Host: Ākea Kahikina (Producer, Writer, Director)

Guests: Jamaica Heolimelekalani Osorio (Scholar, Educator, Activist) & Leināʻala Mahi (Poet, Photographer, Activist)

Works Featured: No ka Pono o ka Māhūi and An HonorTheme: Art, activism, and aloha ʻāina as the work of wāhine koa

Description:

Host Ākea Kahikina sits with co-editor Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio and poet Leināʻala Mahi to talk story about art, activism, and aloha ʻāina as interwoven practices of wāhine koa. Building from Osorio’s co-editorship of No ka Pono o ka Māhūi and Mahi’s poem An Honor, the guests discuss how poetry, protest, and motherhood shape their work and vision for liberation. Together, they reflect on how wāhine koa, in the fight for lāhui liberation, can serve as extensions of Hiʻiaka’s lightning-imbued pāʻū—the very hand of Kīlauea that births hulihia—and how wahine koa creations become a bodily extension of ea within the lāhui.

Listen & Learn:

How do wāhine koa lead through creativity, courage, and care—and what does it mean to craft art that both protects and provokes?

*This episode engages Hawaiian worldviews and social contexts, and explores themes of sexuality, gender, and erotics. Some language and content may be considered strong or triggering. Viewer/listener discretion is advised. 

Art concept: Kaʻiminaʻauao Kahikina @mahucha_art

Art design: Sara Saffery @sarasaffery

Music: “Pua Līlīlehua,” Mokihana Flood, Tree of Life

Follow the podcast on IG: @kukakikipodcast