirmed that identity, culture, and land must be central to teaching because they are central to who our students are. Hawaiʻi raised me. Samoa grounds me. Ethnomathematics brought me home. Above all, I am reminded: “E lele le toloa, ae ma‘au i le vai.” No matter how far we travel, we always return—to our waters, our ancestors, our cultures, and our purpose.
