Kealakekua Mele Murals Community Event | The Estria Foundation

Mele Murals promotes youth development, arts education, cultural preservation, and community-building through visual arts engagement and hands-on creation of large-scale community murals. Project designs focus on Hawaiian lyrics (mele) that explore moʻolelo ‘aina (stories of place), kaona (hidden references), and a community’s cultural heritage.

Native artists, cultural practitioners, educators, youth, and community members spanning eight major islands of Hawai‘i actively participate in our programs and community projects. To directly address educational inequalities existing in the communities we serve, The Estria Foundation (TEF) partners with Title 1 schools through its culture-based Mele Murals events. Arts engagement with young people has proven to increase participation in schools and communities, enhances civic and cultural pride, and reduces social isolation.

TEF’s arts and culture programs build on the desires of our team of cultural practitioners and arts educators to provide a safe, structured, and creative outlet for children year-round. Through its arts programs, TEF strives to engage Hawai‘i’s high-risk, at-risk, and vulnerable youth in a positive, extracurricular program that enhances their artistic aptitude and encourages involvement in Hawaiian culture.

Between April 13-15, 2026, TEF will host its Mele Murals Event at the Kealakekua Post Office located at 81-990 Halekī Street, Kealakekua, HI. 96750. This community event will bring together families and school-aged children to actively participate in the creation of a large-scale mural on the wall of the Post Office that shares the history, culture, and people of Kealakekua. This multi-day community event will create an opportunity for community members to co-create a large-scale public arts project that will serve as a source of community pride for generations to come.