Indigenous Planning: Utilising Kupuna Lensing for Pacific Disaster Risk Reduction

ABSTRACT This article examines Indigenous planning as a vital epistemological and practical framework for disaster risk reduction in the Pacific, centering Hawaiian knowledge systems. Through case studies of the 2018 Kīlauea eruption and the 2023 Lahaina wildfire, this paper demonstrates how ʻike Hawaiʻi—utilising kupuna lensing (Hawaiian analytic research method), moʻolelo (stories) and Hawaiian naming practices—offers culturally grounded approaches to reducing risks from disasters. The article argues that Pacific communities in Hawaiʻi, Aotearoa and Fiji reframe dominant disaster planning paradigms by asserting relational ethics, intergenerational resilience and cultural infrastructure utilisation. Challenging dominant views about Pacific cultural heritage, it is argued that this heritage serves as an active site of Indigenous planning, resilient urban design and community action. The paper calls for a paradigm shift in disaster planning and policy—one that centers Indigenous methodologies, language and land‐based relationships. By situating Hawaiian planning practice within broader Pacific Indigenous geographies, the article contributes to decolonial scholarship and advocates for integrating Indigenous frameworks into mainstream planning discourse. This approach affirms that Indigenous planning is not supplementary but foundational to sustainable futures in the region.