Hawaiʻi Kuʻu Home Aloha Summit: 

Past + Present + Future

Introduction

Hawai‘i ku‘u home aloha: Hawai‘i my beloved home. As a Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation ™ Campus Center and a campus committed to becoming a Native Hawaiian Place of Learning, we intentionally pause each year on January 17th to mark the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. During this time, we also honor the National Day of Racial Healing and the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We do all of this in the name of Hawai‘i, our beloved home, as we come together – inclusive of all those who call Hawai‘i home – to build pilina while and through learning and sharing about Hawai‘i’s past and present in order to prepare a future Hawai‘i in which our mo‘opuna can not only survive but also thrive. Join us!

For any questions please email: nhpol@hawaii.edu. 

Click Here to Register

Schedule & Parking

UH Mānoa’s Visitor Parking

Parking: Please visit commuter services (link above) for more information about parking.

On-campus activities: We invite you to our Mānoa campus for the activities that will be happening Wed (1/21) and Thurs (1/22). We will have targeted activities with communities or groups on Tues (1/20) and we will be focused on classes that are 2.5 hours long. If you teach or attend a class and would like more information, please email us at nhpol@hawaii.edu. 

Tuesday – January 20, 2026

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Please fill out this form to register your class for a Pilina Circle on January 20th, 2026. 

Wednesday – January 21, 2026

Time

Activity

Place

10 am 

Opening: Welina Mānoa (chanting only)

Hawai‘i Hall Lawn

10:05 – 11:45 am 

Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī Workshop with Kumu Hula Pele Harman (co-founder of Hālau I Ka Leo Ola O Nā Mamo and founder of No Nā ʻŌpio)

Hawaiʻi Hall Lawn

Noon

Ceremony for Queen Lili‘uokalani and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

Ahu o Kamakaʻeha followed by the MLK Plaque

12:30 – 1:15 pm 

Lunch

Hawaiʻi Hall Lawn

1:30 – 2:45 pm 

Concurrent Workshops

  • Mālama ʻĀina with Nōweo Kai 
  • Visioning Workshop with Dr. Kaiwipunikauikawēkiu 

Hawaiʻi Hall Lawn 

4
Pelehonuamea Suganuma Harman is the co-founder of https://www.halauikaleoola.org/ and founder of https://www.no-na-opio.org/
Learn more about Nōweo Kai at: https://manoa.hawaii.edu/staffsenate/staff-member/kai-noweo/

Thursday – January 22, 2026 

Time

Activity

Place

10 am – 12 pm 

Kūpaʻa i ka Mauli Ola: Honoring Our Past for a Safer Future 

An Introduction to Trauma-Informed Care led by Tia Hartsock, Executive Director, Office of Wellness and Resilience (OWR)

Hawai‘i Hall Lawn

12 – 12:45 pm 

12:50 – 1:15 pm 

Lunch & Learn

Pathways to a Native Hawaiian Place of Learning: An Interactive Gallery

Behind the Blueprint: The Journey of Cohort Kumukahi

Hawaiʻi Hall Lawn

2:00 pm 

Mele, Mo‘olelo, & Momentum: Gifts from Moananuiākea moderated by Dr. Bruce Kaʻimi Watson

Hawaiʻi Hall Lawn 

Learn more about the Office of Wellness and Resilience at: https://owr.hawaii.gov/about-us/
On January 22, 2026, hui members will share their unit's five-year action plan with the broader Mānoa campus community.
Further details of the lunch and learn happening on January 22, 2026. We hope to see you there!
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Donate To This Event!

Mahalo!

Hawaiʻi Kuʻu Home Aloha Recap

Thank you for joining us for the Hawaiʻi Kuʻu Home Aloha Summit! Below are details from previous years. We look forward to seeing you again in the future!

