Place-based stewards in the Heʻeia ahupuaʻa expressed a need for a set of guidelines to help ensure that research projects focused in Heʻeia engage in equitable and reciprocal partnership with those connected to and caring for the ahupuaʻa. In response to this need, a partnership was formed between the University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant College Program, Kuaʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo (KUA), and others to develop the Kūlana Noi‘i.

The Kūlana Noi‘i is not intended to be a compliance standard or checklist for achieving reciprocal community-research partnership. Instead, this document serves as a starting point for deeper conversation and lays out a set of ideas, values, and behaviors that when applied alongside hard work can build more just and generative relationships between researchers and communities.