Hoʻokipa Hawaiʻi Weekend

A two-day community and culture event

February 15 & 16, 2025

At the Royal Hawaiian Center

Hoʻokipa - to host; to be hosted

Hoʻokipa Hawaiʻi Weekend is a two-day family-friendly event dedicated to the inclusion of Hawaiian culture and knowledge systems through the medium of Hawaiian cultural practitioners, exhibits, demonstrations and vendors that engages community and visitors in a greater understanding and appreciation for the Native Hawaiian culture and Hawaiʻi.

Regenerative Tourism extends sustainable tourism to address the primary core needs of the community ensuring that benefits are circulated back into the community in a just and reciprocal manner. For a visitor, understanding where their dollar goes when they spend it, is a critical element of responsible visiting.

Kuhikuhi Marketplace is a vendor (mākeke) marketplace event that is specific to Native Hawaiian-owned small businesses that have a product or service that aligns with NaHHA’s mission and fundamentals. NaHHA includes the Kuhikuhi Marketplace as an element of many of NaHHA’s public facing events. Vendors who will be showcased here, have been vetted by NaHHA to ensure that their products and services speak to the ideals of regeneration. Many vendors will be graduates of NaHHA's Pākōlea program which focuses on removing the barriers for Native Hawaiian-owned small businesses to gain access to the industry and land their products on the shelves of the industry for visitor consumption with local goods and services that are sustainable, socially responsible and culturally appropriate while keeping local business capital gains continuously circulating in the Hawaiʻi economy.

The Kuhikuhi Marketplace grows these opportunities to ensure local small businesses are engaged in tourism and that this interaction provides economic benefit to local families and reduces capital flight.

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Demonstrations

While visitors and the larger community are becoming familiar with Native Hawaiian value systems, there is need for the extension of these concepts to be expressed and demonstrated through hands-on authentic and respectful reciprocal exchanges with Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners themselves and with a calling for community engagement.

This family-friendly free event will provide Cultural Practitioners and visitors a level platform and facilitated space for demonstrations, exhibitions and information exchange spaces, in a safe and mutually beneficial way to share cultural knowledge and education.

Cultural Practitioners confirmed for the event include:

Lauhala (pandanas) weaving, kapa (barkcloth) making, kōnane (a game of strategy), nā mea kaua (weaponry), nā mea makua (fishing), hōlua (sledding), loko iʻa (fishponds), flower lei making , nā wai hoʻoluʻu (natural dye making), kilo hōkū (celestial observations), hulu (featherwork), pūpū o Niʻihau (Niʻihau shell) lei making, ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language), ʻohe kapala (stamping), mea kanu Hawaiʻi (native plants), pahu (drum) making, and much more!

On-stage Activities

This event will feature TWO STAGES; Center Stage at Helumoa and a second stage we are building out on the 4th floor at Ka Lewa Lānai.

Center stage at Helumoa activities

Center stage on the ground floor of Helumoa included daily cultural music and mele by the Kawika Trask Trio featuring 'Iwalani Hoʻo Apo, Jeffrey Auhoy, Dwight Kanae, Nick Masagatani, and Josei Alfonci.

Activities will include hula exhibition by keiki hula hālau featuring Ka Pā Hula O Nā Liko O Kalanialoha under the direction of Kumu Hula - Anuhea Borengasser and Hālau Nā Mamo O Kealamailani under the direction of Kumu Hula - Tehani Gonzado.

Join us on the 3rd floor for Kauhele at Helumoa and interactive Hawaiian culture and Science exhibit by INPEACE which offers attendees of all ages the opportunity to kilo (observe), ‘imi loa (explore), and noi‘i (investigate) and learn about loko iʻa (Hawaiian fishpond), kapa (Hawaiian Barkcloth), and the kaulana mahina (Hawaiian Lunar Calendar).

Throughout the ground floor of Royal Hawaiian Center in the Royal Grove we will feature 15 cultural practitioners from the Native Hawaiian community providing education and exhibition on topics focused on our ancestral and modern relationships and interactions with the ‘āina (land) and water; both kai (salt water) and wai (fresh water).

4th Floor stage at Ka Lewa Lānai activities

Ka Lewa Lānai stage on the 4th floor of Royal Hawaiian Center will include hula demonstrations by Merrie Monarch award winning hālau, Ke Kai O Kahiki under the direction of Kumu Hula - Laʻakea Perry, Hawaiian language learning, on stage cultural demonstrations, the Fashion Showcase, and mele from Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award winning artists. We will also feature 60+ Native Hawaiian vendors, including food booths, and a 21 and over experience in the Poi & Palaka Lounge, with beer, wine, spirits and a selection of specialty spirits made right here in Hawaiʻi!

This event is proudly supported through a Hōʻihi Grant offered by the Office of Native Hawaiian Relations through Native Act Funding.

NaHHA values this relationship and honors ONHR and the many organizations for its support, sponsorship and commitment to authentic Native Hawaiian cultural representation and support of Native Hawaiian small business & community.