Read the 2025 Hawaiʻi Kuʻu Home Aloha Report

Friday January 17, 2025

Honoring our past

TimeActivityPlace
11 am – 12 pmOpening and Welina Mānoa chant workshopHawai‘i Hall Lawn
12 – 1 pmCeremony for Queen Lili‘uokalani and Dr. Martin Luther King, JrAhu o Kamakaʻeha followed by the MLK Plaque
1 – 1:30 pm‘Ai Māmā (light meal)Hawai‘i Hall Lawn
1:30 – 2:30 pmMele Workshop with Kumu Tatiana Fox: Hawai‘i AlohaHawai‘i Hall Lawn

Saturday, January 18, 2025

Honoring our present in community

For the second day of Hawaiʻi Kuʻu Home Aloha, we invite you to connect in community and contribute to our collective kuleana to mālama the people and spaces around us. Volunteering is an important way we support one another, build and strengthen pilina, and make a positive impact in our Hawaiʻi.

Please see some opportunities we have identified below that are inviting volunteers for community service. This list is not all-encompassing, and if you know of other places to volunteer, please reach out to them directly. There are so many organizations that would greatly appreciate your help!

To learn more about any of the listed organizations or details on the day, please visit their hyperlinked website and contact them via their email. Please contact these groups prior to Saturday the 18th in case opportunities change and you have the most current information. Please take photos of your time volunteering, and tag us on your preferred social media at @nhpolmanoa. Have fun, and we will see you out there! #HawaiiKuuHomeAloha #NHPoLManoa #HowWeHeal

Sunday, January 19, 2025

Honoring presence

On this day, we invite you to rest. How is your body reacting and processing? Throughout the day, you are invited to take intentional pauses to feel what is coming up in your body and to rest on what your kūpuna and Hawaiʻi may be trying to teach you at this moment. Rest can take many forms beyond the physical. We share one body practice from “My Grandmother’s Hands” as one way to return to your body for a day of rest and into the following days and a poem to situate one way to take an intentional pause written by Kamakani Albano. To begin this radical day of rest, we look towards these words:

“Rest is a spiritual practice. Rest is a disruption of the toxic narrative of capitalism that connects our worth to how much we produce for a system that views us as human machines. Grind culture and the exhaustion it produces degrade our divinity. It is a true resistance to center your rest in a world that drives on hyperproductivity, urgency and disconnection.”

— Tricia Hersey of The Nap Ministry

“Rest as Resistance and Refuge” (2022)

 

Download the Body Practice Guide

Rest is a return to the love letter

inspired by Tricia Hersey

written by Kamakani Albano

 

For a body to desire love, it must rest.
So as to remember the capaciousness
of the love that it can hold. To resist and endure.
Rest is a return to the deepest intimate desires.

For a body to feel love, it must rest.
Are we but machines to be stolen, enslaved, colonized,
or occupied under that which has done the same to the most sacred?
Rest is a return to the bones.

For a body to taste love, it must rest.
Mother tongues rejuvenate in stillness, shaken by
disconnection, remembering languages, elders, and songs.
Rest is a return to ancestral knowledge, to liberated futures.

For a body to smell love, it must rest.
Inhaling the rain’s blessing, the breath of the mountain’s
mist, the salt of the glistening bed. Aren’t you ʻono for it, too?
Rest is a return to the stolen exhale.

For a body to write of love, it must rest.
Cradled in Papahānaumoku’s arms and her oceanic
womb that first birthed life from the darkness of pō.
Rest is a love letter to the body, the rippling waters, the resisting ʻaʻaliʻi.

Monday, January 20, 2025

Honoring reflection (online) 

What are the futures we hope for and envision for our children and grandchildren? Dr. Gail Christopher, whose work emphasizes the importance of holistic healing, and Kumu Hula Kekuhi Kealiʻikanakaʻoleohaililani, whose passion lies in the rejuvenation of human-to-nature relationships, come together for the first time in conversation for the 2024 Hawaiʻi Kuʻu Home Aloha Keynote: “For Our Grandchildren: Healing. Restoring. Imagining,” co-facilitated by Kekuhi Kanahele and Kamakani Albano.

