Aloha. ʻĀina.

As we continue to navigate so many unknowns, we truly hope that you are finding ways to thrive, to stay safe, and to love even more than you ever thought you were capable of loving.  The world around us is coming to terms with racial injustice and civil unrest, a pandemic and mass unemployment, an ongoing climate emergency and escalating species extinction.  This is truly a crisis of epic proportions.  What will our lives look like once we navigate out of this storm?  What if we can't even begin to imagine the storm ahead?  And yet, HOPE. Our hope lies in two words: Aloha and ʻĀina

Aloha is the unwavering commitment to lead with empathy, to stand always when you have the privilege to do so, to love so much that hate literally has no space, it suffocates.  ʻĀina is our lifeline, our eldest ancestor, that continues to provide for us even as we destroy it with concrete, plastic, and shortsighted goals.  Its resilience is inspiring and transcends our traumas, healing us without prejudice.  In fact, ʻĀina is quite possibly the epitome of Aloha, always there for us when we mess up, always returning with the energy and light of spring, and never holding any bias.

Recently a friend shared that, "Most of the challenges faced by our human and non-human (social and ecological) communities are a result of extractive systems imposed by a dominant paradigm which views peoples and places that are separate from them as "other."  The roots of the climate crisis, mass incarceration and police brutality lie in an economic system that was created to enrich one group of peoples through the control, oppression, and exploitation of groups that were deemed to be "other"."  

This "othering" and the disconnect between people and ʻĀina has gone on for far too long. In the midst of uncharted waters and stormy seas, we must push to navigate our way back to systems that reconnect us all to ʻĀina and hold us accountable to this shared ancestor of ours.  We may never have the "answers," but we must lead with faith and courage, trusting that ʻĀina will always be there to absorb us in our missteps, nourish us back up, and always, always, receive us with Aloha.

And so, it is our duty as an organization to be forthright in advocating for the justice and harmony that are essential for sustaining current and future generations and we are committed to that work, however uncomfortable it may be.

— Makana Reilly