Fund a just and equitable Hawaiʻi

This campaign has ended but you can donate now to https://hawaiipeoplesfund.networkforgood.com/

Dear friends, family and fellow lovers of Hawaiʻi, please join me in supporting a thriving Hawaiʻi!

Before moving to the Island of Hawaiʻi (the Big Island) from the continent in November 2021, I admit that I didn't know much about Hawaiʻi’s history even though I’d vacationed on the islands many times over the years. Unfortunately, I had unconsciously bought into the picture-perfect tropical paradise postcard 🏝️🌈🌺 we’ve all been sold.

As I started to educate myself more (on the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom, the exploitative plantation economy, the outlawing of Hawaiian language and cultural practices, the political manipulation required to get statehood and so forth), I began to see how racism, classism and other systems of oppression have harmed and continue to disenfranchise Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) and advantage whites and Asians, especially East Asians. One of the reasons my husband and I moved here was to seek refuge from pandemic-fueled anti-Asian violence on the continent. We felt safer in a place where most folks look like us without fully realizing how our safety here comes at a direct cost to Kanaka Maoli. For example, more Kanaka live on the continent now than they do in their native lands because they are getting priced out by folks like me and my husband (who works in tech). The Maui fires are another example of how colonization and tourism have negatively impacted the land and people.

The decolonization journey I'd been taking myself through while living on the continent conveniently overlooked the specific ways the same issues of white supremacy, racialized capitalism, the Model Minority Myth, anti-Blackness, colorism, militarism, etc. uniquely operate in Hawaiʻi.

To help me be in more actionable right-relationship with Hawaiʻi and Kanaka Maoli here and in the diaspora, I joined the Hawaiʻi People’s Fund Giving Project 2024. The Giving Project is helping me to synthesize new streams of knowledge with what I’ve been piecing together on my own to help me move into clearer and more embodied action.

The Giving Project brings together people from different backgrounds, classes, races, genders and generations who share a vision for a just and equitable Hawaiʻi. We pool our time, talents, and resources to back social change movements, supporting HPF’s community partners who combat systems of oppression at the root everyday and are building a brighter future ✨🔮✨ for Hawai'i. We meet on Zoom for 4 hours twice a month from January through May and have challenging and vulnerable conversations as we engage in collective liberation, learning and practices to amplify and illuminate social change efforts throughout Hawaiʻi. You can be a part of this initiative by helping to redistribute resources to communities who are directly impacted by inequities and injustice and are working for a thriving Hawaiʻi.

⭐️ My fundshifting goal: $50,000 (in honor of my 50th birthday in August! 🎉🎂)

🎋 My personal gift: Recognizing my household’s current economic class privilege, I’m personally contributing $10,000 to that goal AND I've matched all donations up to an additional $10,000.

Will you join me in moving money to grassroots movements here in Hawaiʻi?

Everyone’s situation is different...

...and every dollar 💵 you can give makes a difference plus this year 100% goes to HPF's grantees 💯🙌🏽.

✨❤️ Here are the range of causes that your gift will support✨❤️:

All of HPF's grantees are a part of an intersectional approach to social change in Hawaiʻi, so while land stewardship may look different than organizing for worker's rights or working to end period poverty, all efforts are bringing us closer to a just and equitable Hawaiʻi. HPF is the only organization in the world specifically addressing the needs of grassroots progressive movement builders in Hawaiʻi. And they’ve been doing this since 1972! 🙌🏽

"I read this wonderful quote a few years ago and someone said, ʻHawaiʻi is the place where even the most politically conscious go to sleep." – Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio from the Finding Our Way Podcast with Prentis Hemphill

If you’ve ever visited Hawaiʻi before ✈️ ...

• If you can afford to vacation here, I imagine you can afford to give something back.
• Perhaps consider what you paid in total for your most recent vacation here (flight, car rental, accommodations, food, activities, etc.) and donate a percentage of that (let’s say 5-20% of the total cost or heck, if you have the privilege, means and righteous dedication to kuleana how about 100% of the value of that trip?!).
  • This helps you, as a visitor, to be in a less extractive relationship with Hawaiʻi
  • AND your money goes toward Kanaka-centered grassroots movements working for a just and equitable Hawaiʻi.
• Or if you’ve vacationed here regularly throughout your life, consider what you’ve paid over the years (or decades!) of recharging and adventuring on your favorite island(s) and commit to a multi-year recurring donation that represents a portion of (or all of) what you’ve spent on your Hawaiian getaways.
  • Keep in mind that most of the money Hawaiʻi gets from tourism doesn’t directly help Kanaka and other marginalized folks like your donation to HPF does.

Donate Now!

🙏🏽 Donate Now!

Curious about HPF's financials and operations? Check out their Guidestar profile on Candid.

Not able to give monetarily right now? 💖

Here are other ways you can support Hawaiʻi People’s Fund & the movement:

• Please email or text this page to your friends, family, colleagues and community, especially to those you know who have been to Hawaiʻi before or who have some connection to this place and ask them to donate as generously as they can.
• Follow Hawaiʻi People’s Fund on IG and Facebook.
• Listen to the Hawaiʻi Rising podcast and hear directly from the folks on the ground doing the work needed most to help their communities thrive.
• If there’s only one thing you can do right now to learn more about the issues Hawaiʻi faces, listen to this insightful podcast episode with Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio from the Finding Our Way Podcast with Prentis Hemphill.
• Read this CNN article on impacts of tourism on Kanaka
• If you want to deepen your understanding of Hawaiian sovereignty and US imperialism, I highly recommend the book From a Native Daughter by Haunani-Kay Trask. No time for a book? Check out her powerful Lovely Hula Hands essay.
• Learn about the specific ways Asians hold racial, political and financial privilege in Hawaiʻi in Asian Settler Colonialism edited by Candace Fujikane and Jonathan Y. Okamura. No time for a book? Here's an excerpt.

Some parting words to consider...

“Just five hours away by plane from California, Hawaiʻi is a thousand light years away in fantasy. Mostly a state of mind, Hawaiʻi is the image of escape from the rawness and violence of daily American life. Hawaiʻi - the word, the vision, the sound in the mind - is the fragrance and feel of soft kindness… Tourists flock my Native land for escape, but they are escaping into a state of mind while participating in the destruction of a host of people in a Native place. To Hawaiians, daily life is neither soft nor kind. In fact, the political, economic, and cultural reality for most Hawaiians is hard, ugly, and cruel.” – Haunani-Kay Trask, late Kanaka Maoli scholar and Indigenous sovereignty rights activist from essay Lovely Hula Hands

Many thanks for your commitments and consideration! 🙏🏽