Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 40, Number 12, 1 December 2023 — Ho'okipa Hawai'i Focuses on Community and Visitor Engagement [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Ho'okipa Hawai'i Focuses on Community and Visitor Engagement

V LAMAKU HO'OKIPA V ^ A BEACON OF HOSPITALITY "

By Mālia Sanders Ho'okipa Hawai'i Weekend, presented by the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association (NaHHA), will take plaee Feb. 3-4, 2024, at the

Royal Hawaiian Center. It is a two-day family friendly event dedicated to the inclusion of Hawaiian culture and knowledge systems through the medium of Hawaiian cultural practitioners, exhibits, demonstrations and vendors that engage community and visitors in a greater understanding and appreciation for the Native Hawaiian culture and Hawai'i. Regenerative tourism extends sustainable tourism to address the primary core needs of the community, ensuring that benefits are circulated back into the community in a just and reciprocal manner. For a visitor, understanding where their dollar goes when they spend it is a critical element of responsible visiting. One of the elements of the event is the Kuhikuhi Marketplace, a vendor mākeke (marketplace) that is specific to Native Hawaiian-owned small businesses that have a product or service that aligns with NaHHA's mission and fundamentals. Vendors who will be showcased here have been vetted by NaHHA to ensure that their products and services speak to the ideals of regeneration. Many vendors will be graduates of NaHHA's Pākōlea program whieh focuses on removing the barriers for Native Hawaiian-owned small businesses to gain access to the industry and land their products on the shelves for visitor consumption providing loeal goods and services that are sustainable, socially responsible and culturally appropriate while keeping loeal business capital gains continuously circulating in the Hawai'i economy. The Kuhikuhi Marketplace grows these opportunities to ensure loeal small businesses are engaged in tourism and that this interaction provides eeonomie benefit to loeal families and reduces capital flight. This event will feature center-stage activities at Helumoa, sponsored by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and will include musical performances and storytelling, as well as

for ma uka to ma kai panel discussions on topics focused on our ancestral and modern relationships and interactions with aina (land) and water; both kai (salt water) and wai (fresh water). Eaeh day will include two panel discussions. Facilitators and panelists will be knowledgeable community pillars and eultural practitioners driven by the restoring of cultural modalities that work from Indigenous knowledge bases. While visitors and the larger community are becoming familiar with Native Hawaiian value systems, there is a need for the extension of these concepts to be expressed and demonstrated through hands-on authentic and respectful, reciprocal exchanges with Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners themselves - with a calling for community engagement. NaHHA invites those with expertise in cultural programming, artisans, practitioners, and vendors with interest to visit www.nahha.com/events for more information and to apply. We will share more information on www. nahha.com as details develop through our planning. Information on hotel room paekages for the weekend will be shared soon! We look forward to inviting the puhlie to Waikīkī to enjoy the Ho'okipa Hawai'i Weekend next February! ■ Mālia Sanders is the executive director of the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association (. NaHHA ). Working to better connect the Hawaiian community to the visitor industry,NaHHA supports the people whoprovide authentic experiences to Hawai'i's visitors. For more information go to www.nahha.com Pollow NaHHA on Paeehook, Instagram, and Twitter @nahha808 and @kuhikuhi808.