Carrying What Matters: Hui Mo‘olelo Reflections on Home, Connection and Joy

Following our second Hui Mo‘olelo 2025 session, cohort members were invited to record a self-recorded mo‘olelo on a topic of their choosing. This practice helps model for upcoming intergenerational talk-story partners the same spirit of honesty and generosity we are asking of them.

What emerged from these recordings was a deep intertwining of love for nature and home with personal passion, spiritual grounding, and community connection. For many, Maui is not just a place but a source of identity and belonging, compelling them toward service, tradition, and shared purpose.

Iokepa Cabanilla-Aricayos spoke of how his passion always returns to nature and home. Born and raised on Maui, even a brief time living on the mainland intensified his gratitude for being from Hawai‘i and confirmed his sense of identity. Tina Kailiponi described moving 25 times as a child before coming to Maui, where she finally felt settled and discovered her “tribe.” Liana Horovitz recalled her childhood in upper Kula, walking two miles uphill through black wattle forests to her family’s carnation farm, where the smell of her mother’s fresh bread marked the end of the journey home.

Nature is more than a backdrop in these stories. It is a source of grounding and a spiritual connection. For Iokepa, this began early, nurtured by his hula-teacher mother and landscaper father. When he needs to feel grounded, he goes to places like ʻĪao Valley or simply puts his bare feet in the sand, the dirt, or the water. Even when living far from Maui, he sought out streams and trails, feeling a spiritual need to connect with the earth. He believes people must take care of nature because it nourishes us physically, spiritually and emotionally and is a priceless treasure to pass to future generations.

This connection manifests through tradition. Iokepa creates lei and flower arrangements as a way to mark important moments, from graduations to funerals, filling himself with a sense of meaning. The fragrance and color of flowers, he says, seal memories and create core experiences that stay with us. His first inspired lei, made for his grandfather, bridged his Hawaiian and Filipino heritage and embodied the spirit of ʻohana. He now works to instill this connection in his children and grandchildren, believing that even the smallest act, like a child picking a flower for a friend, keeps this bond alive.

That sense of belonging also drives a passion for community service. Tina spoke of feeling that being embraced by Maui gives her the responsibility to give back. She serves with the Maui Food Bank and sees the entire island as her ʻohana. This emphasis on shared value and connection aligns with the reflections of Francis Tauʻa, who links passion to choosing wisely where to place value and finding joy in connection. Francis reminds us that in a world designed to provoke reaction, focusing on what truly matters allows community support to emerge naturally. He shared the story of a group of first graders who stopped their conflicts to help a friend search for a lost Pokémon jibbitz, their joy erupting when it was found. This simple but powerful moment revealed how shared purpose can turn even divided groups into a vessel for collective joy.

Naomi Tokishi offered another powerful expression of passion through collective effort. She described her experience in the Maui High School Color Guard, where she and her teammates trained for months, practicing twelve hours a week in preparation to compete in California against much larger bands. Despite the exhaustion and challenge, the moment they performed together —hitting every beat, matching the music, and seeing each other shine, was one of pride and exhilaration. When they won first place overall, Naomi and her teammates wept and embraced, overwhelmed by the power of shared success. This experience of perseverance, discipline, and community triumph mirrors the ʻohana spirit described by Iokepa and Tina, showing that passion and belonging grow strongest when pursued together.

These mo‘olelo show that for many, love for Maui and nature is inseparable from the call to serve, protect, and connect. They remind us that each story is a thread in the larger fabric of community, helping us see the richness of where we come from and the responsibilities we carry forward.

Learn more at mauipublicart.org/cohort25.