Lipoa Kahaleuahi

Name Lipoa Kahaleuahi

social media @limu_lipoa or @makahanakaike

Age 33

Town/Moku Hāna

Island Maui

Leadership Category Education

Nominated by Stephany Vaioleti

Share with us a little about yourself and what you do.

Welina! ʻO Lipoa Kahaleuahi koʻu inoa, no Haneoʻo i Kīpahulu, Hāna mai au.

I am a proud alumna of Hāna High & Elementary School, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Chaminade University of Honolulu. While my life experiences vary between college, graduate school, and work in education through Teach For America and hospitality while traveling abroad, the ocean has always been my constant, mooring me to the shores and familiarity of home. Upon returning to Hāna in 2016, I found the familiar faces, places, and ways of life that I missed and cherished, yet an immense pressure of capitalism, over-tourism, and development that called for action. When its founder and previous Executive Director offered me a job with Ma Ka Hana Ka ʻIke (MKHKI), it provided me a direct inlet to get involved and give back while standing up for equitable workforce development opportunities and cultural- and ʻāina-based education for our youth and stewardship of our cultural and natural resources. In turn, it reintroduced me to the wealth of knowledge and efforts occurring throughout our pae ʻāina. Through MKHKI and volunteer pursuits as a member of the Hāna Advisory Committee to the Maui Planning Commission and a founding board member of Ke Ao Hāliʻi, Save the Hāna Coast, I am dedicated to the preservation of my community and to ensuring that our ʻohana, from keiki to kūpuna, always have a place here.

Why is the work that you do important to you? The community?

We are not the same kanaka that our kūpuna were or our kūpuna before them. Our world has vastly changed, and our culture and people have had to adapt to survive. Yet, how do we allow our people to prosper while holding onto our unique past? Our connection to ʻāina, everything above and below? It is important to me that as new waves of industry, technology, people, and influence make their way to us in this increasingly globalized world, our communities feel empowered and capable of doing both while making decisions rooted in our indigenous ways of knowing.

Share with us the qualities of leadership you admire and how you express those in your life.

Servant leadership has always been the model I've admired most. Within a servant leader are values such as an innate sense of kōkua, pilina, and hiki nō: kokua, meaning to help others while honoring and contributing to collective well-being; pilina, an ability to develop trusting relationships and connections; and hiki nō, or a work ethic that drives one into action and execution, with one another, for one another. E ola! ;)

Who has inspired you to do the work that you are doing?

There are wāhine like Liliʻuokalani and Haunani-Kay Trask that inspire me with their tenacity and unwavering dedication to our lāhui, but so, too, do our sacred places and those kūpuna that ensured their stewardship so that we could connect with them today. I believe that where we come from and the moʻolelo surrounding us influence and shape us, so I find inspiration and strength in our fortress of Kaʻuiki, in the softness of our rain, in the unpredictability of our shores, and those other characteristics uniquely Hāna.

What is one word that describes something you are excited about for the lāhui?

Aloha ʻĀina

What is one word that describes a pressing issue that is facing our lāhui?

Sustenance