Grants help ethnic and cultural festivals, projects in Hawaii

The Honolulu Intertribal Powwow, We Are Samoa Festival and Kona Coffee Cultural Festival are some of the ethnic and cultural celebrations expected to return in-person this year after two years of cancellations and major changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mae Prieto, a longtime member of the Oahu Intertribal Council, said the annual Intertribal Powwow is particularly important because there is no Native American reservation on Hawaii, so the festival is a time when community members come together to celebrate their culture.

“Sharing our culture, singing, dancing and meeting our neighbors — it’s really important for us to keep our culture and our identity and to remember who we are,” said Prieto, who is a native Hawaiian and Otoe-Missouria, an Oklahoma-based tribe, is . “We want the world and the community to know that we are still here and that we are a valuable part of the community.”

The Oahu Intertribal Council, a nonprofit organization dedicated to sharing, promoting, and educating about Native American traditions, cultures, and heritage, is one of 86 community groups and projects funded by the Grants Program to Enrich community of the Hawaii Tourism Authority. The program aims to support projects, events and festivals that showcase Hawaii‘s cultures and provide authentic experiences for tourists and residents.

HTA recently announced that it awarded $2.9 million in grants this year. Due to the pandemic and limited funding, the agency said money for the program was cut in 2020 and no grants were awarded in 2021.

Prieto said the $5,000 grant the council received would help promote and promote the festival, which before the pandemic drew between 3,000 and 10,000 people each year. They canceled Powwow 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic but hope to bring the festival back in person at the Bishop Museum in September this year. The council also plans to invite mainland Native American communities as well as Native American groups to powwow, she said.

“This will be the third time we’re trying to host the 46th Annual Powwow,” she said. “Everyone wants to dance. Everyone wants to sing and get together. We miss coming together.”

Valerie Corcoran, president of the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival, said planners hope the festival will return as a fully in-person event in November. The annual celebration, which drew about 12,000 to 15,000 people before the pandemic, honors the deep history of Kona coffee and the farmers. Hosted in 2021 as a mix of in-person and virtual events, it celebrated its 50th anniversary. The 2020 celebration was canceled due to the pandemic.

The festival’s $75,000 HTA grant will help cover the event’s production and marketing costs. Corcoran added that while they are grateful to be hosting the festival in 2021, nothing compares to being fully personal.

“It’s about us telling the story of the farmers,” she said. “It’s really exciting.”

Seth Casey, the Polynesian Cultural Center’s senior director of marketing, said the $5,000 HTA grant will help with the operational and marketing costs of the We Are Samoa Festival and World Fireknife competition, which took place before the pandemic about 8,000 people attended. Due to the pandemic, Casey said they had to cancel We Are Samoa Festival in 2020 and 2021. The World Fireknife competition was also canceled in 2020 and scaled back in 2021, he said.

Casey said the festival started many years ago to educate younger generations about Samoan traditions and to keep the culture alive. In addition to the popular World Fireknife competition, he said, the We Are Samoa Festival, which they plan to hold in person in May, will offer students and locals a chance to perform, dance and showcase their heritage.

“We love our culture. We want to make sure it’s presented accurately and with the proper respect it deserves,” Casey said. “Providing a little bit more of an immersive cultural experience is invaluable for both locals and visitors wanting to learn more about the culture.”

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Jayna Omaye covers racial and cultural issues and is a corps member of Report for America, a national service organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to cover undercover issues and communities.