OHA Trustees Sworn into Office
Puʻuhonua Society Grants for Visual Artists
Community arts and culture nonprofit Puʻuhonua Society announced they are accepting applications for Hoʻākea Source (a partner in the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts’ Regional Regranting Program since 2023).
Hoʻākea Source funding helps support artists living and working in Hawaiʻi. In its first grant cycle (2023-2024), Hoʻākea Source awarded $60,000. Artists receiving grants had a year to bring to life projects centered around ʻāina (that which feeds), pilina (relationality), and huli (change). These projects took many forms, celebrating the diverse practices of Hawaiʻi’s artists.
In the upcoming 2024-2025 grant cycle, over $90,000 will be disbursed with awards ranging from $2,000 to $10,000, thanks to additional financial support from the Laila Twigg-Smith Art Fund of the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation.
In its inaugural two-year grant period, visual artists, collaboratives, and collectives living and working across the island of Oʻahu will be prioritized.
Puʻuhonua Society exists to create opportunities for Native Hawaiian and Hawaiʻi-based artists and cultural practitioners to express themselves and engage with and impact audiences. At the intersection of contemporary art, traditional cultural practices, environmental stewardship, and transformational education, these artists and makers serve as translators, mediators, and amplifiers of social justice issues in the community.
Grant applications must be submitted by January 31. For more information or to apply, go to: www.hoakeasource.org
DHHL Awards 68 Ag Lots on Hawaiʻi Island
The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) awarded 68 agricultural lots on Hawaiʻi Island on Nov. 23, 2024, marking the largest agricultural lot offering by the department since the late-1980s.
Located in Hilo, the Honomū and Makuʻu homestead lots range in size from one to five acres. In Honomū, 16 1-acre subsistence agricultural lots were offered. In Makuʻu, 32 2-acre subsistence agricultural lots and 20 5-acre agricultural lots were offered.
“These lots are more than pieces of land, they’re opportunities for our beneficiaries to reconnect with the ʻāina,” said DHHL Director Kali Watson.
With both lot types, beneficiaries have the option of constructing a single-family home or supplemental dwelling unit.
Subsistence ag lots are less than three acres in size and near existing infrastructure, a model that allows beneficiaries to grow food on their lots for home consumption or small-scale economic agricultural activity.
Beneficiaries who opt to grow produce and other crops commercially must create a farm plan, like a business plan, as part of their lease, and lessees must cultivate at least two-thirds of the land.
An additional 40 subsistence agricultural lots are slated for development in Honomū within the next two years. More than 1,600 lots are planned for various homesteads across Hawaiʻi Island including Laʻiʻōpua, Kaumana, Honokaʻa, Pālamanui and Panaʻewa.
Funding for Conservation Projects
The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in the Pacific Islands Area is accepting a second round of applications through Jan. 31, 2025, for agricultural producers seeking funding for conservation projects in 2025.
NRCS, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, offers technical and financial assistance through conservation programs.
While NRCS accepts applications year-round, applications submitted after the program ranking will automatically be considered during future funding cycles.
Funding is available from both the Biden administration’s Farm Bill and Inflation Reduction Act, to provide additional resources to help producers expand conservation efforts that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase storage of carbon in their soil and trees. In many cases, applications for eligible practices meeting or exceeding state-determined minimum ranking thresholds will automatically be considered for priority funding.
Applications and more information are available at www.nrcs.usda.gov/getting-assistance/get-started-with-nrcs.
Vares-Lum the New Director of DKI APCSS
Maj. Gen. Suzanne Puanani Vares-Lum was named the new director of the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (DKI APCSS) under the Department of Defense (DoD).
Vares-Lum, a retired Major General with the U.S. Army with 34 years of service, was president of the East-West Center on the UH Mānoa campus, a position she held since January 2022. Vares-Lum was the first Native Hawaiian woman promoted to the rank of Major General; she was also the first Native Hawaiian woman to lead the East-West Center.
Following her retirement from the Army and prior to joining the East-West Center, Vares- Lum served as a consultant on Indo-Pacific issues. She has been an outspoken advocate for education and building bridges across the Indo-Pacific and has led collaborative initiatives in the region.
Vares-Lum has a BA degree in journalism and a master’s degree in teaching from UH Mānoa. She also has a master’s degree in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College, was a National Security Fellow at Syracuse University, a National Academy of Public Administration Fellow, and a graduate of the DKI APCSS.
DKI APCSS is the DoD’s premier institution dedicated to scholars and practitioners focused on the Indo-Pacific region.
