As we enter Women’s History Month, I reflect on what it means to be a Native Hawaiian woman in leadership today. While my professional work is rooted in tourism, the truth is that Native Hawaiian leadership spans every sector of industry both here in Hawaiʻi and in places far from home. We may be fighting different fights, but we are all grounded in the same purpose.
To be a Native Hawaiian leader is to be courageous. It is to enter rooms that were not designed for us and to speak with clarity and conviction anyway. It is to advocate for Native Hawaiian voices at every decision-making table, not as token participants, but as rightful leaders. It is to carry kuleana that extends beyond job descriptions and titles.
In my work with NaHHA and through my writing for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, I am blessed to share stories from many Native Hawaiian women leaders. Leadership is not performance, it is responsibility. The same is true across our lāhui. Whether we are protecting ʻāina, advancing education, strengthening our economy, or nurturing our keiki, we are stewarding something far greater than ourselves.
We all ask the same questions, regardless of sector: Who benefits? Who decides? Who is sustained?
Indigenous leadership means building capacity within our communities so that our people are not only participants in systems, but designers of them. It means ensuring our youth see pathways to pride, prosperity, and resilience all around them. It means protecting culture from commodification and safeguarding our sacred spaces and practices with integrity.
Most of all, it means remembering that our work is intergenerational. I stand as a reflection of seven generations of ancestors behind me and as a promise to seven generations into the future. Every decision I make carries that awareness. Every Native Hawaiian woman I stand beside carries it too, whether she leads in a boardroom, a classroom, a loʻi, a clinic, or in her own home.
We may hold different roles, but we are united by the same intention: to choose our people every single day.
My call to action this Women’s History Month is simple: lead where you stand. Lead with courage. Lead with cultural grounding. Lead with aloha and actively uplift Native Hawaiian women who are doing the same.
When we center our values together, our leadership becomes more than representation. It becomes an act of resistance that strengthens our resilience. It becomes collective healing in motion. It becomes self-determination lived out in real time – for ourselves, for our communities, and for the many generations yet to come.
