Celebrating 50 Years of Aloha ʻĀina
With the Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana

Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana

Celebrating 50 Years of Aloha ʻĀina
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Bishop Museum is proud to partner with the Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana to host a series of presentations in honor of their 50th Anniversary and a recommitment to Aloha ʻĀina.

In an act of bold defiance against U.S. military might, George Helm, Emmett Aluli, Kimo Aluli, Kawaipuna Prejean, Walter Ritte, Ian Lind, Ellen Miles, Steve Morse, and Karla Villalba made landfall on the ravaged island of Kahoʻolawe on January 4, 1976. They were determined to draw national attention to the illegal role the U.S. played in the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and to protest U.S. military control and destruction of Hawaiian national lands. Their courage and heroism created the catalyst for the formation of the Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana and the birth of the modern Aloha ‘Āina Movement that now celebrates 50 years of Aloha ʻĀina. In conjunction with the maiden voyages of Hōkūleʻa in 1976, the value and practice of aloha ʻāina forwarded by the Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana fundamentally changed the perception of what it means to be Kanaka Maoli.

Guided by the ʻōlelo noʻeau from the Kuloloio ʻohana — “Laʻa, Maʻa, Paʻa” — we gather for three talk story sessions that explore the ways in which Kahoʻolawe teaches us how to consecrate, sustain, and solidify our relationship to ʻāina. The three presentations lead into a culminating concert on Bishop Museum’s Great Lawn celebrating the release of the “50 Years of Aloha ʻĀina” Music Album. The concert will feature artists and musicians who have created mele inspired by Kahoʻolawe. The album includes artists such as Keahi Piʻiʻōhiʻa, Pōkiʻi Seto, Kiliona Young, Kaʻikena Scanlan, Kimié Miner, Ikaakamai, Kekuhi Kanahele, and Kaumakaiwa Kanakaʻole.

Image Description: Departing from Hakioawa 11-30-2025. Photo: Kat Ho.

Laʻa: Consecration of Aloha ʻĀina in ʻAha
Thursday, September 24, 2026
6- 8 p.m.
Hawaiian Hall | Kai Ākea
Free admission

Making Laʻa is the first step in any successful kanaka endeavor. Appealing to the akua and kūpuna is essential to all major tasks that a kanaka takes. Because they are our sources of mana, we recognize that it is only with their support and aloha that our tasks will be meaningfully fulfilled. Our panel explores the moʻolelo of making and being laʻa on Kahoʻolawe. We will also trace how the spirit of laʻa has branched out to inspire an aloha ʻāina that places its faith in our akua across our pae moku.

This program celebrates the opening of “Kanaloa ka Laʻa o Kohemālamalama: 50 Years of ʻAha on Kahoʻolawe,” a new treasure case display on the third floor of Hawaiian Hall, that illustrates the continuity of laʻa (sanctity) and its kapu (sacred commands) on Kanaloa, Kohemālamalama, Kahoʻolawe.

Panelists include:

Luana Busby-Neff
Kaliko Baker
Huihui Kanahele Mossman and Kalā Mossman
And more…
Moderated by Kaipulaumakaniolono Keala

Light food and drink provided by Aunty Tammy Smith from Hale Kealoha

Maʻa: Establishing our Pilina to Kanaloa
Thursday, October 22, 2026
6- 8 p.m.
Hawaiian Hall | Kai Ākea
Free admission

Rooted in the understanding that we are called to be maʻa to this new position as kānaka in service of our ʻāina and akua, this panel brings together long standing Kua of the ʻOhana to reflect on how pilina, kuleana, and embodied practice shape our identity and responsibilities today. Panelists will share how repeated, intentional engagement with Kanaloa cultivates a grounded, generational commitment to stewardship and balance. Together, they consider how service becomes a way of being — one that restores connection, strengthens community, and aligns us with the forces that sustain life.

Panelists include:

CJ Elizares
Momi Wheeler
Anela Evans
Moderated by Arianne Chock

Paʻa: Kanaloa kānaka i Kanaloa: Ea aʻe ka ʻOhana
Thursday, November 12, 2026
6- 8 p.m.
Hawaiian Hall | Kai Ākea
Free admission

Kanaloa, in addition to being an akua, also means to be unconquerable and immovable. In keeping with the motto of our 50th anniversary, this panel discusses how becoming maʻa (accustomed) to what is laʻa (sacred) is what makes us paʻa (solid) as a lāhui. This longstanding belief of the Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana is the kahua upon which we discuss the question, “What does Kohemālamalama enable us to do and become as a lāhui? How do we extend the mana of Kanaloa to affirm our ea today?”

