Mana Kupuna

Mana Maoli will develop and implement a cultural based digital storytelling program for Native Hawaiian youth to give them the skills and knowledge to perpetuate the cultural traditions of their ancestors and succeed in the creative industries economy of Hawai’i. Currently, Native Hawaiians are underrepresented in the creative industries (CI) field only representing 1% despite the vast amount of Native Hawaiian contributions to CI and popular culture. This project will address this underrepresentation by training 744 Native Hawaiian charter school youth ages 5-18 in Mana Leo (ML) Skills across three islands with the assistance of kupuna (elders), mentors, and CI artists to preserve and perpetuate the wisdom. Youth will produce 75 high-quality, creative products in order to garner crucial conceptual understanding of creative industries and hone in on economic self sufficiency. As a result of this project, they will adapt cultural foundations to breathe new life into ’ike kūpuna (ancestral knowledge) as leaders in the media during the changing times.