KS Maui senior Shiloh Gilliland interviewed kūpuna in East Maui as part of a student-led research project.
Kamehameha Schools Maui senior Shiloh Kamole Gilliland didn’t expect a class project to bring a crowd to tears or lead him to the panel of a statewide conference. But his senior year ended with both.
What started as a research paper for his honors Hawaiian language class became a centerpiece of the school’s annual song competition. Gilliland and classmate Talan Kūaliʻi Akina-Chong interviewed kūpuna from across East Maui — Koʻolau, Hāna, Kīpahulu and Kaupō — to create a series of videos for ʻAha Mele, grounding each class song with the voices and stories of those places.
Gilliland relied on his kumu and classmates for help with video production, but he led the interviews and helped build pilina with community members during their eastside huakaʻi. The experience gave their team a front-row seat to conversations around kuleana, connection and conservation in the area.
“I have ancestral ties to Kīpahulu but I didn’t know much about it,” Gilliland said. “After talking to Aunty Tweetie [Lind] and their ʻohana, I started to really love the place and see it differently.”
During the screenings, Gilliland spotted familiar faces in the crowd.
“I recognized a couple kūpuna out there and they started crying and I was like ʻDon’t do that then I going start crying,’” Gilliland said. “I think everyone saw the love these kūpuna have for their ʻāina. I really can’t put into words how that felt — it was amazing.”
Before the reels premiered at ʻAha Mele, Gilliland and his team presented their research at the Lāhui Research Conference at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
“We opened with a mele, showed clips from each moku and talked about our research,” Gilliland said. “It was mostly Maui people in the room — kūpuna, kumu, alumni. I was nervous but also proud. It was cool being the youngest one there doing that kind of work.”
Gilliland is heading to the College of the Redwoods in California to play baseball in the fall. After that, he hopes to return to Hawaiʻi and transform the hospitality industry with ʻike Hawaiʻi and ʻōlelo.
His advising kumu, Uluwehi Maxwell, sees the project as a powerful example of ʻōiwi leadership in action.
“This is a massive undertaking for any senior juggling sports, academics and everything else,” Maxwell said. “But [teachers], let the kids lead. Sit back because you’ve already instilled all the teachings and now, you can watch them elevate.”
This project reflects what a Ke Kula ‘o Kamehameha education strives to nurture: haumāna who carry their Hawaiian identity with confidence, who build pilina with community and ʻāina, and who lead with the purpose to better their lāhui.
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