HT25 Art Exhibit to Open in February
Hawaiʻi Contemporary, presenter of Hawaiʻi Triennial (Hawaiʻi’s largest thematic exhibition of contemporary art), announced more than a dozen sites of exhibition and programming for ALOHA NŌ, Hawaiʻi Triennial 2025 (HT25).
Bringing together the works of 49 artists and art collectives, HT25 will be on view Feb. 15 to May 4, at art spaces and public places across Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi Island and Maui.
Additional synergies are found in HT25’s intersection with Nā Wahi Pana, a temporary public art project in Honolulu developed by the Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts (MOCA). Nā Wahi Pana (storied places) expounds upon traditional moʻolelo, re-framing our collective understandings of frequented sites on Oʻahu.
Hawaiʻi Contemporary and MOCA are collaborating on three HT25 x Wahi Pana projects to further explore the importance of meaningful relationality to place and its histories.
Co-curated by Wassan Al-Khudhairi, Binna Choi, and Noelle M.K.Y. Kahanu, HT25 considers local-global dialogues through a Hawaiʻi- and Pacific-focused lens. ALOHA NŌ challenges commonly held notions of aloha, reclaims it as an active cultural practice, and situates it as a transformative power that is collectively enacted through contemporary art.
HT25 will also offer free public programs and audience-engagement events, including participatory art projects, workshops, artist talks, film screenings, panel discussions, tours, and more. For more information visit: www.hawaiicontemporary.org.
McNamara Wins the Eddie
The 2024-2025 Rip Curl Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational was held on December 22 – only the eleventh time that the “Eddie” has been held since it was established in 1984.
This year, both the first and second place winners of the Eddie are Native Hawaiians from legendary big wave surfing families. Taking first place with a total of 135.8 points was Landon McNamara, while runner up Mason Ho took second with 120.9 points.
Ho had a solid performance, in Ho family style, charging waves throughout the day. He was theatrical, having fun switching his foot stance and later, riding a wave so close to shore he was launched into the air from the huge backwash off the beach.
McNamara paddled into what initially looked like a close-out wave in the second round. It turned out to be the perfect ride of the day. He made a beautiful drop and stayed solid on his board as the wave broke and pushed him out in front of the monster whitewash, earning him a perfect score of 50/50 and the contest’s “Wave of the Day” prize.
McNamara won $50,000 and 350,000 Hawaiian Airline miles.
“This is a childhood dream, something I’ve been working at since being a little kid on the beach here,” said McNamara his voice heavy with emotion.
“They say Eddie picks the winner and I’m so grateful he picked me,” said McNamara, crediting a turtle out in the water he followed as a hōʻailona (omen) he believed was Eddie guiding him.
The Eddie Big Wave Invitational celebrates the current lineage of big wave surfers, as well as the ones that came before and is the premier event in the sport of surfing.
Eddie Aikau was a championship athlete, waterman, and family man who truly cared for others. He braved waves when no one else would go out. He was the North Shore’s first lifeguard and saved more than 500 people during his career.
Ed Lindsey ʻOhana to be Honored
Nonprofit Hawaiʻi Land Trust (HILT) will honor the Ed Lindsey ʻohana at its 23rd Annual Buy Back the Beach benefit lūʻau on Jan. 25, 2025.
Each year HILT recognizes a person, group, or organization that has made a substantial impact on land conservation in Hawaiʻi. Edwin “Ed” Lindsey Jr. and his wife, Puanani, established Maui Cultural Lands (MCL), a nonprofit grassroots land trust, in February 2002.
Ed, a lifelong teacher, envisioned involving Maui residents and visitors with the restoration of Honokōwai Valley. Since his passing in 2009, Puanani and their eldest son, Edwin “ʻEkolu” Lindsey, have continued his legacy.
MCL works across three main cultural landscapes on Maui: Honokōwai Valley, Mālama Launiupoko, and Mālama Kaheawa-Hanaʻula, through reforestation, archaeological stabilization, and education. In Honokōwai Valley alone, volunteers have cleared and restored more than 10 acres.
“Hawaiʻi Land Trust is honored to recognize the Lindsey ʻohana for its continued, multi-generational efforts to preserve, protect and steward Maui lands and cultural sites,” said ʻOlu Campbell, President and CEO of HILT.
Buy Back the Beach is an island-style sunset pāʻina hosted by the Old Lāhainā Lūʻau. The event helps raise vital operational support for HILT’s mission to protect and steward the lands that sustain Hawaiʻi. A performance by Maui’s Kamalei Kawaʻa, a Top 20 finalist on season 25 of The Voice, will be the featured.
For more information go to: hilt.org/events/buy-back-the-beach-2025.
OHA COO Puʻu Named to BWS Board
