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.
Schedule & 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 Fri (1/17), Tues (1/21), and Wed (1/22). For all other activities, we invite you to be in the community, at home, and off-campus (see additional details below).
Friday – January 17, 2025
Honoring our past
| Time | Activity | Place |
| 11 am – 12 pm | Opening and Welina Mānoa chant workshop | Hawai‘i Hall Lawn |
| 12 – 1 pm | Ceremony for Queen Lili‘uokalani and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr | Ahu o Kamakaʻeha followed by the MLK Plaque |
| 1 – 1:30 pm | ‘Ai Māmā (light meal) | Hawai‘i Hall Lawn |
| 1:30 – 2:30 pm | Mele Workshop with Kumu Tatiana Fox: Hawai‘i Aloha | Hawai‘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
Contact: kanewai@hawaii.edu
Where: 53-270 HI-83, Hauʻula, HI, 96717
What: Hana lima/hana ʻāina
Time: 8:00am – 1:00pm
Registration required: No
Special Directions: Drive to the gate entrance located across the street (mauka) from the Punaluʻu Beach Park Bathrooms. From the beach park: Cars pull up to the gate with a white sign and a blue letter K where a worker will direct you where to drive up to our site and park
Food: Lunch provided by Ka papa loʻi ʻo Punaluʻu
Bathrooms: Porta Potties
What to bring: Your own water/water bottle, clothes you are okay with staining and getting wet, tabis or other water shoes, a hat, sunscreen, swim clothes and towels (if you want to swim).
Who: Mālama Loko ʻEa Foundation
Contact: adele@lokoea.org
Where: 62-540 Kamehameha Hwy, Haleʻiwa, HI, 96712
What: Hana lima/hana ʻāina
Time: 9:00am – 12:00pm
Registration required: Yes https://www.lokoea.org/come-to-community-volunteer-work-day.html
Food: Lunch provided by Mālama Loko ʻEa
What to bring: Water bottles, clothes you are okay with staining and getting wet, tabis or other water shoes, a hat, sunscreen, towels
Who: Protect & Preserve Hawaiʻi
Contact: connect@protectpreservehi.org
Where: Pia Valley, Honolulu, HI, 96821
What: Ecological restoration, hana ʻāina
Time: 8:30am – 12:30pm
Registration required: No
Food: Bring your own lunch, brown bag
What to bring: Your own water/water bottle, clothes you are okay with getting dirty, gloves, hiking appropriate shoes, a hat, sunscreen.
Who: Aloha Tree Alliance
Contact: info@alohatreealliance.org
Where: Kuliʻouʻou Valley Trail, Honolulu, HI, 96821
What: Planting 300 native plants in the ground
Time: 8:00 am – 12:00 pm
Registration required: Yes https://www.alohatreealliance.org/get-involved/
Food: Bring your own lunch, brown bag
What to bring: Your own water/water bottle, clothes you are okay with getting dirty, gloves, hiking appropriate shoes, a hat, sunscreen.
Who: Hui o Hauʻula
Contact: davaa.huiohauula@gmail.com
Where: 54-010 Kukuna Rd, Hauʻula, HI, 96717
What: Hana lima/hana ʻāina
Time: 9:00am – 12:30pm
Registration required: No
Food: Lunch provided by Hui o Hauʻula
What to bring: Your own water/water bottle, clothes you are okay with getting dirty, gloves, closed toe shoes, a hat, sunscreen.
Who: Loko Iʻa Pāʻaiau
Contact: ealapaaiau@gmail.com
Where: 57 Arizona Memorial Drive, ʻAiea, HI, 96701
What: Welcome Hōkūleʻa to Puʻuloa
Time: 9:00am – 12:00pm
Registration required: No
Food: Bring your own lunch, brown bag
What to bring: Your own water/water bottle, comfortable clothes, a hat, sunscreen.
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)
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.
Guided Prompts
A Day of Reflection
Tuesday – January 21, 2025
| Time | Activity | Place |
| 9:30 am – 12 pm | Pilina Circles* | Campus Center Ballroom: 3rd floor |
| 1 – 2:30 pm | Brave Space Conversation | Queen Lili’uokalani Center 208 |
| 2:30 – 5 pm | Pilina Circles* | Campus Center Ballroom: 3rd floor |
| 5:30 – 6:30 pm | Keynote Reception | Campus Center Ballroom: 3rd floor |
| 6:30 – 8 pm | Keynote with Norma Wong | Campus Center Ballroom: 3rd floor |
*Note: If you are registering for a Pilina Circle you will need to be present for the entire time.
Wednesday – January 22, 2025
A new horizon
| Time | Activity | Place |
| 9:45 – 10:45 am | Ho‘okuleana Ceremony | Hawai‘i Hall Lawn |
| 11 am – 12:30 pm | Poetry Workshop with Kamakani Albano | Hawai‘i Hall Lawn |
| 12:45 – 1:30 pm | Lunch | Hawai‘i Hall Lawn |
| 1:45 – 3:15 pm | Storytelling Workshop with Sean Dunnington | Hawai‘i Hall Lawn |
| 1: 45 – 3:15 pm | Meleanna Meyer Art Installation | Art Building: 3rd floor |
| 3:30 pm | “Hawaiʻi Aloha” Closing | Hawai‘i Hall Lawn |
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!
Embracing diversity: 2nd annual summit advocates racial healing
On a journey to weave threads of unity and deeper connections, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Native Hawaiian Place of Learning (NHPoL) Advancement Office hosted the Hawaiʻi Kuʻu Home Aloha (HKHA) summit January 16–18. The second annual event held at UH’s flagship campus guided haumāna (students), employees and the community through a wide range of immersive workshops on oli (chant), mele (song) and storytelling.
Click here to view the 2024 Summit Schedule and Details.
2024 Hawaiʻi Kuʻu Home Aloha Summit in the News and Media:
- Star-Advertiser: UH-Manoa summit aims to heal rifts in community, visualize future
- Ka Wai Ola: The Public is Invited to Attend Hawaiʻi Kuʻu Home Aloha 2024
- UH News: Learn about Hawaiʻi’s rich history, culture for free
- KHON2 News: Hawaii Kuu Home Aloha Summit returns to UH Manoa
- Hawaiʻi Public Radio: UH conference centered around cultural healing on 131st anniversary of overthrow
- The Manoa Mirror: An interview with Kaiwipunikauikawēkiu Punihei Lipe for the Hawai’i Ku’u Home Aloha event
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
- 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)
- 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:
- Hawai‘i’s Story by Hawai‘i’s Queen
- Ua Mau ke Ea
- Act of War
- Ka Pono No Hawai‘i (An article on home from the Hawaiian language newspapers with translation)
- Hawaiʻi Aloha
- National Day of Racial Healing
- Video: UH’s Native Hawaiian Affairs program officer joins ‘Spotlight Hawaii’
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
“…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.
“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!
Watch the 2024 HKHA Keynote on Flickr and Facebook
