Hawaiian Soul - ʻUhane Hawaiʻi

It all started with an idea, a feeling, and a passion — the desire to inspire others by sharing my understanding of the world around us. If I had written a book about my journey, it would have been called Identity Crisis at Fifteen. It would have captured the deep thoughts and questions that filled my young mind. I had so much curiosity about life, but how could anyone else understand me when I couldn’t even understand myself?

That sense of confusion stuck with me for a while, but it also pushed me forward. In 2022, I worked for a local island business that bridged small artists with mainstream retail, allowing their passions to reach a wider audience. This experience ignited a spark in me — the idea of creating my own designs. I drafted countless concepts, but none felt right. Each draft fell short, failing to capture the true essence of what ʻUhane Hawaiʻi meant to me. I realized that before I could share something meaningful with the world, I needed to understand what truly resonated with me on a deeper level.

My journey into crafting began when I was young, as I learned the traditional Hawaiian arts of kui, wili, and hilo lei. These skills were passed down not through formal teachings, but through watching and experimenting with my own hands. My ʻohana, however, wasn’t deeply rooted in Hawaiian traditions. We celebrated all our cultures — Filipino, Japanese, Puerto Rican, Portuguese, and German — blending them into our daily lives. While I was surrounded by a rich variety of traditions, I often felt like I was missing a connection to my Hawaiian heritage, a piece of myself that I couldn’t fully grasp.

That sense of disconnection became more apparent when I started learning ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi at the age of 11. For the first time, I began to reconnect with my ancestral language — a language so rich and vibrant that words alone can’t fully capture its depth. Yet, there was a sadness in my heart, as I realized I couldn’t speak it with my ʻohana. I was the first in generations to revive our native tongue, and while it was a beautiful thing, it also felt lonely at times. This loneliness drove me to dig deeper, to explore my genealogy and uncover the stories of my ʻohana and kūpuna. I needed to understand where I came from, to connect the past to the present and heal the gap between generations.

In this journey of rediscovery, Akua blessed me with the passion to uncover my roots. I began to learn about my ʻohana, their struggles, their resilience, and the ways they carried their traditions forward. Through this, I realized that ʻUhane Hawaiʻi wasn’t just a concept, but a gift from my kūpuna — a way to make sense of who I am and how I can honor those who came before me. It became clear that my path wasn’t just about reconnecting with my heritage for personal fulfillment, but about sharing that knowledge with others. I could help bring the traditions of my kūpuna into the modern world, reconnecting roots and telling their stories — and my own.

ʻUhane Hawaiʻi became my purpose: a mission to create, share, and inspire, while honoring the people and the culture that shaped me. Through my designs and my work, I want to offer a space for others to reconnect with their roots as well — to explore, learn, and celebrate the deep traditions that define us. It’s about bringing ancient wisdom into the present and finding ways to share that with a world that’s yearning for deeper connections.

ʻO wau ʻo ʻUhane Hawaiʻi — a living expression of my kūpuna, their moʻolelo, and the passion they passed down to me.