Kihei Nahale-a
Name Kihei Nahale-a
Social Media @projectkuleana
Age 51
Town/Moku Hilo
Island Hawaiʻi Island
Leadership Category Mauli Ola - Health, Personal & Family Development
Nominated by Edward Halealoha Ayau
Share with us a little about yourself and what you do. In addition to the work I do with Project Kuleana, Iʻm also the ahupuaʻa studies coordinator for the Hawaiian Studies department at Windward Community College. Project Kuleana takes on many projects centered around youth and music for the well-being of the lāhui. We often produce videos online that showcase not only the unique sound of Hawaiʻis musicians but also the beauty of this ʻāina captured in Mele. At the college, I manage the hale and māla where myself and my student workers grow a variety of kalo and other mea kanu as well as host workshops to educate our community as well as our students in mea Hawaiʻi.
Why is the work that you do important to you? The community? My goal is to help youth find strength and resilience through their own spaces and places. At times, we’ve been conditioned to thing that our spaces and places lack, when they actually have so much to give. And if we cannot see our places as ones of abundance and infinite possibilities then we’ll never be able to break out of that myself our our own health and well-being and well never be able to get where we need to go.
Share with us the qualities of leadership you admire and how you express those in your life. I admire vulnerability, transparency, humbleness and inclusivity in a leader. These are traits of my own parents. It’s how I was raised and how I will always be. To me, when these traits are pillars of what you use to create, it allows for everyone to feel a part and share in the ownership of making great change.
Who has inspired you to do the work that you are doing? My family. My dad, my brothers, my grandfather, my mom. Friends. And sometimes people who doubt my leadership style.
What is one word that describes something you are excited about for the lāhui? Ea
What is one word that describes a pressing issue that is facing our lāhui? Ea