More Than an Event

Later this month, Kū Project will make the trip to Vancouver, Washington to participate in 4 Days of Aloha (July 23-26), an annual gathering organized by Ke Kukui Foundation that brings together people from the Pacific Northwest, across the continent, and from Hawai'i to celebrate, practice, and share the values and traditions that continue to connect Hawaiʻi communities far beyond the islands themselves. This year marks their 24th Annual gathering for this event.

When we first began thinking about whether we should attend this year, we found ourselves returning to a simple question: if our work is centered around helping people feel more grounded, more connected, and more present in their lives and relationships, what kuleana, responsibility, do we have to show up in the spaces where those connections are already happening?

Much of what we do through Kū Project currently exists online. We record conversations, share reflections, publish podcasts, and create content that reaches people in Hawaiʻi and across the world. There is something powerful about being able to reach someone through a screen at exactly the moment they need encouragement or perspective. At the same time, there are parts of community that simply refuse to be digitized. Some things still require proximity. Some conversations happen differently when two people are sitting across from one another instead of responding to comments or messages. Some stories only emerge when there is enough time and enough quiet for them to arrive naturally.

Carrying Hawaiʻi Beyond Hawaiʻi

That feels especially important in a moment when so many Native Hawaiians and local families are building lives away from Hawaiʻi while still trying to hold onto the values, relationships, and practices that shaped them. Culture has always traveled with people. It shows up in the foods we prepare for gatherings, in the way we welcome guests into our homes, in the stories we tell our children, and in the expectations we carry about how we care for one another. Those things rarely survive because they are written down somewhere. More often, they survive because they are practiced together and witnessed by the next generation.

Events like 4 Days of Aloha create opportunities for that kind of practice to happen in public and in community. They become places where children can see themselves reflected in the people around them, where kūpuna can share stories that might otherwise remain within their immediate families, and where people who have spent years away from Hawaiʻi can experience the familiar feeling of being surrounded by others who understand where they come from without needing an explanation.

An Invitation to Sit and Talk Story

As we began planning for the event, it became clear that we did not want to simply arrive with products or displays. We wanted to create opportunities for conversation. Throughout the weekend we will be bringing our Talk Story space, inviting people to sit down together and use our Talk Story Deck as a starting point for conversations about family, identity, community, values, childhood memories, and the experiences that continue to shape who we become.

Alongside those conversations, we will also be holding Live Talk Story Sessions with special guests to share their stories and experiences which I will be hosting and welcoming the community to listen in and be part of the experience.  With our Talk Story space, we hope people feel like they are at home in the garage or backyard lanai listening to 'ohana talk stories.

We'll also be creating opportunities for people to contribute to larger community conversations by inviting them to respond to simple questions that often lead to unexpectedly meaningful answers. One installation will ask attendees "What does Aloha mean to you?", while another will invite younger participants to share what they love about Hawaiʻi.

Questions like these rarely produce identical answers, but they often reveal the values and memories that communities continue to hold in common even when separated by geography.

A Conversation With Kaloku Holt

Part of what strengthened our conviction to participate this year came through our recent conversation with Kaloku Holt, Executive Director of Ke Kukui Foundation, on the Kū Project podcast.

Our discussion began with the history and purpose behind 4 Days of Aloha but eventually moved toward a larger conversation about continuity, stewardship, and the responsibility communities have to create places where culture can continue to be lived rather than simply remembered. What stayed with us afterward was the reminder that preservation is not only about protecting objects, archives, or institutions. It is equally about protecting the conditions that allow relationships, stories, and practices to continue moving from one generation to the next.

Why This Year Matters

For Kū Project, participating in 4 Days of Aloha this year feels like participating in that larger work. It is an opportunity to listen more than we speak, to document stories that deserve to be preserved, and to create moments of connection that might continue long after the weekend itself is over. If our mission is to help people stand tall and feel grounded in who they are, then part of that mission must include showing up in places where community is actively being built and sustained.

We're grateful to Ke Kukui Foundation for creating that kind of space, and we're grateful for the opportunity to contribute to it in our own small way.

If you find yourself in Vancouver later this month, we hope you'll come sit with us for a while. There will be space, questions, stories, and enough time for talk story, which often feels like one of the most valuable things we can offer each other these days.

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Photo credited: Ke Kukui Foundation