Holiday shoppers in late December filled Maile Meyer’s Ward Village store, Na Mea Hawaii, which resembled an ark of culture loaded with distinctive local arts and crafts, books, food, cosmetics and apparel under a lofty ceiling hung with crimson banners like sails.

Shopper Brant Chillingworth hailed a surf buddy. “Yeah, I’m here to buy some books for my mom,” Chillingworth said. “I stop in here a lot.”

Stopping in means a lot to Meyer. “It’s what we all need, in our island economy, to keep our traditional cultures alive while letting them thrive in new, contemporary ways,” said the Kailua-raised mother of three, whose parents, Emma Aluli and Harry Meyer, owned the Hawaiiana Hotel in Waikiki.

“People feel encouraged when others show up from the community,” said Meyer, who has been showing up for — and hosting — local art shows, book signings and performances for more than 30 years while promoting emerging young artists such as Nanea Lum and Kai‘ili Kaulukukui as well as longtime practitioners like Imaikalani Kalahele.

For her unflagging efforts to help Hawaii artists find audiences and establish a sustainable local economy, Meyer was nominated as a Hero Next Door.

“Maile really gave Hawaii back to Hawaiian people and the many different communities that make up the place where we live,” said award-winning book designer Barbara Pope, a childhood friend who reconnected with Meyer when they worked at Bishop Museum Press.

They now collaborate in ‘Ai Pohaku Press, whose publications include “E Luku Wale E,” a book of photographs and chants by Mark Hamasaki and Kapulani Landgraf documenting the destruction of ancient Hawaiian sites to build the H-3 freeway.

“She speaks of putting good books in good hands, and she truly made that happen in rural and Native Hawaiian communities,” Pope said. “I don’t think anyone has done this on the scale or with the kind of warmth and inclusiveness Maile has.”

Meyer, a graduate of Punahou School and Stanford University, earned an M.B.A. in nonprofit arts administration from the University of California at Los Angeles. She worked for leading Los Angeles advertising firm Chiat/Day before moving home to Oahu with husband Michael Broderick, CEO of the Honolulu YMCA and a former Family Court judge.

In 1990 she founded Native Books, a publisher and distributor of classic and new Hawaiian writings whose 2020 list includes “Ku‘e Petitions: A Mau Loa Aku No,” a book featuring the 21,000 signatures collected in 1897-98 opposing the annexation of Hawaii by the U.S.

She also heads Ho‘omaika‘i, which helps artists obtain commissions, and the nonprofit Pu‘uhonua Society, which helps fund local artists’ projects and has produced six annual “Contact” art exhibitions exploring Hawaii’s original culture and impacts of westernization from indigenous and immigrant points of view.

“Maile’s a populist,” said Josh Tengan, a young Hawaiian curator who has been an exhibition manager for “Contact” and assistant curator for the Honolulu Biennial, who organizes exhibitions at Pu‘uhonua’s Aupuni Place, a pop-up gallery in Kakaako.

“She unites social justice and enterprise in trying to develop a community where everyone can thrive and benefit,” Tengan said.

Meyers’ vision is also branching out through her children: artist Drew Broderick, her “Contact” collaborator, is director of Koa Gallery at Kapiolani Community College; Emma Broderick works at KUPU Community Programs in Honolulu; the youngest, Hannah Broderick, is a Stanford undergraduate.

Her inspiration is her mother, who founded the Young of Heart Workshop &Gallery, a nonprofit Kailua community art gallery and gathering space.

“Mom never let us buy her presents; we had to make everything,” Meyer said of herself and her six sisters. “As a child selling my handicrafts at the Kailua Library holiday fair, I learned the liberating feeling when a stranger pays money for something you made.”

Meyer laughed. “Of course, what I didn’t realize was that being a cute little kid under a Christmas tree probably helped.”

She still loves to join in workshops in Na Mea’s Kipuka space, where participants can make jewelry from lau hala leaves or Niihau shells, or seasonal fare like decorating gingerbread people from a local bakery.

As in everything she does, Meyer prefers collaborating behind the scenes.

“I’ve discovered I’m a really good lau hala leaf wiper,” she said with pride.

About this series: We recently asked readers to help shine a light on the good works of a few true unsung heroes. Readers responded with nominees from diverse walks of island life who share a common desire to help others. Star-Advertiser editors chose six Heroes Next Door who will be highlighted in stories through Monday.