Two free media programs launched encouraging Native Hawaiians to tell their own stories.

Kuʻuleinani Maunupau of Native Hawaiian Philanthropy. Courtesy photo
To help empower Native Hawaiians with the skills and knowledge required to tell authentic cultural stories for TV, film and social media, the Maui-based Native Hawaiian Philanthropy organization is launching two free innovative programs, screenplay writing and media production and music video production.
“When I first saw ‘Moana’ in 2016, I was moved by the experience and noticed the combination of Tahitian, Maori, Samoan and Hawaiian representation throughout the movie,” says Kuʻuleinani Maunupau, CEO of Native Hawaiian Philanthropy. “Most Pacific Islanders are able to identify the cultural representation in her outfit that is distinct to their culture. This is when I began thinking about storytelling and my desire to watch Native Hawaiian stories being written by and from Native Hawaiian storytellers perspectives and experiences.”
Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, the programs are being run by a team that includes former Creative Lab’s Executive Director Michael Palmieri, Native Hawaiian educator Dr. Kū Kahakalau, Maunupau and actress Kuʻuleimakamae Shafee.
Working in the entertainment industry as an executive, producer and writer, Palmieri partnered with Kahakalau and Maunupau to develop a program that integrates his Indigenous storytelling curriculum with Kahakalau’s Pedagogy of Aloha.
An expert in Hawaiian language and culture, Kahakalau has helped indigenous peoples around the world to revitalize Native languages, cultural traditions and ways of teaching and learning.
A consultant on the Hawaiian Storytelling project, Shafee is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and recipient of the Broadway Award for Best Actress in her lead role in “Shipment Day” at Manoa Valley Theater.
The seeds of the programs were planted around four years ago when Maunupau began working with Palmieri.
“He was leading programs at Creative Lab Hawai’i, where several of his students have gotten projects funded,” she explains. “I signed up for the weekend Ideation Program in Indigenous Storytelling and saw half of his class was not Indigenous. He mentioned that enrolling Indigenous storytellers had proven challenging, and I saw an opportunity to create a program that could be organized and imbued with Native Hawaiian values and perspectives from the outset. I asked Palmieri, ‘Would you do this program just for Native Hawaiians?’ He agreed and we started writing the grant about four years ago and it was funded in August 2024.”
With the new writing program, Palmieri will train 12 writers “to basically get their projects ready for the marketplace,” says Maunupau. “That will be 36 total over the next three years.”
The program was launched on Jan. 18 with an informational Zoom session, in which 31 Native Hawaiian storytellers were on the call.
“Some of them are top-notch filmmakers, and some of them are beginning,” she says. “Palmieri walked through the process, and I talked about how the program had started. Kū Kahakalau is integrating her curriculum into the workshop. Applications are going out next week. They plan to select the fellows by the beginning of March, and the first in-person session will be held on April 5.”
The music video production program is being run by the Mana Maoli Collective, which has collaborated with Playing For Change on epic videos like the medley of “Island Style” and “ʻOiwi E,” and produced several memorable compilation albums with artists like Paula Fuga and Maui’s John Cruz and Anuhea.
“I’m excited about it,” she says. “They will come to Lahaina during the summer for a three-week program and work with the Lahaina youth to either write a song or redo an old Lahaina song and train them in all aspects, from the singing to the production to the videography, and then editing it into a music video.”
As the CEO of Native Hawaiian Philanthropy, Maunupau is dedicated to improving the social and economic conditions of Native Hawaiians and their families. With over 30 years of experience as a grant writer, she has successfully collaborated with 24 nonprofit organizations to promote Hawaiian culture and has secured over $22 million in funding for various programs.
A founder of NHP and Habitat for Humanity Maui, in November 2024, she received the Outstanding Professional Fundraiser Award from the Association of Fundraising Professionals Aloha Chapter.
A resident of Waiohuli Hawaiian Homestead in Kula, she was a keynote speaker at the After the Fire USA’s 2024 Wildfire Leadership Summit held in September 2024 in Sonoma, California, where 175 leaders addressed the complex issues of preventing, responding to, and recovering from megafires. Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen also attended the summit.
Focusing on the Lahaina fire, Native Hawaiian Philanthropy helped with fundraising, grant writing, prepping meals, purchasing clothing and necessities, giving $1,000 cash grants to 70 families and individuals impacted by the devastation, and providing culturally grounded activities and mental health support.
“I’m a grant writer, and grant writing is really about writing stories,” Maunupau says. “They tend to be really sad stories, explaining the current conditions of our community. I’ve written short stories over the years, have always written poetry and developed a screenplay about Hawaiian history. It was my daughter who had participated in the Creative Lab Hawai’i program herself, who said, ‘You should take the Indigenous storytelling program.’ So that’s how I met Michael Palmieri.”
Maunupau hopes the new media programs will help “increase the number of Native Hawaiian storytellers with projects in film, television, theater, publishing and online premium content to share stories from a Native perspective. Too often, stories of Hawaii and Hawaiian history are told by non-Hawaiians and do not include the complexities, political history and challenges that Native Hawaiians face as the indigenous people of Hawaii. Our Voices, Our Stories.”
For more information about the programs, contact nhstorytelling@hawaiianphilanthropy.org.