Researchers from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa are using Okinawan songs to learn about climate and geology. Justin Higa is a postdoctoral fellow and a Ryukyuan traditional music practitioner. Our Living Lands Producer Daniel Spaulding spoke to Higa about the connections between climate, music, and culture.
“A lot of the songs that we sing in traditional Okinawan music, Ryukyuan music, they talk about the natural world around us a lot, the environment,” Higa said. “And we learned that a couple of the songs that we sing very often hold knowledge of the climate, ocean systems and geology and how people interacted with them hundreds of years ago.”
