Week 5 Manaʻo for Cohort Kaulua October 31, 2025

Mahalo everyone for a wonderful five weeks of October together! Below are the transcribed notes that were read aloud and placed into the ʻumeke during our closing exercise together on the last Friday of our cohort: 

• I kua naʻu, E kuʻu kumu. 
• Take time to explore connections—this fosters kindness and ultimately, shared action. 
• It’s ok to take space, but know your responsibility and kuleana to do good and to mālama this ʻāina. 
• Moʻokūʻauhau: knowing where you are from helps you learn who you are.
• What you learn must be meaningful to you before you can understand/inform/train others. Know your barriers, hold your judgements, listen and commit it to yourself.
• Take care of each other; grow and learn through connections with other people. 
• The importance of pilina and our new community (Cohort Kaulua).
• Take up space.
• Pilina and kuleana.
• The importance of taking a step—just try. The value of commitment for growth.
• I am kaikaina to Kaʻalāwai—I will continue to learn from this place.
• Stay hungry! 
• Pilina is a teacher. 
• ʻĀina-based learning with aloha.
• You have lots to teach us. 
• Understanding the value of relationship to place and the people. Awareness and aloha. 
• Students/community “plant a seed.” Small changes we make can have big impacts in your community. Take up space. 
• Fulfilling kuleana begins with presence—showing up. 
• Show love and respect to all those that you meet. 
• The need for ongoing commitment to protect and steward the land. 
• Make space and remain in wonder.
• Let all begin with aloha.
• Gratitude: There are many ways to show gratitude and respect for this place. 
• Kuleana – Spiderweb – Connectedness. We are all connected. Let that connection inform your sense of kuleana. 
• Carry both pilina and piko. Move forward with connections to both those currently around you and those who came before. 
• Just keep swimming.
• Have the courage to be true to yourself as you never know the pilina you can have with another. 
• Ocean: Sometimes there are strong currents but always got to mālama, and it will mālama you right back. 
• ʻAʻohe pau ka ʻike i ka hālau hoʻokahi. 
• How important it is to make effort to be related to others.
• Your moʻokūʻauhau is your superpower. 
• You are not an outsider to the mission of being a NHPoL. You are invited in. You are an ally. You have an important role. Go discover what it is and do it!
• Daybreak: Remember yesterday when acting today. 
• Pilina Circle: Tell stories, be vulnerable, build community with people and place. 
• I’m your father and have a lot to teach you, but also to learn from you, especially about Hawaiian history as you repeatedly reminded me these five weeks. 
• That you have something valuable to contribute to this ʻāina, this place. 
• ʻAu: Trust in the ʻau, the flow that is multi-dimensional. 
• Pilina – Friendship – Kuleana: Awareness, connections, deep understanding. 
• Strengthen your pilina with people and place and discover kuleana as individuals and as a collective.
• Link between kuleana, moʻokūʻauhau, and place/ʻāina. 
• Act with kindness.
• That my kuleana here at UH is done because of pilina with him. 
• It is important to know history/moʻokūʻauhau to face the present. 
• Importance of relationality: Connecting to folks moving towards a relative north star. Action to words. 
• Wonder & pilina.
• Interconnectedness web: past, future, present are in motion and deeply connected.