HULI: KA LIMA I LALO
Turning our minds, hearts, and hands to the 'aina

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In 2025, Kahuaola ("Guardians of Life" formerly the Creation Care and Environmental Justice Task Force) in collaboration with the Racial Reconciliation Task Force and the Native Hawaiian Ministry Committee, was awarded a Creation Care Grant from The Episcopal Church. With this award and the support of the Diocese, we are weaving mālama ʻāina through our shared work and the diocesan events for the year, called Huli ka lima i lalo. Throughout 2025, creation care centered events will be offered beginning with Spring Training (turning our minds), a summer online speaker series (our hearts), and ending with on site service work (our hands) during Convention 57's Education Day in October.

Huli is a creation care revival—to continue and carry on this important call and responsibility in Hawaiʻi. So, for this year, we welcome all to turn our hands to the earth, as guardians of life: “Huli: ka lima I lalo.”

VIRTUAL SUMMER SPEAKER SERIES

Coming off of a wonderful Spring Training debut, the Huli team announces its special online Summer Speaker Series, featuring prominent advocates in their fields. You can register for one or all three of the summer series events that take place on Saturdays from 9:00 -11:00 AM.  Be sure to register to receive the Zoom link for one or all three speakers HERE:​

NOTE: Sessions 2 and 3 will NOT be recorded. We hope you will make every effort to attend via Zoom.

SUMMER SPEAKER SERIES #2 - SATURDAY, JULY 26, 2025
Our Voyage to Europe: Wayfinding the Indigenous Jesus to the Theological Shores of Western Christianity with The Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton

The history of Christianity is inseparable from the history of Western Civilization. Consequently, the history and identity of the United States and The Episcopal Church have been shaped by the colonial heritage of the Western Christian empires that shared a set of values, beliefs, and ambitions within their common worldview – a worldview set within the fossilized theological/political amber that is the Doctrine of Discovery. 

READ MORE ABOUT THE PRESENTATION

​The legal, theological and racist principles that characterize the Doctrine of Discovery continue to inform dominant culture beliefs today with regard to white superiority, American Exceptionalism, the divine destiny of Christian nationalism, and the destructive commoditization of a dis-inspirited earth. This presentation will take participants on a carefully navigated journey though the theological history of Western Christian thought, contrasting Western cultural cosmology with Indigenous spiritual cosmology of Creation. European missionaries brought the Light of Christ to the peoples they encountered in their “New World”. The time has come for Indigenous peoples to make our own journey across the turbulent waters of Baptism, in order to arrive at a collective new creation for the healing and redemption of All Our Relations, of the Church, and of Christianity itself.​

ABOUT THE REV. RACHEL TABER-HAMILTON

Rachel is an Indigenous ordained priest in the Episcopal Church. As a Shackan First Nation person, she represents the Episcopal Church on the board of the Anglican Indigenous Network and was part of the project team for the Anglican Indigenous Network video series, “Prophetic Indigenous Voices on the Planetary Crisis.” She served on the Episcopal Church delegation to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and on the Presiding Bishop's delegation to United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26 and COP28). She has written articles addressing Indigenous concerns for the Anglican Theological Journal that include “The Necessity of Native American Autonomy for Successful Partnerships” (1994) and “When Creation is Sacred” (2021). She maintains her blog, Greening Spirit (www.greeningspirit.com), addressing environmental issues and social justice concerns towards renewing human relationships with creation and with one another. She is the co-founder of Circles of Color in the Diocese of Olympia and is a board member of the Anglican Indigenous Network. Rachel is currently the Rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Everett, WA and serves on the Board of the Episcopal Church Coalition for Racial Justice and Equity as well as the Board of Paths to Understanding, an interfaith community for social justice and reconciliation in the state of Washington.

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 SUMMER SPEAKER SERIES #3 - SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 2025
"What Does the Earth Ask of Us?" - Robin Wall Kimmerer is a botanist and member of the Potawatomi Nation. She is author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. There will be a pre-recorded talk with live Q&A.

