Restoring Hawaiian place names and preserving historic sites through stewardship projects are ways two nonprofits plan to incorporate the significance of Native Hawaiian history and culture into the visitor experience.
The Historic Hawai‘i Foundation and Edith Kanaka‘ole Foundation received a total of $600,000 in federal grant money through the Native American Tourism and Improving Visitor Experience Act, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz’s office announced Tuesday.
The measure was introduced by Schatz and cosponsored by a bipartisan group of legislators and signed into law in 2016 by then-President Barack Obama. It provides resources and funding to Indigenous communities to build cultural travel and tourism infrastructure and capacity.
The federal grant money comes at a pivotal time as Hawaii officials focus on ways to better integrate Native Hawaiian culture and history into tourism activities and planning.
Kiersten Faulkner, executive director of the Historic Hawai‘i Foundation, said the nonprofit plans to use the $450,000 it was awarded to develop and run a stewardship training program that preserves and perpetuates historic public sites in culturally relevant and sensitive ways.
Over five years, Faulkner said, Historic Hawai‘i plans to partner with Native Hawaiian organizations to provide hands-on restoration and preservation training as well as organize projects that tell the stories of these areas. This could include presentations, cultural protocols and workdays, she said.
The program will be free to participants, and Historic Hawai‘i plans to begin outreach efforts in December and ask for requests for interest in January. Faulkner said the organization hopes to begin working with the first group of four to six Native Hawaiian organizations in the spring. The foundation plans to work with a different batch of groups each year through 2026. Projects will be tailored to the needs of each site and group, she said.
“One of the beautiful things about Hawaii is the tie with history, culture, nature and community. We’re looking for that sweet spot where all of those things come together,” Faulkner said. “We want to have the physical preservation of the sites but also ensure the traditions, beliefs, values and cultures that bring life to that site is part of that. It’s not something that’s put under glass to be stared at. These are living, breathing parts of the community.”
Huihui Kanahele-Mossman, executive director of the Edith Kanaka‘ole Foundation, said the $150,000 the nonprofit was awarded will go toward researching, identifying and sharing traditional Hawaiian place names and land divisions at Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park.
Some of the place names, land divisions and ancestral demarcations are not commonly used anymore, so Kanahele-Mossman said the nonprofit wants to bring back that sense of place.
“For our kupuna, to give places names, that means it is significant. We really want people to know that fact,” she said. “Ancestral names that were given to these places pointed out a fact that this place had water or grew certain kinds of plants. The names tell us that kind of information.”
To do this, Kanahele- Mossman said they will work with the National Park Service and kupuna who have knowledge of the sites, study research documents and newspaper reports, and conduct interviews to gather more information. Chants, mythology narratives, names and other details would then be included in markers and maps within the national park.
The Hilo-based foundation plans to hire at least two more researchers to help with the project and hopes to begin the work next month, she said.
“It’s really important for us to help visitors understand that this is what our island is. It’s a place full of connection,” she said. “They (visitors) can be a part of that connection by approaching a place with reverence and observation.”
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Jayna Omaye covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a national service organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.
