Eia Ka Wai, Ka Wai A KE Ola: Activating Ancestral Memory In Modern Living

Art-making in Indigenous contexts preserves cultural values, understandings, and frameworks and is uplifted through storytelling. Creating art and perpetuating cultural practices connect me to my ancestral memories, often drawing upon personal moments of joy, trauma, and self-determination. Questioning what is important and relevant is something that we each must choose for ourself and how we preserve the stories we make today for ancestors of tomorrow to recount. Sharing inspirations, creative processes, and journeys of exploration, allow me to express my story and commitment to my family and homelands. Experiencing, embracing, embodying, and empowering Indigenous knowledge, voices, and methodologies are systems I employ in activating customary mindsets in daily life. Acknowledging change through culturally grounded innovation allows long-held stories to persist and maintain connections to new adaptations and forms. Through these practices, I play my part in creating opportunities for the next generation to engage with the diversity and intricacies of my storied histories, places, and people. Perpetuating the values and cultural frameworks that allowed my forebearers to survive and flourish need to be lived every day, in turn providing opportunities for the next generation to be inspired. This is how I honor my past, celebrate the present, and safeguard the future.