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FULL RECORDED SESSION:
​SUMMER SPEAKER SERIES #1 - SATURDAY, MAY 24, 2025
“Waiwai: Water and the Future of Hawaiʻi” - Dr. Kamanamaikalani Beamer, a full professor at the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa with a dual appointment in the School of Hawaiian Knowledge and Richardson School of Law, led this timely session on our fragile water ecosystem in Hawai'i.  

The HULI Team:

The Rev. Jazzy Bostock
Native Hawaiian Ministry Committee, St. John the Baptist

The Rev. Jenn Latham
Kahuaola (Guardians of Life), Holy Nativity

The Rev. Bree Lloyd
Kahuaola (Guardians of Life)

The Rev. Keleawe Hee
Racial Reconciliation Task Force, Good Samaritan

What does "Huli ka lima i lalo" mean?

The theme for this project is Huli, which means to turn, to change. It is also the part of kalo that is replanted. It symbolizes our important and sacred responsibility to care for the life of these islands.  Huli ka lima i lalo means to turn your hands down, to turn them to the earth. So, in a culmination of our learning for the year and as part of our call and responsibility to care for what God made and called "good," we are going to turn our hands down and work on some projects in our community. We want to do more than talk about it!​

What can we look forward to?

​Education happens in various forms. For many of us, it often means sitting and listening to a presenter or presenters, whether in person or online. We also learn by physically taking action and applying our knowledge to some cause or effort. Our Huli team will offer several opportunities to do both! This is a different kind of education - one in which you will learn by being in direct relationship with the ʻāina and one which incorporates your bodies and hearts as much as your minds. Creation care isn't only about liturgies - it is also about re-orienting our hearts and bodies towards right relationship with the earth, which can be done through acts of service.

Who can attend these events?

Anyone! All events and activities are open to the whole Diocese and beyond! Bring a friend and experience the transformational work of Huli, by turning your hands, hearts, and minds to the earth. 

Stay tuned for announcements from the Diocese regarding upcoming events. Sign up HERE to get on the Diocese's email list for the Hawaiian Church Chronicle and special announcements, where all events and activities will be posted. Delegates to Convention are especially encouraged to attend this year's Convention 57 Education Day on Friday, October 24, 2025. Coming up:

Click HERE to Register!

 October 24, 'Iolani School

​ʻŌlelo Noʻeau of the year by The Rev. Jazzy Bostock:

This is the explanation for Huli ka lima i lalo, the ʻŌlelo Noʻeau* that I found and loved. ​

Huli ka lima i lalo means to turn the hand down. When our hands are turned down, they are working, they are productive, and they are stewarding that which is in front of them. This ‘ōlelo noʻeau invokes the image of hands planted in the lepo (dirt, earth) as they care for ʻāina. These hands are not just turned up waiting for something to happen or waiting for others to step in. They are taking initiative, they are planting and connecting, serving, helping, and stewarding well the kuleana (responsibility, privilege) they are given. They are caring well for ʻāina as well as for other kanaka, and it is from that place of both connection and action, that there is ola (life and health). . .  From a Hawaiian perspective, the health and wellbeing of both ʻāina and kanaka are tied and kanaka has a kuleana to mālama (care for) this relationship. When ʻāina is sick, we become sick, and when it is thriving, we also thrive; and vice versa. We see this in the cultivation of kalo. Kalo needs to be planted and tended to in order to thrive. While it can grow on its own, it responds best to the care of kanaka. This relationship, in and of itself, is lifegiving to both people and ʻāina, and, when cultivated well, the result is good, healthy, healing ʻai (food, taro) that nourishes us in mind, body, and spirit.

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*​'Ōlelo no'eau are proverbs or poetical sayings that are commonly used when speaking Hawaiian.
​(Photo of Bree during a service project at a lo'i.)