How to Keep Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi

What is Hawaiʻi without Native Hawaiians?

Will Hawaiʻi still be Hawaiʻi without kānaka maoli?

These were questions Mahina Paishon-Duarte, co-founder of Waiwai Collective asked the audience last week at her Start-Up Grind Fireside Chat facilitated by George Yarbrough, co-founder of Hub Coworking Hawaiʻi. (Nice job navigating this very important conversation George!)

The cost of housing and doing business is scary high in Hawaiʻi and it continues to push more Native Hawaiians and Kamaʻaina out.

Tourism is out of control. Expats and residents of the continental U.S. are gobbling up real estate sight unseen. The effects of climate change are altering the islands before our eyes.

Paishon-Duarte wonders if the expectation when people move here is for Hawaiʻi to mimic the place where they came from.

If we were not born here, we came here because we were pulled here. Pulled by the uniqueness of Hawai'i and the way these islands made us feel. So, in order to preserve the magic of this place what if transplants instead acclimate themselves to Hawaiian culture?

Paishon-Duarte's suggestions on how to do that are as follows:

• Learn ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi

• Get involved with an ʻāina-based organization

• Find ways to add value to Hawaiʻi's communities

• Find ways to minimize your environmental impact