2022 Winter Grantees
PUBLIC HUMANITIES GRANTS:
Community Perspectives on Policing
East Hawai’i Cultural Council
$10,000
This collaborative project between East Hawaiʻi Cultural Center (EHCC) and University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo will research and analyze perceptions of East Hawai’i residents of historical and contemporary policing and the criminal justice system. The results of this research will serve as the foundation for a panel discussion, which will be open to the general public.
Mālama the Caregivers Theater Project
PlayBuilders of Hawaii Theater Company
$10,000
This project will create a play based on the stories of caregivers in Hawai‘i and those who are under their care with the goal of educating audiences on the topics of care giving and aging. PlayBuilders playwriting practice will incorporate real experiences gathered from talk story circles and focus groups.
30 Years Later: Stories of Resilience
North Hawai’i Heritage Foundation
$10,000
This project will be creating a repository of social memory through oral histories and archival documents exploring rural Honoka‘a and the surrounding areas, and how these communities addressed and adapted to the abrupt closing of the last local sugar plantation in 1994. 30 Years Later will offer a portrait of the resilience of Honokaʻa in the face of losing the industry that had such a profound impact on shaping this rural community.
Ho’ohui Maika’i
Krause Family Foundation: ‘Alana Ke Aloha
$10,000
This project focuses on Moloka‘i women’s stories and their “mixedness” considered through cultural food practices. Hoʻohui Maikaʻi will examine race, culture, and ethnicity connected to food making and eating, and explore how women on Molokai understand themselves, their histories, and others.
Land Stories: Farming and Kaua‘i Culture
Story For All
$10,000
This project addresses the cultural impact of Kauaʻi’s diverse farming populations within the broader context of how farming and land management practices are impacting the land. Land Stories will be creating public programs to share stories and information about Kaua‘i history, culture, and farming techniques.
Life Stories of Cultural Practitioners
University of Hawaiiʻi System
$10,000
This multimedia project will feature videos with cultural practitioners and a live event where the audience will be offered an intimate portrayal of cultural practitioners’ everyday lives integrating moʻolelo, arts, pedagogies, and cultural protocol.
The Past’s Plan for Hawai‘i’s Future
University of Hawaiʻi System
$9,999
This project will explore the legacy of the 1970s in Hawai‘i, one of the most active periods of civic engagement in Hawai‘i’s modern history. Project activities will include an interactive website with access to key primary source documents and present them in historical context. Three live panel events will offer further opportunities for public engagement.
Bamboo Ridge Oral History Project
Bamboo Ridge Press
$9,600
The project aims to collect oral histories about the Bamboo Ridge Press creating important first-person documentation of how Hawaiʻi literary arts publishing developed and flourished over the past 45 years and add to our primary resources and knowledge base regarding Hawaiʻi arts in general.
Koʻolaupoko Future Authors
Kualoa-Heeia Ecumenical Youth Project
$10,000
Project is a series of public writer’s workshops in partnership with authors, illustrators, and publishing professionals. This series is intended to support and empower community members to create written works that increase Hawaiian representation in literature.
Mai Ka Pouli Exhibition and Programming
Holualoa Foundation for Arts & Culture (Donkey Mill)
This project explores history, identity, and representation of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders and the way in which the past continues to shape our understanding of who we are, how we perceive ourselves, and how these perspectives heavily influence our daily lives. Mai Ka Pouli aims to address and respond to the above questions through engagement with historic and contemporary material, art making, and discussion-based exchange.
Edible Tales: Hoʻokupu
Dancers Unlimited Inc
$10,000
This is an in-person and on-site project that explores cultural heritage, social justice and sustainability using food-related topics. The community-centered project has transformed food resilience and migration, malama ʻāina, and multicultural food conversations into dance explorations.
2022 Spring Grants
PUBLIC HUMANITIES GRANTS
Moʻolelo Matters Speaker Series
Aloha Kuamoʻo ʻĀina
$10,000
This project focuses on the history and stories from the Battle of Kuamo‘o with the aim to educate communities across Hawaiʻi about Native Hawaiian cultural values and narratives central to the history of Kuamoʻo and inspire a sense of place and kuleana to communities across Hawaiʻi.
Beyond the Music
Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra
$10,000
This project will create companion essays and program notes used to give context and draw connections across other experiences and perspectives for people attending Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra’s Masterworks Concerts held at Moanalua High School’s auditorium.
Conflict, Reconciliation, and Remembrance: World War II in Hawai‘i
Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaiʻi
$10,000
This project is comprised of a week-long workshop examining the impact and enduring legacies of World War II in Hawai‘i upon combatants, civilians, and historical narratives. Through historical tours and workshops, participants will explore the ways that war is memorized in the Islands as Hawai‘i is one of the most militarized states in America.
Kaua‘i: The Separate Kingdom
Kauaʻi Museum Association, Ltd.
$10,000
This project will explore and share the rich and unique history of Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau as being steadfast in their independence, creating a series of three exhibits using augmented reality to bring artifacts on exhibit at the Kaua‘i Museum into the three-dimensional realm.
Hawaiʻi Youth Poet Laureate
Maui Arts & Cultural Center
$10,000
This fellowship builds youths’ skills in literary excellence, civic engagement, and social impact. During the fellowship, students, ages 10-19 will apply to become the Youth Poet Laureate of Hawai‘i. This project will develop and deepen participants’ civic engagement and understanding of Hawaiʻi’s complex histories and related communities through poetry via workshops for teachers and youth, residencies, public programs and a chapbook.
Reframing the History of Iolani Palace
The Friends of Iolani Palace
$10,000
This project will offer a reinterpretation of the Palace to help dispel visitor stereotypes about Hawai‘i history and native Hawaiians by holding public forum events presenting and discussing research on three topics: Life Around the Overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy; International Relations, Treaties and Friendships Created Around the Globe; and Technology, to Include Medicine, Utilities and Education.
Community Engagement with the Asia Pacific Dance Festival
University of Hawaiʻi
$10,000
This project will create opportunities for the community to partake in conversations and experiences with dancers from Cambodia, Palau, and Hawaiʻi. These programs will encourage communities to listen to the multiple viewpoints that exist as they are shared by members of the various dance companies, guest scholars, and other community members.
PRESERVATION & ACCESS GRANTS
Reflections of Palama Settlement II—Oral History
Palama Settlement
$10,000
This project will collect oral histories about Palama Settlement’s accomplishments and impact on alumni who participated and used the services of the Settlement, as well as those who worked there between 1968 and 2022.