2-day Festival Celebrating Community Interconnectedness

Hilo, Hawaiʻi – ʻImiloa Astronomy Center, in partnership with Lonoa Honua and ʻOhana Waʻa, is hosting the ʻIkuwā Festival on Oct. 15-16. This 2-day festival celebrates the interconnectedness of individuals, communities, and the natural resources and landscapes we call home. “We are thrilled to be able to host this festival at our ʻImiloa facility with our partner organizations,” says ʻImiloa Executive Director, Kaʻiu Kimura. “We’ve traditionally held our Wayfinding Festival during October, and this ʻIkuwā Festival is an expansion of that. We’ll have similar activities and presentations with additional engagement opportunities to further weave the ‘web’ of relationships from ma uka to ma kai that are represented on the canoe.”

Participants can expect to re-engage our local community creatively, and enhance “island consciousness;” what it means to live and think like an island community, and recognize what impact you have on this ʻāina. This ʻIkuwā season allows us to grow our interconnected awareness; with each other, with place, with plants, trees, birds, ocean, fish, water, sky, and stars. Some curiosities to consider: What is a manu on a waʻa or canoe? And why is it called the same word as bird-manu? What function do the forests and sea birds have in navigation? What does a koa tree have to do with a waʻa and the ʻelepaio bird?

“ʻIkuwā is the month when great storms arise, dark clouds form, the sea roars, thunder rolls, birds squawk, and the resounding energy of the honua vibrates…let’s explore the spectrum of sound…there is even a breath of silence in this resounding, reverberating month,” says Lonoa Honua Owner & Creator, Kekuhi Kealiʻikanakaʻoleohaililani. “I kū mau mau, i kū wā! All at once! All together! Don’t miss out! I encourage you to PARTICIPATE, come ignite curiosity and the intention of this season! Pohā kōʻeleʻele!”

ʻIkuwā Festival is a free-admission event for the public and will feature informational and hands-on activity booths, local vendors and food! Additionally, the festival will showcase waʻa, host Makahiki games, oli competitions, live presentations and entertainment, and more! “The canoe is a great physical reminder of how connected we all really are – whether it be the community hands that labor on it, the resources used to provision a voyage, or the navigator collecting cues from nature to set course out at sea,” says ʻOhana Waʻa Board Member, Pōmai Bertelmann. “This festival will be a reflection of these relationships and ʻOhana Waʻa is ready to help share this story.”

Programs will run from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 15, and Sunday, Oct. 16, respectively at ʻImiloa, located at 600 ʻImiloa Place in Hilo. ʻIkuwā Festival is made possible with the support of the Ama OluKai Foundation.

Admission

Admission is free to the public and includes access to all festival activities, presentations and live performances in Moanahōkū Hall, ʻImiloa’s Planetarium, Exhibit Hall, and Outdoor Garden. Select crafts, retail and food vendors will require payment onsite. Donations for the ʻIkuwā Festival can be accepted at ʻImiloa’s Front Desk.

For Inquiries from the public, please contact info.imiloa@hawaii.edu.

Featured Activities:

• Live Demonstrations: Canoe Training, Arts and Crafts
• Live Entertainment
• Live Presentations and Storytelling
• Kūekeolioli Keiki Oli Competition
• Hands-on Activity Booths & Take-Home Crafts
• Makahiki Games
• Local Vendors
• On-site Food for Purchase

Health & Safety Protocols

In keeping with the current State, County, and University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo COVID-19 health and safety protocols, ʻImiloa will not be requiring verification of COVID-19 vaccination nor negative COVID test results for visitors to ʻImiloa. Face masks will not be required at this event. Close contact individuals are asked to mask indoor and outdoor, and individuals exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms are asked to stay home.

Festival Hosts: ʻIkuwā Festival 2022 is a collaborative event spearheaded by Kekuhi Kealiʻikanakaʻoleohaililani (Creator & Owner of Lonoa Honua LLC), Kaʻiu Kimura (Executive Director of ʻImiloa) and Pōmai Bertelmann (ʻOhana Waʻa Board Member). This collaboration is supported by these three organizations, and a community of individuals who are Hawaiʻi island born practitioners. We are keenly aware of a variety of Hawaiʻi’s restoration and sustainability needs, practice community health and vitality, and teach connectivity for resilience and innovation.

Lonoa Honua LLC

Aloha Honua! We are Lonoa Honua. Lonoa means the synapse – that is the electric, or chemical, signal that allows neurons to talk to one another. Honua means wide, broad, earthly, planets – ALL the things. We offer the world Hawaiʻi ritual & life ways education & active practice. Learn more at

https://www.kekuhi.com/lonoa-honua.

ʻOhana Waʻa

Our mission is to work together towards the collective health and life of our voyaging traditions and elevate our Hawaiian leaders through a Native Hawaiian methodology that is grounded in ancestral ʻauwaʻa loina and lifeways. Our ʻohana is composed of intergenerational indigenous leadership representatives of voyaging canoes and organizations of Hawaiʻi. Our guiding philosophy, adopted from one of our family members, is “He moku he waʻa, he waʻa he moku” (Our island is the canoe, our canoe is our island). It speaks to the interdependent nature of our people, and teaches us that our actions on the canoe should be reflective of our actions on our island.

‘Imiloa

Sharing Hawai‘i’s legacy of exploration, ‘Imiloa is a world-class center for informal science education serving local and visitor communities through local science research, cultural advancement and environmental stewardship. Its centerpiece is a 12,000 sq. ft. exhibit hall, showcasing science and Hawaiian culture as parallel journeys of human exploration guided by the light of the stars. The visitor experience is amplified with presentations using ‘Imiloa’s full-dome planetarium and 9 acres of native gardens. ‘Imiloa is located at 600 ‘Imiloa Place in Hilo, off of Komohana and Nowelo Street at the UH Hilo Science and Technology Park. Please visit www.imiloahawaii.org for programs and admission updates.