Hawaii

On a trail in the Nā Ala Hele system, a small sign near a boot brush station asked hikers to stop and clean their footwear before moving on. It was a simple request — a few seconds of effort — but the reasoning behind it goes to the heart of something Hawaii takes seriously. The concept is pono, and it shapes how residents and, increasingly, how visitors are expected to engage with the islands. This article explains what pono means in practice, what the state’s official outdoor campaign asks of hikers and anglers, and how understanding it changes the

For nearly two centuries after Western contact, the practice of kakau — traditional Hawaiian tattooing — was systematically suppressed. By the mid-1800s it had almost entirely disappeared, surviving only in written accounts and museum artifacts. Traditional Hawaiian tattoo bands and large compositions often function as genealogy, visually recording lineage, family history, social role, and ancestral connections. That single sentence, drawn from a 2024 workshop led by master artists Keone Nunes and Keliʻi Makua at the Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site in Honolulu, reframes everything most visitors think they know about Polynesian tattoos. These are not decorative patterns. They are

Hawaiʻi, the Hawaiian language, faced near extinction. After being suppressed for generations, especially through the 1896 law that mandated English as the language of instruction in schools, the language plummeted. But today, a powerful revival is underway, driven by dedicated individuals, families, educators, and community initiatives determined to restore ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi to its rightful place in Hawaiian culture. This isn’t just about preserving words; it’s about holding onto the very essence of what it means to be Hawaiian. The Steep Decline of ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi Let’s rewind a bit. For centuries, ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi was the lifeblood of Hawaiian society. It