Nahiwaaloha Naki

Name Nahiwaaloha Naki

Age 37

Town/Moku Hoolehua

Island Molokaʻi

Social Media Handle @puakea420

Nominated by Olelo Schonely Spencer

Leadership Category Culture

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

Aloha! My name is Nahiwaaloha Naki and I was born and raised on the island of Molokai. I graduated from the University of Hawaii at Hilo with my Bachelor's in Psychology and in 2017 graduated with my Master's degree from UH Manoa Shidler College of Business Human Resource Management program.

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

I feel that the work that I do is important to me because I get to help my family, my friends, and my community gain access to college and to help them move forward to learn, get educated and get their degree. They will be able to get good paying jobs and provide for their families or future families. They will be able to get a seat at a table and be able to have a voice that can make a difference. An educated lahui is a stronger lahui! I feel that by making an impact on just one person, we help an entire ohana break the cycle of poverty because they will be a role model to all of the keiki, makua and ohana that surround them and see their successes.

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

Some leadership qualities that I admire are optimism, open-mindedness, responsibility, inspiration, flexibility and respect.

Optimism- always having hope and seeing the positives in any situation despite its outcome. One of the things I pride myself on is being able to look at different situations and being able to see what good could come out of it.

Open-mindedness- always being open to new ideas and welcoming it before making any judgements. Listening to others and being open to what they have to say or add.

Responsibility- not making excuses and getting what you said you were going to do and getting it done, being consistent and even admitting to your mistakes.

Inspiration- empowering the people around me and who I come in to contact with daily whether it be my coworkers, friends or my children. Instilling a growth mindset and a positive attitude in my work and in my home.

Flexibility- Being able to be okay if something doesn't go as planned and being able to think on your feet on how we should proceed

Respect- I think just treating people with respect daily and have that being reciprocated and if not, being able to move forward anyway. I believe that respect comes in all shapes and sizes and in many different ways.

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

My parents are my true inspiration. They had instilled in me the importance of education from a very young age. We like many other families were dependent on different state and federal support in order to get by from day to day. Both my mom and my brother didnt make it past the 10th grade. My dad would always tell me that I needed to go to college after high school. What he was really trying to set up for me by telling me this all the time was to not struggle each day as he did to take care of us. He wanted a better life for me and my family!

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

One word that describes something that I am excited about for our lahui would be..influence! I am excited because over the past 2-3 years I have seen a rise in our people making moves in every aspect whether it be education, politics, businesses, agriculture etc. We are out there, we demand to be seen and heard and we are making an impact in many ways and influencing our people in a positive way!

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

I think one pressing issue that is facing us today is the issue of land and access to it. The price of homes in Hawaii are outrageous and not affordable for our Native Hawaiian families. We need to get our families on lands so that they can build a decent home, grow food on their lands and raise their families on.