Regenerative has lived here for centuries. Long before we began our Living Story work, the island’s original stewards had already perfected systems that aligned ecology, culture, and economy into a single, interdependent whole. The ahupua‘a system organized land and water from mountain to sea, ensuring that every community lived within the natural carrying capacity of its watershed. Places like the Alakoko Fishpond—an engineering masterpiece built over 600 years ago—demonstrate an intimate understanding of hydrology, species cycles, and long-term food resilience. Across the island, traditional practices, place names, and stories encode generations of ecological observation and adaptive management.

When we listened to Kaua‘i through the Living Story, these Indigenous ways of knowing were not “inspirations”—they were reminders. Reminders that regenerative design is not new here; it is ancestral. Our role was simply to hear it, honour it, and help bring its intelligence back into the work.