‘Seascape epistemology’ and native Hawaiian healing: A reading of Kimo Armitage’s The Healers

This study analyzes Kimo Armitage’s The Healers to examine how seascape epistemology provides an alternative framework for understanding human-environment relationships. The novel presents Native Hawaiian healing practices that position the ocean as an active, sacred entity central to identity, ancestry, and well-being rather than a passive setting. Armitage’s narrative challenges terrestrial ecological paradigms by emphasizing oceanic relationships where healing encompasses both physical and spiritual dimensions. The novel draws on Indigenous Hawaiian cosmology to reframe the sea as a genealogical and ethical space that preserves cultural memory and sustains ecological balance. This interpretation advances blue humanities scholarship by centering Native epistemologies that Western environmental discourse often marginalizes. The analysis employs literary interpretation alongside cultural theory to demonstrate how The Healers articulates a comprehensive vision of oceanic existence and knowledge systems.