Experience
Nā Kilo 'Āina
Programs for learners of all ages
Nā Kilo ʻĀina
Developing place conscious people to support ʻĀina Momona: Productive and Thriving Communities
Nā Kilo ʻĀina (NKA) is an initiative whose ultimate goal is Aina Momona: Productive and Thriving Communities. ʻĀina Momona is dependent upon communities of people who are conscious of their place, and are actively involved in ways that encourage their natural environments to produce in abundance, creating a thriving social and natural ecosystem. Our programs train our communities to be Kilo ʻĀina, kanaka who are conscious of their land through daily observation and engagement of their environment.
This initiative focuses on a collective journey of health for our natural and social environments, both co-dependent upon each other to thrive. Nā Kilo ʻĀina addresses this relationship between the abundant biocultural diversity within our natural ecosystems, and the kanaka whose kuleana is to mālama these ecosystems. Through consciously including the “healing journey” of an individual person, family, and community, our programs support community members to realize their purpose and role within their broader social and natural communities. This realization necessitates a collective contribution and investment to ecosystem health and abundance.
Check out our Nā Kilo ʻĀina programs that address the social needs of our community through natural resource and cultural conservation programs. Become a Kilo ʻĀina for your community and develop your own maka onaona for the place you live. Support your community to be an ʻĀina Momona. Together we can thrive.
Programs
Nā Kilo ʻĀina Learning Labs
Ages: Keiki thru Kūpuna?
Nā Kilo ʻĀina Learning Labs is a program that trains participants to engage with their local environments in a way that they become familiar with seasonal trends, cycles of natural resources, and weather phenomena that affect our local environments. Activities are perfect for learners of all ages, and is designed to engage whole family learning.
Learning Lab activities include touch tanks, shoreline walks, assistance in intertidal studies, work days in local agricultural systems, weather and seasonal growth observations, and collaborative expression of environmental knowledge through murals and graphic arts.
Does your class, school or organization want to engage with your local environment? Contact us today to learn more about how we can develop your learners into Nā Kilo ʻĀina, engagers of the environment.
NAKA (Nohona Auamo Kuleana Ahuahu) Leadership Retreat
Ages: 14-18?
The NAKA (Nohona ʻAuamo Kuleana Ahuahu) Leadership Retreat develops Hawaiʻi’s youth and emerging leaders collective consciousness towards ʻĀina Momona: Productive and Thriving Communities. These more intimate gatherings are meant to support our emerging leaders in realizing their value, contributions, and role within their families, communities, and larger lāhui. This retreat will be an overnight stay that will target emerging leaders through a high-quality, valuable, weeklong engagement.
Kūkaʻi Laulaha
Ages: Keiki thru Kūpuna
Kūkaʻi Laulaha is an international cultural exchange built on the framework of pilina (relationships) that extends to indigenous communities across the Pacific. This exchange creates an opportunity to critically think about the impacts of management strategies and conservation models inclusive of human dimensions. Kūkaʻilaulaha cultural exchanges between ʻĀina Momona communities created effective, multifaceted strategies for resource management internationally. Through building and participating in cohesive networks throughout Moananuiākea (Our Sea of Islands),we amplify our collective voice in resource management.
Kūkaʻilaulaha exchanges have been established with ʻĀina Momona communities in Mangaia, Rarotonga, and Aotearoa.
“The health of our environment is a direct reflection of the health of our people and vice versa.”