Panelists include:

Kaulu Luʻuwai
Craig Neff
Davis Price
Noʻeau Peralto
Moderated by Kaipulaumakaniolono Keala

50 Years of Aloha ʻĀina Concert & Festival: Laʻa, Maʻa, Paʻa!
Friday, November 13, 2026
5- 9 p.m.
Great Lawn, Campus-wide event

Join the Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana and Bishop Museum in celebrating our 50th anniversary and reactivating our commitment to aloha ʻāina! Come share your memories of Kahoʻolawe, learn about Kanaloa’s rich history and jam to some new mele composed for the aloha ʻāina of Kohemālamalama!

The “Laʻa, Maʻa, Paʻa” presentations lead into a culminating festival on the Museum’s Great Lawn, a festival that recommits us to the essential value and ethic of aloha ʻāina. The ʻOhana and the Museum are excited to convene many of our aloha ʻāina partner organizations meeting the challenges facing aloha ʻāina today. Partners include organizations protecting Hawaiʻi’s public lands facing expiring military leases.

Lending a voice to the modern movements are Keahi Piʻiʻōhiʻa, Pōkiʻi Seto, Kiliona Young, Kaʻikena Scanlan, Kimié Miner, Ikaakamai, Kekuhi Kanahele, and Kaumakaiwa Kanakaʻole, all of whom are featured on the ʻOhana’s “50 Years of Aloha ʻĀina” music album that champions the time honored message of aloha ʻāina for the generations to come.

The concert will feature artists and musicians who have created mele inspired by Kahoʻolawe.

Performing artists include:

Keahi Piʻiʻōhiʻa
Pōkiʻi Seto
Kiliona Young
Kaʻikena Scanlan
Kimié Miner
Ikaakamai
Kekuhi Kanahele
Kaumakaiwa Kanakaʻole
And more to be announced…

ADMISSION RATES
Proceeds from the concert will go directly to the Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana:
$35.00 General Adults (18+)
$10.00 Opio (Ages 11-17)
$10.00 Kupuna (65 years and older)
FREE for Keiki (Ages 10 and below)

Kanaloa ka Laʻa o Kohemālamalama: 50 Years of ʻAha on Kahoʻolawe
(Unconquerable is the Divinity of Kohemālamalama)
Co-curated by Pūlama Lima, Curator of Archaeology at Bishop Museum
and the Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana

This featured treasure case display, which opens on September 24, 2026, on the third floor of Hawaiian Hall, illustrates the continuity of laʻa (sanctity) and its kapu (sacred commands) on Kanaloa, Kohemālamalama, Kahoʻolawe. As an island named for a major akua, Kanaloa has always been a piko (umbilical, center) connecting kānaka to the mana of their akua and ʻāina. Kanaloahaunawela, as one of his names, presents us with his kinolau (earthly manifestation) of the heʻe hauna wela, the brilliant octopus that strikes with intense heat. This kinolau communicates two interdependent facets of Kanaloa explored in the exhibit: the supreme intelligence of the unknown depths of Kanaloanuiākea that strikes us with inspiration and the heat characteristic of high kapu as it is found in the kapu of the aliʻi (kuaʻā, kualiholiho, puhi kanaka, etc.). Kahoʻolawe as Kanaloa presents kānaka with a unique window into these two dimensions of his mana, a mana that reached out to the Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana (ʻOhana) 50 years ago giving birth through Kohemālamalama to the aloha ʻāina movement guided to this day by his mana. This exhibition explores the kapu held in the artifacts of antiquity, many of which are from Kamōhio (a bay on Kanaloa named for a great kahuna, a priest, or more generally one who keeps kapu), and unites them with the current religious practices carried out by the ʻOhana today.

Coupled with the artifacts from around Kahoʻolawe, the exhibit will also feature images of the ʻOhana’s ceremonial legacy from the last 50 years. The ʻaha commemorated in the exhibit were conducted at pivotal moments, ultimately empowering the groundbreaking work of aloha ʻāina that the ʻOhana has championed. From the very first ceremony held on February 13th, 1976, through the inaugural Makahiki ceremonies and Ipu a Kāne ceremonies to raise the water table, the Kanaloa ceremonies to slide the Navy away, the healing ceremony to return the island to the people of Hawaiʻi, and the dedication of various cultural sites, this exhibit captures snapshots of the moʻolelo of Kohemālamalama and how Kahoʻolawe’s laʻahia remains kanaloa.