 

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

National Day of Racial Healing

TimeActivityPlace
9:30 am – 12 pmPilina Circles*Campus Center Ballroom: 3rd floor
1 – 2:30 pmBrave Space ConversationQueen Lili’uokalani Center 208
2:30 – 5 pmPilina Circles*Campus Center Ballroom: 3rd floor
5:30 – 6:30 pmKeynote ReceptionCampus Center Ballroom: 3rd floor
6:30 – 8 pmKeynote with Norma WongCampus Center Ballroom: 3rd floor

*Note: If you are registering for a Pilina Circle you will need to be present for the entire time. 

2025 Keynote and Question Guide

Keynote:

Question Guide:

  • What manaʻo (thoughts/ideas/reflections) is sticking with you?
  • What is coming up for you as you watch the keynote? What do you feel in your body (i.e., are there any sensations or emotions you are feeling)?
  • How does this keynote inform how you think about the futures you envision for your children, grandchildren, and/or those you will never meet?
  • What are you still wondering about?
  • Dr. Gail Christopher shared a beautiful story about her grandchild that informed her career and life’s work. Who is a young person in your life today who inspires you? How do they shape the future(s) you desire for them and their moʻopuna (grandchildren)?
  • Kumu Kekuhi said, “the connections don’t only appear because we see the connective tissue. The connections are all over, which means everyone is your teacher.” We invite you to take a moment to look outside from where you are at this moment, take a deep breath, and greet the ʻāina with intentionality. What are you learning? What do you think your kūpuna (ancestors) are trying to teach you? What is the next thing you desire to learn?
  • We invite you to reflect on those futures through expression. Please write a letter to someone/something (person, place, ʻāina, wai, etc.) that describes at least one future you envision for them. You are invited to describe what you see, smell, taste, and/or hear in that future.

Wednesday, January 22, 2025

A New Horizon 

TimeActivityPlace
9:45 – 10:45 amHo‘okuleana CeremonyHawai‘i Hall Lawn
11 am – 12:30 pmPoetry Workshop with Kamakani AlbanoHawai‘i Hall Lawn
12:45 – 1:30 pmLunchHawai‘i Hall Lawn
1:45 – 3:15 pmStorytelling Workshop with Sean DunningtonHawai‘i Hall Lawn
1: 45 – 3:15 pmMeleanna Meyer Art InstallationArt Building: 3rd floor
3:30 pm“Hawaiʻi Aloha” ClosingHawai‘i Hall Lawn
 
 
 

Click here to view the 2024 Summit Schedule and Details.

2024 Hawaiʻi Kuʻu Home Aloha Summit in the News and Media: 

Tuesday January 17, 2023

We recommend bringing your own water container, wearing comfortable footwear and clothing, and bringing a hāliʻi, blanket or comfortable chair if possible. 

Kakahiaka (Morning)

9:00 – 10:15 am Launa & Learn “Welina Mānoa”

Meet other UH Mānoa students, staff, faculty, and community members while having the opportunity to learn the chant “Welina Mānoa” composed by award-winning Kumu Hula and musician Dr. Keawe Lopes.

A free light morning meal to follow. 

Location: McCarthy Mall (look for the white tent)

10:30 – 11:20 am Ma Ka Hana Ka ‘Ike (By doing one learns)

  • “Story sharing and radical listening” with Sean Dunnington

Join this workshop with playwright and story coach Sean Dunnington to learn innovative techniques for writing and sharing parts of your mo‘olelo (story) out loud. In particular, we will focus on mo‘olelo that express your experience of Hawai‘i as home.

Location: Bilger Hall 150

Nōweo Kai

  • Mālama ‘āina activity with Nōweo Kai

Join this session with UH Mānoa Campus Arboretum Curator, Nōweo Kai, to huli ka lima i lalo (turn your hands to the ground) and learn how to take care of some of UH Mānoa’s beautiful meakanu (plants). Prepare to get a tiny bit dirty and do some walking. Comfortable footwear and clothes are recommended. 

