Hawaiʻi Rising

Today, July 31, is Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea! The 2026 celebration at Thomas Square on July 26 was a huge success, and we are excited for the celebration at Pōkaʻi Bay in Waiʻanae on Saturday, August 1.

Each year for Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea, two aloha ʻāina are honored for their activism and commitment to ea. Last week's episode featured the Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana in recognition of the honorees Kimo Mitchell and George Jarrett Helm, Jr.

This week, we're sharing our episode for Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea 2025 when the honorees were Likookalani Martin and the late Abel Simeona Lui. In this conversation, Uncle Liko shares about his life, music, and activism, from the writing of the movement anthem “All Hawaiʻi Stand Together” to his transformative time in South Kona during the Hawaiian Renaissance.

To learn more about Uncle Liko and Abel’s stories as well as details for this year’s celebration at Thomas Square, visit https://lahoihoiea.org/.

Tags: Hawaiʻi, Hawai’i, Hawaii.

Each year, the Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea celebration at Thomas Square in Honolulu honors two aloha ʻāina. This year, uplifting the 50th anniversary of the Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana (PKO), the two honorees are James Kimo Mitchell and George Jarrett Helm, Jr.

In this episode, PKO members Dr. Davianna Pōmaikaʻi McGregor and Dr. Kaliko Baker share the history of PKO’s organizing to end the bombing of Kahoʻolawe, the story of Kimo and George’s sacrifice to the movement, and the ongoing restoration work of the ʻOhana.

For information about upcoming 50th anniversary events, check out PKO's Instagram @kahoolawe.

For details about this year's Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea celebration at Thomas Square, go to lahoihoiea.org. And to learn more about this holiday and its history, listen to our conversation with organizers from 2022 here as well as on-the-ground conversations from 2022 celebrations at Thomas Square and Pōkaʻi Bay here.

Tags: Hawaiʻi, Hawai'i, Hawaii

At the 2026 hōʻike for the the Hoʻākea Source art regranting program, Puʻuhonua Society executive director Emma Broderick asked each awarded artist the question "Why art now?" as a prompt to share about their practice.

In the first part of this episode, we speak with Emma about that question and about Puʻuhonua Society's mission to cultivate space(s) where Native Hawaiian and Hawaiʻi-based artists, cultural practitioners, and those rooted in the archipelago can continue creative practices for the collective transformation of Hawaiʻi.

In the second segment, we speak with artist collaborators Malia Osorio and Kauwila Mahi about their Hoʻākea Source awarded project "Kaahupahau."

Websites: Puʻuhonua Society, Hoʻākea Source

Artists' IG: @malialia, @olapakauwila.wilz

Tags: Hawaiʻi, Hawai'i, Hawaii

 

This week, we're uplifting a community initiative to create fire-free homesteads with Nā Leo o Papakōlea Firewise in partnership with Kaheāwai Media. Together, they produced the Creating Fire-Free Homesteads civic action toolkit, an extensive multimedia web resource with video clips, templates, and other resources.

Noel Shaw and Anuhea Kanealiʻi are members of the Firewise committee of Nā Leo o Papakōlea, the homestead association of Papakōlea, Kewalo, and Kalāwahine homesteads. NLOP Firewise received an Urgent Action Grant in 2024 to support their organizing to make their homesteads a safe and thriving place to live by reducing the risk of wildfire destruction.

Tyler Sonnemaker is co-founder and storyteller at Kaheāwai Media, a civic media organization launched in the spring of 2025 that envisions a Hawaiʻi media ecosystem abundant with stories, storytellers and storytelling practices that uplift ʻāina, community, and collective liberation.

NLOP Firewise IG: @homesteadfirewise

Kaheāwai Media: kaheawaimedia.com, IG: @kaheawaimedia

A conversation with Laura Toyofuku-Aki from Project Koa Yoga and Kāhealani Collins from Kalauokekahuli about how each of their hui works in support of collective wellbeing and liberation.

Project Koa Yoga educates, trains, and mentors a generation of resilience-centered health educators, equipped to reintegrate the people, land, and culture of Hawaiʻi through a trauma-informed lens.

Kalauokekahuli encourages the healthy growth of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander families by supporting and enhancing the well-being of birthing people, parents, and their infants with holistic, multi-generational, and culturally-rooted care.

