ke aloha ʻāina

The Wahi Hoʻōla community recognizes that generations of Kanaka Maoli and their ancestral knowledge and worldview have shaped Hawaiʻi in sustainable and regenerative ways that allow us to enjoy the gifts of this land today.

We commit to learn from and protect the ancestral knowledge systems and values of Kānaka Maoli, who are the holders of intergenerational wisdom, by observing and interacting with Hawaiʻi’s island ecosystems in sustainable and regenerative ways. We commit to developing Hawaiʻi-appropriate responses to challenges of social, cultural, ecological and economic healing and resiliency.

We recognize that public policy has been used to displace Hawaiian communities, erode Native Hawaiian sovereignty and wellbeing, forcibly assimilating Kanaka Maoli individuals into U.S. society. 

We acknowledge the labor of immigrant communities and their descendants who worked on the plantations of this land for the colonists, and the continued waves of immigrants who have been displaced from their homelands and disproportionately face economic oppression, racism, violence, and exploitation.

We share these acknowledgements to encourage the Wahi Hoʻōla community to consider how our yoga and self care practices can address these historic and contemporary atrocities perpetrated against BIPOC communities throughout Hawai’i and the world.  

We invite everyone in this space to recognize their ancestors and the events of history that brought you here, as well as the work you/we are engaged in to support our collective healing now and for future generations.