Hawaii

In Hawaiian society, ‘Ohana isn’t just a word; it’s the very foundation of life. It emphasizes that family, in all its forms, comes first, shaping values, traditions, and the overall way of life. This deep-rooted connection transcends bloodlines, encompassing chosen relationships and community bonds that offer unwavering support, guidance, and a sense of belonging. To truly understand Hawaiian culture, you have to understand ‘Ohana. The Many Layers of ‘Ohana: More Than Just Blood When we talk about ‘Ohana, we’re not just talking about parents, siblings, and grandparents. While those relationships are undeniably important, the concept stretches much further. Think

Hawaiians combined parts of three guitars into one instrument — the lower strings for bass, the middle for rhythm, the upper for melody — creating a new musical language in the process. On the surface, slack key guitar sounds simple: a fingerpicked style played on a steel-string acoustic, the strings loosened into open tunings that ring out full chords with every strum. But that plain description hides a complex history of cross-cultural encounter, family secrecy, near-loss, and deliberate revival. The style known in Hawaiian as kīhōʻalu — literally “to loosen the key” — emerged in the early 1800s when

On a quiet morning in the islands, you might find a lei maker sitting with a pile of crown flower buds, twisting each stem with a care that has little to do with the finished product. The act itself — selecting, bending, threading — carries weight. Langi, a lei maker featured in a BYU–Hawaii cultural piece, describes the practice as a way to show aloha: something done purely from the heart, using any part of the flower — bud, stem, petal, or leaf. This article covers what goes into that practice, the plants involved, the ecological pressures on them,

In 1882, ʻIolani Palace was completed in Honolulu, a building that ran with electric lights and telephones before the White House had either. It was the seat of the Hawaiian Kingdom, a sovereign nation recognized by the United States and European powers. That same palace sits today in the center of Honolulu, a museum, but also a reminder of a question that still hangs in the air: how did a unified, internationally recognized kingdom, founded by a single chief in 1810, fall to a coup led by a handful of American businessmen just 83 years later? The Hawaiian Kingdom