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A conversation about ahupuaʻa systems and the Apology Resolution with Brandon Makaʻawaʻawa, Vice President of the Nation of Hawaiʻi. The Nation of Hawaiʻi was officially established on January 16, 1995, through the enactment of a Constitution, ceremoniously signed at ‘Iolani Palace in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. The Nation’s educational programs and projects offer a new approach towards economic, social, and cultural development, perpetuating the Hawaiian cultural way of life by preserving the wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of nā kūpuna o Hawai'i nei. Tags: Hawaiʻi, Hawai'i, Hawaii

Community news for October 2026: after headlines, we hear updates from two organizations doing vital storm response work after Hurricanes Lala and Lowell: Rice Street Business Association's Hale Līhuʻe serves as a hub for food and supply distributions, power, internet, and connection with other community members. Addison Bulosan shares about the RSBA's ongoing disaster preparedness and response work and the hui's vision for the systems-level change that will make Kauaʻi more storm resilient. For upcoming food distributions and other updates, check out RSBA's Instagram @downtownlihue. After Hurricane Lala devastated Kaʻū in mid-August, Kalauokekahuli used their multi-island network to offer support for impacted families, especially mothers and babies. When Lowell hit Kauaʻi just over three weeks later, they pivoted their response work to support ʻohana on Kauaʻi as well. Program director and koʻokua Kāhealani Collins shares how Kalauokekahuli worked to identify and respond to the shifting and specific needs of impacted community. For updates and ways to support, check out their website www.kalauokekahuli.tv and Instagram @kalauokekahuli.   Tag: Hawaiʻi, Hawai'i, Hawaii

This summer, Kaheāwai Media, in partnership with HPF Maui Aloha grantee partner Lahaina Strong, published a series of stories about West Mauiʻs water. The series focuses on proposals for Maui County to purchase water systems from two private corporations, Maui Land & Pineapple and West Maui Land Company. This is a significant opportunity for water to return from private control to public stewardship. To break down the story of these proposed deals, we speak with Jordan Ruidas and De Andre Makakoa from Lahaina Strong and  Tyler Sonnemaker, co-founder and storyteller at Kaheāwai Media. Read the full stories and susbscribe on Kaheāwai's website kaheawaimedia.com. Follow Kaheāwai @kaheawaimedia and Lahaina Strong @officiallahainastrong on Instagram to stay in the loop. Tags: Hawaiʻi, Hawai'i, Hawaii

Announcing a new season of Hawaiʻi Rising! Stay tuned for new episodes coming soon featuring HPF's 2026 cohort of 51 grantee partners across the pae ʻāina.   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

Community news for May 2026: in this episode we hear updates on grassroots response and recovery work since the Kona low storms in March.  We start with two short status updates sent in by partners: Jessica dos Santos (Kūpaʻa Kuilima) has been active with the Lāhui Foundation community hub in Kahuku, Oʻahu. Camille Kalama (Koʻihonua) in Waiawa kai, Oʻahu, shares about the flooding impacts in her neighborhood along the Pearl City bike path. After status updates, we have two interviews: Nicole Kahale shares about the ongoing recovery in Waialua, Oʻahu, where she has been part of the grassroots response since day 1. You can find her calls to action on her Instagram account @nicolekahale. Micky Huihui, executive director of HPF, uplifts the flood response work of several HPF partners and shares about HPF's Urgent Action support for grassroots hui. Tags: Hawaiʻi, Hawai'i, Hawaii

After the back-to-back Kona low storms in March brought catastrophic flooding to multiple islands, our communities immediately leapt into action to support those most impacted. Over the past few weeks, we’ve witnessed grassroots community resource hubs, donation drives, supply deliveries, and boots-on-the ground volunteer work happening in a big way. In this episode, we have two short updates from hubs and organizers across our network: Hui Aloha ʻĀina o Koʻolaupoko has been running a community donation hub in Koʻolaupoko on the windward side of Oʻahu. They can be contacted at [email protected]. The Hawaiʻi Workerʻs Center has been carrying out worker wellness checks in impacted areas and organizes a Kōkua Fund, which offers one-time support for workers impacted by the Kona low storms. To reach out for the Kōkua Fund, you can email [email protected] or call 808-743-1031. Tags: Hawaiʻi, Hawai'i, Hawaii