To learn more, check out our previous interviews with these organizations:

19. Kalauokekahuli: A New Dawn for Hawaiʻi

37. Project Koa Yoga: Creating Space for Belonging

61. Kalauokekahuli: Becoming a Koʻokua

 

Tags: Hawaiʻi, Hawai'i, Hawaii

Happy Juneteenth! In this episode, we’re resharing highlights from an interview from 2024 with Dr. Akiemi Glenn and Jamila Jarmon from the Pōpolo Project. Founded in 2017, the Pōpolo Project is committed to redefining perceptions of Black people in Hawai‘i and creating a deep reconnection to themselves as individuals, to their community, to their ancestors, and to the lands that sustain them.

Listen to the full episode here.

Tags: Hawaiʻi, Hawai'i, Hawaii

A conversation about loko iʻa restoration and transformative ʻāina-based education with Hanohano and Maile Naehu, who are the head kiaʻi loko and the program director respectively at Hui o Kuapā.

Based in the ahupuaʻa of Kūmimi on the east end of Molokai, Hui o Kuapā educates local and global communities about Native Hawaiian biocultural resource management through the restoration, use, and maintenance of Molokaiʻs loko iʻa (traditional Hawaiian fishponds) and their adjacent lands.

If you listened to last week's episode and hear the first part of this conversation, jump ahead to 18:14.

To learn more, listen to our first episode with Hui o Kuapā from 2021: 1. Hui o Kuapā: Restoring Fish Ponds on Molokai.

Website: www.huiokuapa.org

Tags: Hawaiʻi, Hawai'i, Hawaii

Community new for June 2026! After headlines, we share exciting updates from two HPF partners working to restore loko iʻa (fishponds) and addressing multiple crucial issues in the process: rebuilding regenerative food systems, protecting water, facilitating community healing, restoring cultural practice, and more.

• First, we have Loke Aloua, one of the poʻo of Hui Kaloko-Honokōhau, sharing updates from the hui's work at Kaloko Fishpond in Kona, Hawaiʻi. Listen to our first episode with Loke back in 2022 to hear more about the hui's origin story and vision: 30. Hui Kaloko-Honokōhau: Stewards to the Realm of Kanaloa.
• Second, Hanohano and Maile Naehu, the head kiaʻi loko and the program director of Hui o Kuapā, talk about the evolution of their work at ʻŌhalahala Fishpond in Manaʻe, Molokai. In particular, they share about a recent highly impact kiaʻi loko gathering and workday they hosted, where 90% of the kuapā (fishpond wall) was rebuilt. To learn more about Hui o Kuapa's beginnings under the leadership of Uncle Walter Ritte and its transition to the next generation of kiaʻi with Hano, check out our first episode with Hano and Maile from 2021: 1. Hui o Kuapā: Restoring Fish Ponds on Molokai.

Links from headlines:

• To see our grantee partners' events and how to RSVP, visit hawaiipeoplesfund.org/calendar.
• For Hawaiʻi Women in Filmmaking's Reel Camps, find info here.
• For EA Ecoversity's Youth Culinary Day Camp, find info and apply here.
• Register for Gender Journeys Day here.

Tags: Hawaiʻi, Hawai'i, Hawaii

This multi-grantee episode features two organizations that foster youth voices and leadership through the voices of ʻōpio themselves!

First, we hear from the film crew behind the short film "Never Nothing," which premiered at the 2026 Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF) ʻŌpio Film Fest in April. These four ʻōpio – Heavenlee Botelho-Sarcedo, Marley Davidson, Zara Speicher, and Alana Creps – produced this film during a weeklong Reel Camp organized by HPF partner Hawaiʻi Women in Filmmaking. To learn more about Hawaiʻi Women Filmmaking, check out our interview with founder Vera Zambonelli in episode 32.

Next, we speak with Kauila Benz-Marrs and Kaʻihe Giminiz, two haumāna who are part of the interscholastic student council Ke Ea Hawaiʻi. Kauila and Kaʻihe also have featured submissions in issue 5 of the Hawaiʻi Rising zine. You can hear more about Ke Ea Hawaiʻi in episode 8, episode 44, and episode 60.

Tags: Hawaiʻi, Hawai'i, Hawaii

Hawaiʻi Rising is excited to share an interview with Tina Aiu, executive director of HPF partner Kīpuka Kuleana, from the KKCR show Talk Story Radio Kauaʻi, hosted by Angela Zusman. Mahalo, KKCR, for this collaboration!

In this conversation, Tina discusses the land trust model as an exciting vehicle for systems change as well as the specific work of Kīpuka Kuleana. The full interview can be found in the KKCR archives at kkcr.org.

To learn more about Kīpuka Kuleana, check out their website: kipukakuleana.org/.

Tags: Hawaiʻi, Hawai'i, Hawaii