mā.lama
1. nvt. To take care of, tend, attend, care for, preserve, protect, beware, save, maintain; to keep or observe, as a taboo; to conduct, as a service; to serve, honor, as God; care, preservation, support, fidelity, loyalty; custodian, caretaker, keeper. Cf. makemake, mālama hale, mālama hele, mālama moku, mālama pūʻolo, pālama 1. Mālama ʻana, custody. Mālama pono ʻia, well cared for. Mālama pono! Be careful! Watch out! Mālama makua, one who cares for parents. Mālama wahine, caring for one’s wife. Mālama i kou makua kāne, honor your father. Mālama kauoha, obey orders. Mālama Lā Kāpaki, keeping the Sabbath. Ē kuʻu Akua, e mālama au iāʻoe ma ka noʻonoʻo, O my God, let me serve you in thought. O ka hoʻolohe a me ka mālama pono i ke aupuni, obedience and fidelity due the government. Ka mālama ʻole i kō haʻi ola, negligence of the lives of others. hoʻo.mā.lama
ʻāina
n. Land, earth. Cf. ʻai, to eat; ʻaina, kamaʻāina. Kō nā ʻāina like ʻole, belonging to foreign lands, foreign, international. ʻĀina hoʻoilina, inherited property or estate. Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono (motto of Hawaiʻi), the life of the land is preserved in righteousness. (PEP kaainga.)
To mālama ʻāina is to care for, cherish, serve, and protect the land. It is to see the land as a beloved parent to whom we owe our very existence.
Without this exact ʻāina, Hawaiian culture as we know it would not exist. We are who we are because of our ʻāina, its unique geography, and its unique ecology.