For over 50 years, HIHumanities has encouraged and supported programming that helps us know ourselves better. Hawaiʻi is a complex web of cultures, stories, histories, and humans. We work to strengthen that which binds us together as a stronger community. HIHumanities is one of 56 state and jurisdictional humanities councils in the US. Organized as the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in 1972, HIHumanities is now a 501(c)3 organization that continues to be funded in part by NEH, as well as by contributions from individuals, foundations, and corporations. With these funds, we conduct and support public programs in humanities disciplines (seeking to describe and understand this universe with depth, breadth, and imagination) that provide broader context and perspective for thinking more deeply about our cultures and our times.
Our Values:
“Nā Mana Wai Pio ‘Ole E Hoʻōla Ana I Ka ‘Āina—The Many Inextinguishable Sources of Water Make the Land Live” is the motto given to us by the late Mary Kawena Pukui, a leading Hawaiian humanities scholar and author.
It is captured in our logo: the many waters (three wavy lines) carry seeds of life. The color teal encompasses both blue (water) and green (life).
This motto elegantly expresses our belief that Hawaiʻi’s many different peoples, communities, cultures, stories, histories, and perspectives keep us in touch with who we are and where we are going. Nā mana wai pioʻole e hoʻōla ana i ka ʻāina reminds us of our kuleana, our responsibilities, our privileges, our joys in sharing common the goals and the tenets of our mission and our vision.