A community stewardship program dedicated to reconnecting people and place, ʻāina and kānaka.

About Kīpaipai

Kīpaipai is an archaeology training program for family and community members to learn about the historic preservation process and apply this knowledge by engaging with preservation areas within their moku. The program seeks to enact the next step of preservation plans which presents participants with the opportunity to reconnect with wahi kūpuna and ensure the longevity of these special places.

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KĪPAIPAI PROGRAM GOALS

Our Mission

To empower and support descendants with lineal and genealogical ties to Honuaʻula to tell the stories and to care for the preserved archaeological sites from Palauea to ʻĀhihi and from ʻUlupalakua to Kahoʻolawe.

Our Partners

Huakaʻi

To empower and reconnect cultural and lineal descendants of Honuaʻula to this place, Kīpaipai led four huakaʻi to educate the descendants with archaeological preservation skills and knowledge. This will equip them to ensure preservation places for various wahi pana in Honuaʻula are carried out appropriately, while maintaining their pilina – connection – to these sacred spaces.

Laulima Days

Laulima Days are invitations to the community to join in the work in Honuaʻula as we restore the cultural disciplines, native plants, and families of this wahi. Previous workdays included planting native plants and building a traditional hale.

Hale Building - May 2024

May 17 to May 18, 2024 | Waipao, Honuaʻula, Maui

The construction of hale is both a physical and spiritual endeavor that harmonizes the natural world and the built environment – kānaka and ʻāina. The community was invited to construct a traditional hale (house) that will serve to reaffirm the unbroken relationship between the families of the area and this place, to celebrate the continuum of a hale building cultural practice passed down by an expert, and to birth into the world a new community space.

The construction of the hale was guided by the haumāna (students) and alakaʻi of Kuhikuhi Pu‘uone (Master Indigenous Architect) Francis Palani Sinenci and his traditional school, Hālau Hale Kuhikuhi, which is a program of Hōlani Hāna. The workdays were supported by Mākenaʻs ʻŌiwi Resources and Stewardship Team and our Kīpaipai community archaeology program with ʻĀina Archaeology.

May 17th was dedicated to building the paepae, or the foundation walls, using a dry-stack rock wall building technique along with modern cement reinforcements. May 18th was the building of the olokeʻa, or the inner scaffolding of the hale.

📸 View photo gallery HERE

Restoring Native Plants - Dec 2023 + Mar 2024

December 9, 2023 and March 30, 2024 | Pāpaʻanui, Honuaʻula

Two workdays in Pāpaʻanui were dedicated to the regeneration and restoration of native lāʻau (plants). Uncle Eddie Boy Chang led an educational talk story about the history of Pāpaʻanui and life in Mākena, while the Mākena ʻŌiwi Resources & Stewardship department led us in planting over 400 native lāʻau making up over 15 different species that are native to Honuaʻula.