Program Sites
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"Make Ready" Makaliʻi
Makaliʻi turned 30 on February 4, 2025! Over the years, we’ve built an ʻohana, trained new voyagers, and sailed to places like Kahiki, Satawal, and Mokumanamana. What we've learned: it’s the time spent together—preparing with family and community—that makes it all possible. We’ve got big work ahead to repair our moku and waʻa so we can keep voyaging. Your support makes it happen.
NKW currently offers programs with Mauloa, Makaliʻi, Lauhoe (our newest double-hulled coastal canoe), and Hōkūliʻiliʻi, supported by four primary educational sites:
Hoea Moku, Hawi, Kohala
A 10-acre agricultural learning space gifted by Kimbell Smith in 2008, Hoea Moku’s newly repaired main structure is the current home base for our programs and administrative activities. NKW plans to expand program space through repairs to three additional on-site structures (a metal warehouse, a wooden farm building, and a greenhouse) and through development of food and canoe plant gardens. Hanauna Mau at Hoea Moku is the living learning space that supports kālai waʻa (canoe maintenance) as well as our food preservation and provisioning program that is retraining our community to feed ourselves today and into the next generation.
Over 600 acres of coastal land under conservation partnership with Hawaiian Land Trust (HLT). NKW helps steward the warehouse and navigational heiau in collaboration with the Solomon ʻohana and the Kohala community. Together with HLT, NKW is working to upgrade the Mahukona warehouse to support welding, fiberglass, and woodworking in an OSHA-safe environment accessible to the community. These trades are essential to maintaining the kālai waʻa customs of Nā Kālai Waʻa.
Hālau Kukui and Makaliʻi Mooring, Kawaihae, Kohala
Hālau Kukui is a nonprofit parcel within the DLNR harbor lands and serves as our hub for education, sailing, and ocean safety. It provides space for storage containers and secure storage for our vessels in the Kawaihae Harbor area, as well as direct access to sites such as Hale O Kapuni (shark heiau), Kukui surf break, and the shared watershed of Kawaihae from Honokoʻa to Kaunaʻoa. NKW is raising funds to repair and upgrade existing structures for safety and to support expanded community programming.
Hālau Waʻa, Kalaemanō, Kona
A coastal site where NKW partners with Aunty Lei Keakealani Leightner and the Kaʻūpūlehu Heritage Center deliver regional cultural education.