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| Isabella Aiona Abbott, linocut 9.25" x 12.5", by Ele Willoughby, 2021 |
Professor Isabella Aiona Abbott (1919-2010), was born Isabella Kauakea Yau Yung Aiona on June 20, 1919 in Hāna on Maui, the second youngest of eight children. Her Hawaiian name means "white rain of Hāna," referring to the rain which comes in from the ocean as a white mist; her friends called her Izzie, the nickname her father gave her. Her mother Annie Kailihou was Native Hawaiian schoolteacher and Izzie first learned to love seaweed while gathering it on the shore with her mother, who would cook traditional Hawaiian dishes. Her mother taught her the Hawaiian names for seaweed; those she didn’t know she called ōpala (rubbish). Her father Loo Yuen had emigrated to Hawai’i from China, at age 18, to work on the Kīpahulu sugar plantation. He completed his contract, repaid his recruitment expenses, and opened a general store (in direct competition with the plantation store). His store was quite successful and the plantation store closed. He was friendly and learned to speak Hawaiian fluently before learning English. He had six sons with his first wife before she died; a local matchmaker introduced him to Annie. Annie moved to Hana to marry Loo and they had a son and a daughter. Loo spoke Chinese with business friends, English with the kids and Hawaiian speak privately with his wife. Izzie confessed the kids all learned Hawaiian to follow what her parents were saying amongst themselves. The family moved from to Honolulu so she could access the best schools. She was allowed to choose a Chinese or American school, private or public. She opted to attend the Kamehameha School for Girls in Hawaii, a private school for students of Hawaiian ancestry, which nurtured her love of botany. She recalled growing beans for the girls to eat and visiting flower gardens where she learned scientific names for plants, as well as the Hawaiian names. She learned that the scientific names for plants had meaning, and conveyed information about the plants, just like the Hawaiian names for plants did. She graduated in 1937.
While an undergraduate in biology at the University of Hawai’i she met her husband Don Abbott day one. They were seated next to each other thanks to the alphabetic seating chart. She earned her B.Sc.in 1941 and then her M.Sc. from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1942 then with her husband who studied marine invertebrates, she continued her graduate studies in algal taxonomy at the University of California Berkley. Their passion for different areas of marine biology was always complementary. She became the first Hawaiian woman to earn a doctorate in science when she graduated at age 31 in 1950. The couple moved to Pacific Grove, California in 1950, when zoologist Don joined the Stanford faculty at their field school Hopkins Marine Station. Biology jobs were scarce, especially for women and with their anti-nepotism rules, there was no job offer for Izzie, despite having the same credentials as her husband. So she focused on raising their daughter Annie, her involvement in the community and continuing to study and cook seaweed on her own adapting recipes to use the local bull kelp (Nereocystis) in things like cake and pickles. In 1960, she became a lecturer for Stanford’s Biology department, began teaching summer courses at Hopkins and publishing scientific papers. In 1969, she won the Darbaker Prize from the Botanical Society of America. By 1972, she had shown herself to be such a productive researcher and effective teacher that she was hired as both the first person of colour to receive a full professorship at Stanford and the first woman on the biological sciences faculty, bypassing the usual preliminary steps in the tenure-track ladder. She published more than 150 research papers and is credited with the discovery of over 200 species of algae. Many species have been named in her honour including an entire red algae genus known as Abbottella, or little Abbott. In 1976, she wrote ‘The Marine Algae of California,’ considered the definitive text on the subject. She and Don were well-loved teachers, and considered “the heart” of the marine station, often housing visiting scholars, hosting colleagues and students, and feeding them Izzie’s popular seaweed-based delights. Izzie was known for allowing her gradient students freedom to choose and explore their research areas so her group studied a wide range of subjects within marine botany.
During this time, Abbott was diagnosed with breast cancer. Determined to survive the disease, she took the only possible cure at the time, complete mastectomy. She became a 40-year cancer survivor.
