It doesn't matter how much or how little Hawaiian blood runs through our veins. They know us not by percentages, but by the lives we choose to live; by the ways we care for one another; by how we honor our culture, our language, and our ‘āina. They recognize us through our actions, our intentions, and our commitment to carrying forward what was entrusted to us. They continue to mālama us all the same.
This body of work is an exploration of that understanding. Through sculpture, painting, and apparel (in collaboration with Kauai Boys), I reflect on what it means to navigate a contemporary world as a contemporary Hawaiian—existing between tradition and modernity, ancestry and individuality, expectation and self-definition.
Each piece is an attempt to reconcile inherited identity with lived experience, while honoring the generations that continue to guide us.
- POI DAWG
