
Lau Ke Aloha:
Kinolau Native Species Art Creation with Maui Artists
Saturday, 05/10/25 at Hale Pili
Join us for Lau Ke Aloha, a special gathering that invites Maui residents to create art inspired by the native plant life of Maui and Honuaʻula. Led by local Maui artisans, each hands-on session is centered around a unique native plant. Whether you’re weaving, stamping, painting, or making lei, this is a space to connect with ʻāina through creativity and community.
Maui residents may choose a session to express their aloha through the artistic mediums below:
Sessions
9:30 A.M. – 10:30 A.M.

Lei Naupaka
with Lei Shenanigans
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Lauhala Bracelets
with Brissa Christophersen

Koaiʻa Watercolor
with Maggie Sutrov
11:00 A.M. - Noon

Lei Kupukupu
with Lei Shenanigans

Kalo Stamping
with Brissa Christophersen

Hala pepe Watercolor
with Maggie Sutrov
Limited seating available per session
Video tutorials from select sessions will be uploaded following the event.
Meet the Artisans

Marie-Elena Juario
Marie of Lei Shenanigans has learned different Hawaiian lei making techniques as well as how to prep, clean, and care for lei from master lei maker, Uncle Bill Char.

Brissa Christophersen
Brissa is a multi-disciplinary ʻōiwi artist with experience in drawing, painting, kapa making, ceramics, weaving and more. She blends modern art techniques with traditional hana noʻeau methods to honor places and resources in ʻāina.

Maggie Sutrov
Inspired by growing up on Maui, Maggie is a watercolor artist that specializes in on-site painting. She uses art as a way for people to express the present moment and their connection to place.

Submit your artwork
Deadline: May 17, 2025 at 11:59PM
As part of our Ua Ikea event on Saturday, May 24, we invite Maui residents to contribute to Lau Ke Aloha—a community exhibition honoring native species as kinolau, the many expressions of life, well-being, and vitality in our Island ecosystem.
This is a call to all Maui residents who would like to express their aloha for our native species through art. We’re looking for original artwork that reflects one of the following eight native species:
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Naupaka papa (Scaevola coriacea)
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Kalo (Colocasia esculenta)
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Kupukupu (Nephrolepis cordifolia)
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Koa (Acacia koa)
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Koaiʻa (Acacia koaia)
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Hala (Pandanus tectorius)
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Hala pepe (Chrysodracon hawaiiensis)
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Nehe (Wollastonia integrifolia)
Your submission can be any creative form—visual art, poetry, mele (song), or ʻōlelo noʻeau (wise saying) —so long as it honors at least one of these species. Selected pieces will be featured on our website and social media, as well as displayed during the May 24 Ua Ikea event. Participants of the in-person Lau Ke Aloha event on May 10 are encouraged to submit the artwork they create. Deadline for submissions is May, 17, 2025 at 11:59PM.
As a further opportunity to support the life-giving power of native species and art on Maui, Mākena Golf & Beach Club will donate $5 each to Maui Nui Botanical Gardens and to Hui Noʻeau Visual Arts Center for every piece of original artwork submitted, with a goal of 300 submissions.
All submissions have the opportunity to be entered into a random drawing for an exclusive invitation to the Ua Ikea dinner on May 24, 2025 at Makena.
Background artwork by Maggie Sutrov
"Pay Attention" & "Watch Each Other"
The two foundational rules when traveling to Kahoʻolawe are to pay attention and watch each other. Although when uttered on Kahoʻolawe, the phrases often come out sounding a little closer to "pay-ten-shen" and "watch-eech-chadda." At once avenues for personal and group safety, as well, pathways into the soul. In a Hawaiʻi worldview, there is no separation between the soul of the human and the soul of honua, the earth. The Hawaiian practice of Kilo, "to watch or look earnestly at for the purpose of discovering something," is to pay attention to how life is expressing itself in your landscape. When we watch and look carefully at the external environment, and return to this practice often, you just might realize that the external ecosystem beyond your skin is not separate from whatʻs happening inside your skin. Simply, no more difference.
Art invites us back into a more permeable soul-to-soul relationship with our environment - humans and ecosystems paying attention to and watching each other.
Through the Lau Ke Aloha: Kinolau art experiences, we invite community into a space of paying attention to and watching native species for the purpose of remembering our soul-to-soul connection. Kinolau (many body forms) remind us to pay attention to the names of native species, to look closely at their patterns, colors, how and where they grow, their life cycle, to celebrate their super powers in our ecosystem.
And then to take the next step - to allow the medium of art to express what about that native species resonates for you. This next step of paying attention, of resonance, is to listen and feel for what is super interesting to you about the native species, what gives you chicken skin or a little rush of energy, what stirs your insides, what touches your heart, what quickens your spirit. A fancy word for this soul-to-soul communication is numinosity (go look ʻem go). In kaʻao Hawaiʻi (timeless myths) we see it in the tear of a hero or akua and in references to the connection of our personal Wailua-iki to the larger Wailua-nui of the world.
And so we invite you back to the Hālau Waʻa, to a place known for the kilo practices of its akule fisherman, to become pili again to the practice of paying attention and watching each other.
Mahalo to Dr. Kalei Nuʻuhiwa, Kānaenae Together, and Mauliola Endowment for the lessons on paying attention and watching each other. Mahalo to Dr. Susan Cordell of the Hawaii US Forest Service and Hālau ʻŌhiʻa for the lessons on native species superpowers.
Queries to support your Kinolau journey:
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Learn all your selected native plantʻs names:
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the Hawaiian name(s), the common name, and the scientific name. What does its Hawaiian name mean?
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Where and how does the species grow:
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What aspect of its growth process and life cycle reflects your experience of life right now?
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What catches your eye or heart about its coloring, patterning, or even smell?
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What are some of the species "superpowers"?
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How do their superpowers help you today?
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Why is the species significant to its ecosystem?
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Why is the species significant to you?
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How is knowing this kinolau useful to your well-being and ʻāina well-being?
Here are some places we love to learn more about native species:
Hui Ku Maoli Ola