Location: Meet at McCarthy Mall (look for the white tent)

Laura Toyofuku-Aki

  • Movement and meditation activity with Laura Toyofuku-Aki

Join this session to engage in some body and soul medicine with Laura Toyofuku-Aki of Project Koa Yoga. We will spend some time discussing the important connection between healthy bodies and a thriving Hawai‘i, engaging in meditation that focuses on resilience and future generations, and connecting with the many stories that our bodies hold through some gentle movement. Bring a mat or towel if you have one but not required. Comfortable clothes are recommended. No experience is needed.

Location: Grassy area in front of Bilger Hall on McCarthy Mall

Free refreshments to follow these sessions.

Awakea (Midday)

12:00 – 12:30 pm: Hoʻokupu to Queen Liliʻuokalani and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

Please join this time of ho‘okupu as we honor Queen Lili‘uokalani at Ke Ahu o Kamaka‘eha. This will be followed by ho‘okupu to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr at his plaque near the Art School. An oli or lei would be appropriate. If you are not mākaukau, feel free to observe quietly.

*Please no single-strand ti-leaf lei (even in multiple strands)*

Location: Meet at the front of the Queen Lili‘uokalani Student Services building

12:30-1:30pm ‘Aina Awakea (Lunch)

Please join us for a free meal following the ceremonies for Queen Lili‘uokalani and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Catered by Haili‘s Hawaiian Food and dessert by Slice

Location: McCarthy Mall (Look for the white tent)

2:00 – 4:30 pm Pilina Circles

Please join us for a Pilina Circle: An opportunity to share stories, listen deeply, and discover pilina with yourself and others. Learn new tools for holding this type of space in your homes and organizations.

Location: Queen Lili‘uokalani Building Mānoa Campus or online (*Please pre-register for this event. The exact location will be emailed to you upon registration)

4:45 pm Closing

Please join us as we sing Hawai‘i Aloha to close our day. 

Location: Inside the Queen Lili‘uokalani Student Services Building

2023 Resources and Question Guide

Resources:

Question Guide:

With all this to guide us, let’s collectively explore what it has meant, continues to mean, and could mean in the future to experience Hawai‘i as our home aloha, our beloved home.

We do this by engaging in the following questions:

  • What has made it both beautiful as well as challenging to call Hawai‘i home:
    • Historically?
    • Currently?
  • What can the lessons from these experiences mean for the Hawai‘i we want to shape as home for our children and grandchildren?

We will pause and engage together on this day by sharing stories, listening deeply, creating art, making connections, building relationships, and sharing meals together.

Our pause is inspired and shaped by the following quotes:

“Never cease to act because you fear you may fail.” – Queen Liliʻuokalani

Queen Liliʻuokalani

“…the end is the creation of the beloved community. It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opposers into friends. It is this type of understanding goodwill that will transform the deep gloom of the old age into the exuberant gladness of the new age. It is this love which will bring about miracles in the hearts of men.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“What will your community look like when racism has been jettisoned?” – W. K. Kellogg Foundation

We recognize that there will be events occurring around O‘ahu and throughout Hawai‘i, including but not limited to the ever-important march from Mauna‘ala to ‘Iolani Palace. We invite you to attend as little or as much of our offerings described below as you weave together the many events happening across space and time for your own growth, healing, and connection.

 All are welcome including UH Mānoa students, staff, and faculty as well as community members/organizations. 

For questions please email: nhpol@hawaii.edu 

Registration is now closed, and we have reached a maximum capacity for pilina circles! But please feel free to come and join us in person for our other activities! Check out the other events for the day below!

UH Mānoa’s Visitor Parking Map (PDF)

McCarthy Mall: Location pin and photograph

McCarthy Mall Campus Map Bird's Eye View McCarthy Mall Lawn Space In Front of the Art Building

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