Hawaiʻi Rising

Dr. Kamana Beamer, executive director of Aloha Kuamoʻo ʻĀina (AKA), tells the story of the historic Battle of Kuamoʻo in this interview alongside AKA program director Kelsy Jorgensen.

AKA offers a critical and special place in Kona for ʻŌiwi youth and all families across their island to deepen their cultural and spiritual ties to the land. Since 2016, AKA has connected over 2,000 community members and Native youth to Kuamoʻo’s landscape and history through managed access, community restoration projects, and place-based cultural education.

Website: kuamoo.org

Tags: Hawaiʻi, Hawai'i, Hawaii

A conversation about the future of STEM in Hawaiʻi with Kyle Yoshida and Maveric Abella, founding members of Honua Scholars.

Honua Scholars empowers local students to pursue STEM careers and advanced degrees to be Hawaiʻi’s STEM leaders. Formed in 2020 in response to the COVID pandemic and the perceived dissonance between culture and science, Honua Scholars supports STEM development alongside culture through an ecological social framework. Honua Scholars encourages civic engagement in the STEM community and advocates for reclaiming Hawaiʻi’s technology sector to be run by Hawaiians for Hawaiians.

Website: honuascholars.org

Meet Anthony Arce and Rebecca Maria Goldschmidt from Language Acquisition and Immersion for the New Generation (LAING).

LAING Hawaiʻi utilizes heritage language learning as a tool for social and political education. Their programming provides opportunities for cultural reclamation of ancestral knowledge as they work towards collective liberation and radical futures. LAINGʻs current programming includes Ilokano and Visayan-Cebuano language courses; Wellbeing Workshops to support health and wellness in our community during the COVID crisis; Tungtungan Sessions language partner exchange in collaboration with Unite Here! Local 5; and Pakasaritaan Storyteller’s Corner, where skills and stories are shared by collaborators in their native language.

Website: lainghawaii.org/

Tags: Hawaiʻi, Hawai'i, Hawaii

A conversation with Todd Yamashita, the president of the Ho’āhu Energy Cooperative Molokai (HECM). 

HECM was born out of a grassroots community effort to shape Molokai’s energy future through community-developed and -owned renewable energy projects. Their mission is to produce locally owned, affordable, renewable energy for the benefit of their members, the community, and the environment in Molokai. HECM's objectives are sustainability, affordability, resiliency, and energy independence/sovereignty through community-based renewable energy projects, workforce development programs, and community organizing.

Website: hoahuenergy.coop

Tags: Hawaiʻi, Hawai’i, Hawaii

An interview about health and healing in the home with Keola Chan, the kumu at the traditional Hawaiian healing school Ka Pā o Lonopūhā.

Ka Pā o Lonopūhā was founded in 2009 to train the next generation of lomilomi practitioners. They are dedicated to reviving the practice of Lomi Ae by taking a holistic approach to health. Rooted in Mauli Ola, their goal is to raise the consciousness of traditional Hawaiian healing practices.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Lonopuha

Tags: Hawaiʻi, Hawai’i, Hawaii 

Meet Krisha Zane, the EA Ecoversity Administrator at Kū-A-Kanaka, LLC.

Kū-A-Kanaka is a native Hawaiian women-owned and -operated social enterprise headquartered in Hilo on Hawaiʻi Island that founded EA Ecoversity, a Hawaiian culture-based higher education and career training program that provides blended online and offline learning in an atmosphere of aloha. EA Ecoversity offers a tuition-free, personalized program designed for Native Hawaiians ages 15-30 with a flexible micro-credential model.

Website: www.kuakanaka.com

Tags: Hawaii, Hawai'i, Hawaiʻi

Since families living in military housing first found fuel in their tap water in November, the Red Hill water crisis has mobilized a broad movement demanding the shutdown of the 80-year-old facility and the protection of Oʻahu’s water.

In today’s special episode, we join organizer and scholar Kyle Kajihiro for a DeTour, or demilitarization tour, and learn about U.S. militarism and grassroots activism in Hawaiʻi. We visit the Red Hill fuel storage facility, drive through the residential area affected by the latest spill, and pay our respects to the koʻa constructed by Hawaiian cultural practitioners outside Pacific Fleet Command.

Kyle is an organizer with Hawaiʻi Peace and Justice, the Oʻahu Water Protectors, and Mālama Mākua, and he teaches in the Ethnic Studies and Geography Departments at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

Tags: Hawaiʻi, Hawai'i, Hawaii

Jaerick Medeiros-Garcia and Blake McNaughton are the president and vice president of Makahanaloa Fishing Association on Hawaiʻi Island.

Makahanaloa Fishing Association seeks to grow and protect their community’s rights to provide food for their families and maintain the generational bonds to the treasured shoreline areas of Hilo Palikū. The Association is currently trying to establish permanent and protected access to the shoreline of Pepeʻekeo on Hawaiʻi Island through the Public Open Lands and Natural Resources Conservation Commission. Education, outreach, and activation of this community-focused stewardship effort is the primary goal of the Association as they fight to stop the continual degradation of access to the ʻāina that nourishes their bodies and spirit.

To see photos from our visit to Pepeʻekeo in November, visit the HPF blog at www.hawaiipeoplesfund.org/blog/.

Tags: Hawaii, Hawai'i, Hawaiʻi

An interview with sisters Nikki-Ann Yee and Brandy-Lee Yee, the founders of Maʻi Movement Hawaiʻi.

Maʻi Movement Hawaiʻi is a locally grown organization committed to ending period poverty in Hawai’i through service, advocacy, and education. Their mission is to provide and distribute free menstrual products to menstruators in need, while advocating for systemic change in the government, schools, and community, and bringing down the barriers of stigma and access. Their program and services serve all islands and people of Hawai’i regardless of age, race, background, or identity, and they envision a reality where women and people who menstruate live full, productive lives and menstruation is accepted as completely normal.

Link to report "Understanding Period Poverty in Hawaiʻi" (Hawaiʻi State Commission on the Status of Women and Maʻi Movement Hawaiʻi).

Website: maimovement.org

Tags: Hawaiʻi, Hawai'i, Hawaii

In today’s special episode, HPF takes you to Keaukaha on Hawai’i Island, where we joined the Ioane ‘Ohana and the King’s Landing community for their Makahiki ceremony in November. Featuring live music and an interview with Keli’i “Skippy” Ioane.

To learn more about King's Landing, check out our interview with ʻĀinaaloha and Haʻawina Ioane in episode 5 "Keliʻi William Ioane Legacy Foundation: Growing Up in King‘s Landing."

Tags: Hawaiʻi, Hawai'i, Hawaii