Sessions

He Aupuni Palapala Koʻu: Utilizing Moʻolelo in the Classroom for Multidisciplinary Units of Study  

Gabrielle Ahuliʻi Ferreira Holt 

Using literature in early childhood classrooms to launch inquiry or units of study is a well-used methodology. In this workshop, we’ll explore how to do this in the ʻōiwi context.  Using the Hawaiian Legends for Little Ones series as a foundation, we will examine generating culturally sustaining units, lessons or inquiry strands using moʻolelo, using a conceptual framework to frame units and choose literature, and be introduced to resources that will help support this curricular work. Drawing from the foundations of John Dominis Holtʻs work On Being Hawaiian, educators will be asked to reflect, too, on the figures of the renaissance that have shaped their own practices. Participants will also hear about concept-based teaching, using ʻāina literacy to craft inquiry, and explore how to center and reclaim Hawaiian pedagogy in our teaching practices.  

Making Meaning & Moʻolelo: Identity, Narratives, and Puppetry as Relational Practice 

Charis-Ann Sole and Emiko Kurosawa-Arakaki

This session will focus on children's emerging sense of identity through the exploration of three interconnected themes: moʻolelo, ʻāina, and puppetry. Moʻolelo invites children into stories that connect them to people, place, and community, prompting questions such as: Who am I? and To whom do I belong? ʻĀina encourages children to explore: Where do I belong? and How do I connect with place? Puppetry provides a medium through which children can extend those stories by exploring different perspectives, relationships, and possibilities through play. Using these three themes and drawing from classroom stories, the session examines how children explore and develop identities by hearing, experiencing, and extending moʻolelo. It also introduces how puppetry is currently being used in a classroom setting as a relational practice that supports children's storytelling, imagination, and connections with themselves, others, and ʻāina. Together, participants will reflect on how everyday moments of play can become small beginnings that nurture children's developing relationships with people, place, and the living world.

“E Holomoana Kākou” Part I

Chelsie Omo, Edmond Mak

Join Chelsie Omo and Edmond Mak as they share how Holomoana, a digital learning resource inspired by Polynesian voyaging, brings Hawaiian culture-based education to life. Learn how the resource supports cultural identity, curiosity, and place-based learning while integrating language, literacy, science, and mathematics in meaningful ways. 

Wayfinding Learning Stations: An Interactive Exploration through Holomoana Part II

Edmond Mak

The Holomoana Early Learning Playground is an interactive, hands-on learning experience where educators can explore activities, lessons, and digital resources inspired by Holomoana. Participants will move throughout the space, engaging with learning stations that incorporate Hawaiian culture, storytelling, wayfinding, and place-based education.  Rather than a traditional presentation, this open-format session invites educators to learn through exploration, conversation, and collaboration. Participants will leave with practical ideas and resources they can adapt to support meaningful, culture-based learning experiences for their youngest learners.

Strengthening Connections: ʻOhana, Culture, and Curriculum

June "Pua" Aquino and Kasey Popken

Meaningful learning begins with connection—to culture, to ʻohana, and to the experiences children bring with them from home. This session explores how educators can build curriculum rooted in familiar Hawaiian and local cultural practices, values, language, and experiences that help keiki see themselves and their ʻohana reflected in the classroom. Participants will explore how building trusting relationships with families through a trauma-informed approach creates a foundation for families to feel respected, heard, and valued as partners in their child’s learning. By recognizing ʻohana as holders of knowledge and incorporating their experiences into curriculum, educators can create learning experiences that are more relevant, responsive, and deeply connected to the lives of keiki.

When Stories Live, A Nation Awakens

Kauʻi Sai-Dudoit

This presentation focuses on the power of moʻolelo—our stories—as the foundation of cultural identity and national consciousness. By connecting with our history, we awaken a deeper understanding of who we are, where we come from, and the values that guide our future. Through storytelling, translation, and community engagement, we illuminate the path toward an enlightened and empowered lāhui.

Beyond the Textbook

Krystal Kakimoto and Hiʻilani Chang

This presentation explores Bishop Museum's library & archival collections as pathways for kumu and haumāna to support learning, inquiry, and deeper connections to place. 

Kahoʻolawe in the Continuum: Hawaiian Language Resources for All Levels

ʻIkaʻaka Nāhuewai

Conceptualizing "ka wā ma mua" and "ka wā ma hope" is an ever-evolving journey for Hawaiian educators and learners of all levels. In this session, ʻIkaʻaka Nāhuewai explores this continuum by diving into historical and contemporary curriculum centered around Kahoʻolawe. Attendees will discover an array Hawaiian language resources designed for all proficiency levels, grounded in his firsthand experience cultivating aloha ʻāina, aloha ʻōlelo, and aloha lāhui.

Big ideas for small learners

Lauren Kikukawa and Tina Kinimaka

The Hawaiian Renaissance sparked a renewed commitment to reclaiming and sharing ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, history, culture, and ʻike. Fifty years later, educators continue that work by creating meaningful learning experiences that help our youngest learners build lasting connections to place, identity, and ea. In this session, members of the Aloha ʻĀina Curriculum Team will share classroom-ready education resources, including children’s literature, place-based lessons, and ʻohana activities that make big ideas engaging and accessible for young learners. Participants will explore how these resources can be adapted to reflect the unique learners, ʻāina, and communities they serve while discovering Waihona—a growing collection of resources intended to be shared, strengthened, and carried across the pae ʻāina and beyond our shores. This session is both a sharing and an invitation: to take what resonates, bring it to life, and add your own ʻike to the journey. Participants will leave with practical resources, renewed inspiration, and a call to action—knowing that what begins with one moʻolelo, one activity, or one keiki can grow into a collective movement that carries ea forward.

