Fri, Sep 25
|Kaunakakai Town
KULĀIA 2026
Molokai Canoe Festivals Present KULĀIA 2026: a cultural learning experience during the annual canoe racing season on Molokaʻi.
Time & Location
Sep 25, 2026, 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM HST
Kaunakakai Town, Ala Malama Ave, Kaunakakai, HI 96748, USA
About the event
KULĀIA 2026 takes place during the annual canoe racing season, when hundreds of paddlers, families, and supporters from neighbor islands and beyond arrive on Molokaʻi to participate in the Molokaʻi Channel crossings.
Rather than allowing these gatherings to remain purely athletic events, KULĀIA transforms this moment into a culturally grounded educational experience. Molokaʻi becomes the classroom.
As visiting waʻa ʻohana enter our shores, they are welcomed into authentic, community-led cultural learning experiences rooted in Molokaʻi’s welo — our values, stewardship practices, and ʻike kupuna.
Through hands-on engagement, protocol, and ʻike sharing, visitors do not simply attend an event — they are immersed in Molokaʻi’s living cultural identity. This strengthens:
- Molokaʻi’s role as cultural leader
- Inter-island relationships grounded in respect
- Shared kuleana across the pae ʻāina
- Authentic representation of Hawaiian practice
Molokaʻi is not performing culture. Molokaʻi is perpetuating culture.