Returning to Hi‘i: Where ʻĀina, Culture and Community Meet
September 2026 — For years, Lāna‘i Culture & Heritage Center has brought community members to Hi‘i, a culturally significant place where Lāna‘i’s natural and cultural heritage come together. In August, more than 30 volunteers returned for a day of stewardship along the Hi‘i predator-exclusion fence line, joining Lāna‘i Culture & Heritage Center, Pono Pacific Land Management and Pūlama Lāna‘i.
Hunters from Lāna‘i Culture & Heritage Center’s Community Stewardship Program and members of the Pono Pacific and Pūlama Lānaʻi teams gathered at Hi‘i for a day of learning, hard work and connection to ʻāina. Both Lāna‘i Culture & Heritage Center and Pono Pacific are grantees of the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation and Pūlama Lāna‘i’s Kuahiwi a Kai initiative, which supports Lāna‘i’s cultural and natural resources through community engagement and shared stewardship.
Completed by Pono Pacific in 2023, the Hi‘i predator-exclusion fence protects important nesting habitat and native ecosystems. Within the protected area, endangered Hawaiian petrels, or ʻuaʻu, can nest with protection from predators such as mice, rats and cats. The area is also home to endangered Hawaiian tree snails and provides an opportunity to reintroduce critically endangered plant species. The effort also supports Lāna‘i’s first modern-day ahupuaʻa-style management program.
For the Pono Pacific team, returning to Hi‘i offered a different experience. This time, they weren’t building a fence. They were walking the landscape it was built to protect, alongside people with long-standing relationships to the ʻāina.
Some volunteers had known Hi‘i for years. Others were experiencing it for the first time. As the day unfolded, questions became conversations and opportunities to share ʻike. Volunteers learned to identify native and invasive plants, what needed to be removed and what should remain. They began to see the landscape differently, understanding that caring for ʻāina means learning a place, recognizing its history and understanding what it needs to thrive.
A conservation expert could share knowledge with a hunter. A longtime community member could offer perspective to someone visiting Hi‘i for the first time. A child could walk alongside a parent and begin to recognize the plants and places that make Lāna‘i home.
That exchange is at the heart of Lāna‘i Culture & Heritage Center’s approach to stewardship. Caring for Lāna‘i’s special places means caring for the ʻāina and creating opportunities for knowledge to be shared across generations. It is about deepening our kuleana to the places that sustain us.
Pono Pacific’s conservation work on Lāna‘i extends beyond Hi‘i and includes the Maunalei Canyon Predator-Exclusion Unit and projects supporting endangered tree snails and Lāna‘i Cat Sanctuary.
But Hi‘i offered an important reminder: conservation is about more than fences and protected areas. It is about knowing a place and understanding why it matters.
For Pono Pacific Project Manager Lei Leong, that connection began early.
“Growing up, my family were members of The Nature Conservancy and Sierra Club,” Lei shared. “There is something special about being in a forest and experiencing it with all your senses. It roots people in a different way.”
At Hi‘i, that connection came full circle. Conservation, Lei said, is about more than knowing a species. “It is about knowing a place.”
For Makamae Ing of Pono Pacific, who grew up on Maui, the connection is equally personal.
“I want to give back to the land that raised me,” she said. “The land made me who I am today.”
As the day continued, invasive plants were cleared and camaraderie grew. Volunteers worked side by side, asked questions, shared knowledge and got dirty. Some hunters brought their children, extending the experience to the next generation. By the end of the day, many were already asking when they could return.
These are the moments that make stewardship meaningful. Bringing people to Hi‘i creates space for generations to connect with ʻāina, learn its stories and deepen their kuleana to care for it.
At Hi‘i, conservation and cultural preservation come together through a shared kuleana: to know this place, care for it and ensure its living landscape, stories and ʻike continue to thrive for generations to come. Mahalo nui to the supporters who make ʻāina stewardship initiatives like this possible: National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, Pūlama Lānaʻi, and KS Kaiāulu.
