WAIWAI COLLECTIVE

Waiwai Collective is a group of Native Hawaiian entrepreneurs who share kuleana and a passion for uplifting the lāhui. Through their work, they have seen the extraordinary power of physical community when people come together with purpose and aloha. Ka Waiwai is a call to action for the lāhui kanaka to come together and dream up ideas of exchange and abundance that prioritize the quality of relationships and the balance between people and the ʻāina.

MISSION

Cultivating a community that takes the creative risks necessary to put collective values into daily practice, affirm shared responsibilities, and learn together to create a more waiwai future.

FOUNDERS

Mahina Paishon-Duarte

Keoni Lee

Jamie Makasobe

WHY

The challenges we face today in areas like housing, education, healthcare and the environment are big and complex, almost paralyzing in the face of seeming inevitability. The societal systems in Hawaiʻi are not working well so what are we to do? At the core of Ka Waiwai is the belief that traditional Hawaiian ways of thinking and doing to create abundance and value on islands can be repurposed in a contemporary context. However, this is possible only if we give ourselves the space, and build the relationships necessary, to work collectively and creatively to translate the old into the new and vice versa. Our intention is not to go back in time but rather to learn from and build upon our ancestral foundation of innovation and ingenuity to create new systems of wealth and abundance in Hawaiʻi.