Genre
Synopsis
INDIGENOUS NA'AU charts a compelling journey into culturally rooted education, honoring Indigenous wisdom and ways of knowing. Elders—cultural practitioners, fishers, and canoe builders—share generational, place‑based knowledge steeped in the waʻa (canoe). Using the canoe as a metaphor—a floating community, or island—this film shows how every person, every role matters and resources are limited and precious. Indigenous Naʻau offers a path of remembering: one that heals through belonging, uplifts through shared responsibility, and plants the seeds of a future where cultural identity and ecological care are inseparable. Let this film stir curiosity, challenge norms, and invite a way of learning and knowing that belongs deeply to us all.
Director Identity
Bio
Ku’ulei is a Director and Impact Producer who blends her background in nonprofit strategy, traditional voyaging, and environmental education to share scripted and unscripted stories about identity and culture.
Born in Ko‘olaupoko, O‘ahu, and raised largely in the Hawaiian diaspora, she combines filmmaking and Indigenous values together to highlight the nuanced relationships between self and place.
Screening History
World Premiere - Hawai'i International Film Festival 2025
Credits
Editor - Jhante Iga
Director of Photography - Shaneika Aguilar
Director of Photography - Hunter Ramaekers
Music Director - Nawahineokalai Lanzilotti
Sound Design - Geralyn Agnaut