The Abbotts retired in 1982 and moved to Hawai’i where Izzie, hired by the University of Hawai’i developed a course in ethnobotany which lead the development of an undergraduate major in the subject. Her classes were hands-on; students were encouraged to grow plants, make baskets or bark-cloth and of course, were regularly fed limu. She wrote a small book about the edible seaweed of Hawai’i known as “limu” for the lay public, which included their scientific names, Hawaiian names, oral history of kūpuna (Hawaiian for elders) and recipes. Her culinary skills were featured in a 1987 article in Gourmet Magazine. Asked which was the most important limu, she made a case for limu kala (S. echinocarpum, on the right in my portrait. “People eat it, turtles eat it. And kala means ‘to forgive.’ It’s used in purification ceremonies like ho’oponopono (the Hawaiian reconciliation process), or if you’ve been sitting with a dead person, or if you’re going on a dangerous journey.”
Offered a chance to name a research vessel by NOAA (the National Oceanographic and Atmosphic Administration) she named it The Hi’ialakai, which translates as “embracing or searching the pathways of the sea”. In 1992, she published “Lā‘au Hawai‘i”, the first comprehensive Hawaiian ethnobotany textbook covering everything from canoe-building, clothing, medicine, hula, weaponry to religion. She called it “a Western scientist’s viewpoint of the Hawaiian way of doing things,” and argued it was needed so that, “Hawaiians are not put in second- or third-class status of Native people who don’t know anything. Hawaiian culture is unbelievably sophisticated.”
In 1993, she won the Charles Reed Bishop Medal. In 1997, Isabella Aiona Abbott was awarded the highest award in marine botany, the National Academy of Sciences Gilbert Morgan Smith medal. In 2005 the Honpa Hongwanji Buddhist Mission named her a Living Treasure. In 2008 the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources honoured her with a lifetime achievement award from for her studies of coral reefs.
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| Isabella Aiona Abbott linocut with labelled algae species and her related publications. |
In my print, she is surrounded by algae of the Pacific, all of which appeared in Abbott's research publications, including several species she discovered, or based on images of specimen she personally collected or whose traditional use as food she documented. From left, clockwise around to the right, these algae are:
Laurencia majuscula, which is a type of peppery flavoured limu used by Hawaiians as a condiment, Spatoglossum macrodontum, Feldmannia cylindica or simplex, Hincksia granulosa, Cryptopleura rosacea, Pradae weldii, Sargossum echinocarpum, an edible limu species called limu kala.
She died at age 91, in 2010, in her home at O’ahu.
References:
Healoha Johnston, ‘Marine Botanist Isabella Aiona Abbott and More Women to Know this Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month,’ Because of Her Story, Smithsonian.com, May 3, 2021
I.A. Abbott, ‘Limu: An Ethnobotanical Study of Some Hawiian Seaweeds’, National Tropical Botanical Garden, Kaua‘i, Hawai‘i, 1984.
Danika Bense, ‘A Celebration of Women’s History and Dr. Isabella Aiona Abbott,’ Ho’oulu, UH Maui College, March 14, 2019
Louise Bergeron, Isabella Abbott, world-renown Standord algae expert, dies at 91, Stanford Report, December 7, 2010
Isabella Abbott, Wikipedia, accessed September, 2021
Jennifer Crites, Pioneering professor is first lady of limu, Mālamalama, The Magazine of the University of Hawai’i, October 21, 2010.
Long Story Short with Leslie Wilcox, with guest Isabella Abbott, PBS Hawaii, First air date June 17, 2008
Isabella Aiona Abbott 1919-2010, Hawai’I Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commemoration, April 28, 2020
Karli Chudeau, Science Heroes: Dr. Isabella Aiona Abbott, The Ethogram, June 29, 2021
Shannon Wianecki, Hawai’i’s First Lady of Limu, Hana Hou: The Magazine of Hawaiian Airlines, December 2019/January 2020
