Welina mai!

We are the Ecological and Evolutionary Informatics Lab located at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in the School of Life Sciences. Work in our lab is two fold: we help build mechanisms and methods to support and advance Indigenous data sovereignty and we develop computational/mathematical methods for studying biodiversity.

We collaborate with the Penobscot Nation Department of Natural Resources, Local Contexts, ENRICH, and the Native Nations Institute on Indigenous data sovereignty. We are building our collaboration network here in Hawaiʻi.

Our biodiversity work has focused on the ecosystems of the Hawaiian Islands, and what is know known as the state of Maine. We have studied arthropods, plants, and microbes using direct observation, high throughput sequencing, and eDNA.

Land Acknowledgement

Our lab is located on stolen ʻaina. As leader of this lab group, Andy Rominger who is haole/settler, offers this Land Acknowledgement quoting directly from, and using as inspiration, the example Land Acknowledgement presented by the Native Hawaiian Place of Learning Advancement Office.

This ‘āina on which our University and lab reside is part of the larger territory recognized by Indigenous Hawaiians as their ancestral grandmother, Papahānaumoku. Her majesty Queen Lili‘uokalani yielded the Hawaiian Kingdom and these territories under duress and protest to the United States to avoid the bloodshed of her people. Hawai‘i remains an illegally occupied state of America.

Each moment we are in Hawai‘i she nourishes and gifts us with the opportunity to breathe her air, eat from her soils, drink from her waters, bathe in her sun, swim in her oceans, be kissed by her rains, and be embraced by her winds. Generations of Indigenous Hawaiians and their knowledge systems shaped Hawai‘i in sustainable ways that allow us to enjoy these gifts today.