Every generation deserves to live KŪ knowing who they come from
This year, we are documenting 50 moʻolelo from our community—stories of aloha, resilience, identity, and everyday life. Through oral histories, interviews, and digital archiving, our goal is to create a living collection of stories that future generations can return to for years to come.
Stay connected to the moʻolelo
Join our list and we'll send you a new story every month - straight from the archive.
Stories Carry More Than Memories
Across Hawaiʻi and throughout the diaspora, stories help people stay connected to home, family, and identity.
They live in the stories we share around dinner tables, the memories we pass down at gatherings, the lessons, phrases, foods, and music we carry across generations and oceans.
But many of these stories are never formally recorded. And as time passes, we risk losing not only memories, but also the voices, perspectives, and ʻike you carry — the very things future generations may one day seek.
We created the KŪ Digital Moʻolelo Preservation Initiative to help preserve these stories through oral histories, recorded conversations, and digital archiving rooted in care and relationship.
This work is not only about documenting the past. It is about helping future generations remain connected to where they come from. You deserve to know where you come from. These stories exist for you.
Help preserve a moʻolelo
Our Vision
Record
Conduct oral history interviews with kūpuna, families, and community members across Hawaiʻi and the diaspora.
Preserve
Digitally archive recordings, photographs, and stories for long-term accessibility and care.
Share
Help you find these stories, connect with them, and pass them on to those who come after you.
Connection Travels Through Story
Stories are one of the strongest ways we stay connected — to home, to family, to each other.
They live in the way our grandparents spoke, the memories we keep repeating decades later, the stories attached to neighborhoods, beaches, kitchens, songs, and everyday life.
These stories carry belonging. And they belong to you.
This initiative exists to help you preserve those connections for future generations — whether you're growing up in Hawaiʻi or learning about home from somewhere far away.
Help Us Build The Archive
The KŪ Digital Moʻolelo Preservation Initiative is currently in its beginning stages.
We are launching this effort through community support and grassroots fundraising to help build the foundation for long-term preservation work.
Your support helps us film and archive 50 moʻolelo in the next year.
- Recording equipment
- Oral history interviews
- Audio and video preservation
- Archival storage
- Editing and transcription
- Digital archive development
- Community storytelling efforts
By supporting this project now, you are helping create something that can continue serving families and future generations for years to come.
Be part of the archiveFiscal Sponsorship
The KŪ Digital Moʻolelo Preservation Initiative is a fiscally sponsored project of the Independent Arts and Media (IAM), a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
All donations made through IAM are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law and directly support the mission and development of this initiative.
Fiscal sponsorship helps provide transparency, accountability, and long-term sustainability as the project grows.
Help Preserve the Voices That Keep Us Connected
Every contribution helps support the recording and preservation of stories that future generations may one day return to for connection, remembrance, and understanding.
Whether large or small, your support helps this work begin.
Help preserve a moʻolelo"Be a good ancestor"
