Nov. 19, 2025

The vision for a revitalized Lahaina will be informed by the voices of young people and the ancestral wisdom they carry forward.

This summer, a cohort of kanaka ʻōiwi with the Huliauapaʻa Wahi Kūpuna Internship Program spent five weeks walking the storied landscape of Lahaina, uncovering histories buried beneath time. Founded by the nonprofit Huliauapaʻa and in collaboration with Kamehameha Schools, the program trains emerging leaders in cultural resource management that is grounded in ʻike kūpuna and pilina. Executive Director Kelley Uyeoka KSK’00 said the goal is to raise “an army of kiaʻi and ʻāina stewards” equipped with both cultural and technical tools.

“This is an opportunity for our haumāna, as kanaka doing this work, to be proud…and utilize the different tool sets that archeology, anthropology, history, planning — all of those Western tools — use to upskill and uplift our people to do what we’re meant to do: continue on the kuleana of our ancestors,” Uyeoka said.

Each summer, interns learn how to enter spaces with protocol, gather oral histories, and conduct archival and field research. This year’s focus on Lahaina came at a pivotal time as the beloved town is remembering its history to create a new future. Interns conducted archival research on māhele documents, translated nūpepa articles and mapped traditional ʻauwai that once sustained Lahaina’s thriving food network. Projects explored the flow of water from upland valleys to Mokuhinia, the sacred pond once home to the guardian moʻo Kihawahine.

One study, Lahaina: He ʻĀina Wai, Wai Inventory of Kuʻia, Lahaina, traced historic waterways while another focused on ʻAuwai o Piʻilani, revealing how early engineers moved water without disrupting ecosystems. Another project mapped traditional loʻi and ʻulu groves, showing that Lahaina’s abundance was intentionally designed. For them, the internship transformed the way they understood ʻāina.

“It allowed us to be so intimate with ʻāina,” Kalawaiʻa Nunes KSK’21 said. “We got to see Lahaina as it actually is — the stories, the people, the water that still flows. It just shows me how plentiful ʻāina is.”

For fellow intern Kūheleloa Kekona, the project deepened her understanding of her own hometown and appreciation for learning about other wahi pana.

“It’s not just for Lahaina but for wherever you go, to come with respect,” Kekona said. “There’s always more to know about a place and I don’t want to be a tourist on our own ‘āina.”

Their work, including a series of ArcGIS StoryMaps and 10-page research papers, will be published on the Hualiauapaʻa website later this year, offering public access to the data, maps and moʻolelo the haumāna collected. For community leader and mahiʻai Kaipo Kekona, who collaborated with the interns on-site, the program’s impact reaches far beyond research.

“We lost our archives in the fire,” Kekona said. “But this program gave them back to us — not just the documents, but the meaning behind them,” Kekona said. “These footprints of our kūpuna are the only sustainable model that any of us can follow.”

As the interns’ findings continue to inform community planning, their work underscores a truth that has long guided our ancestors: healing ʻāina is healing people. Through programs like these, Ke Kula ʻo Kamehameha and its partners are empowering the next generation to lead and steward a thriving, resilient Hawaiʻi.  To learn more, visit https://www.ksbe.edu/lahaina.