He  ʻŌlelo Noʻeau, He Kiʻina Aʻo Hoʻonaʻauao Hawaiʻi

Pililuaikekaiohilo Keala

This session examines ʻōlelo noʻeau (Hawaiian proverbs) as pedagogical frameworks for teaching and learning. Grounded in Indigenous epistemologies, it highlights applications in immersion and Hawaiian-focused educational settings. Participants reflect on their proverbs while exploring connections to teacher identity, culturally sustaining practice, and approaches supporting community, language revitalization, and student growth.

From Kilo to Kuleana: Cultivating the Next Generation of Aloha ʻĀina

Heidi Waiamau 

In 1976, the movement to protect Kaho’olawe demonstrated how deep pilina with ‘āina could grow collective kuleana, civic action, and lasting change.  Fifty years later, as Manu ‘ōiwi face extinction, how do we prepare haumāna not only to witness loss, but to help change its course?

Drawing upon project Ho’oulu ‘Āina and partnerships with conservation practitioners, Kilo to Kuleana explores two questions: How do we prepare the next generation to become lifelong protectors? How can culturally grounded learning and meaningful access to ‘āina help haumāna develop pilina from which kuleana and action grows?

Building Future Protectors of Hawaiʻi through Aloha ʻĀina Work 

Kimeona Kane and Phillip Kapu

In the Hawaiian Renaissance of the 1970ʻs, Aloha Aina was shown to be a lifestyle and not something you do on the weekends.  This session will include discussion about pilina to ʻāina and pōhaku as a lifestyle. Folks will also build that pilina by building with small pōhaku like last time. And ending with a reflection with what they experienced.

Alternative Learning Through Ethnomathmatics

Jared Bukarau

Hālau Hekili offers a powerful alternative model for culturally grounded learning by bridging the high school environment (Kailua High School), higher education (Windward Community College), and community tech innovation (Purple Maiʻa Foundation). As we commemorate 1976 and the Hawaiian Renaissance, this work honors the movement's enduring commitment to reclaiming ʻike Hawaiʻi, strengthening community, and reimagining education through ʻike kūpuna and place-based practice. Framing the kaiāulu as the ultimate classroom highlights the transformative power of ethnomathematics—grounding academic concepts in the living history, unique ecology, and real-world practices of a specific place. Through this approach, participants discover how integrating Indigenous technology with contemporary mathematics shifts math from an abstract gatekeeper into a vital tool for kuleana, cultural continuity, and community empowerment, carrying forward the vision of the Hawaiian Renaissance for future generations.

Hōʻale ka Lepo Pōpolo: Stewarding Spring Fed Loʻi on Molokaʻi's South Shore

Ian Nāhulu Maioho

This session focuses on the ongoing efforts on Molokaʻi to restore and steward historic loʻi pūnāwai kalo. By providing an aray of educational programs for keiki through mākua, Ka Ipu Makani Cultural Heritage Center reconnects the Molokaʻi Community to kalo traditions of Molokaʻi while fostering a deep connection to Hawaiʻi’s land and natural resources through ʻāina-based practices.

Nourishing the Lāhui: Why We Must Trade the Empty Calories of Grammar Drills for POI (Plenty Optimal Input)

Kalani Makekau-Whittaker 

Honoring the transformative spirit of the Hawaiian Renaissance—a movement that sparked a national resurgence of cultural pride, land activism, and Hawaiian language revitalization—Dr. Makekau-Whittaker calls for a new wave of pedagogical courage in today’s classrooms. Drawing from over 30 years of teaching experience and nearly a decade of cognitive research, he reveals how traditional instruction still relies on mechanical grammar drills, the linguistic equivalent of "empty calories", which inadvertently leave students starved of genuine fluency. To carry the legacy of the Renaissance forward, educators must move beyond these legacy frameworks and align their teaching with the science of how the human brain actually processes and acquires language. Grounded in his article, " He Haʻawina Aloha: On the need for a new pedagogy in Hawaiian language," Dr. Makekau-Whittaker introduces a pedagogical model centered on POI: Plenty Optimal Input. This framework replaces sterile exercises with rich, context-grounded communication designed to ignite learner agency. Ultimately, this presentation challenges educators to ditch the empty calories of the traditional language classroom and gather the lāhui around an ‘umeke of POI, fueling the next era of cultural and linguistic revitalization

Hiding Veggies in the Smoothie: Haʻi Moʻolelo as a Classroom Strategy for Input Flooding and POI

Kalani Makekau-Whittaker 

As a practical follow-up to the language acquisition theory session, this interactive workshop moves educators from paradigm shifts into hands-on classroom execution. Anchored in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research, this session centers moʻolelo as both a cultural pillar and a powerful vehicle for "input flooding." Participants will learn to blend targeted grammar and vocabulary into fun, engaging narratives, much like sneaking nutrient-dense vegetables into a delicious fruit smoothie. Through TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) concepts, attendees will practice co-creating dynamic stories that deliver rich POI (Plenty Optimal Input), allowing students to effortlessly consume complex language structures without drill fatigue.

A History of ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi and Education

Kaheleonolani “Kahele” Dukelow 

This presentation traces that history—from a thriving Hawaiian-language educational system, through periods of displacement and decline, to the establishment of Hawaiian language immersion and the continuing growth of Hawaiian-medium education today. Understanding this history provides important context for both how far Hawaiian education has come and the kuleana that remains to sustain ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi for future generations.

ʻŌlelo Kanaka

Maluhia States

My presentation will follow the history of the renaissance, specifically with native speaker resources and their perspectives of the movement. This will lead us to the present day challenges we experience with aqcuring and perpetuating language. Possibly accompanied with suggestions addressing said challenges.