Our roots run deep, and there is beauty in our resilience. When I think about what that means — what it looks like, what it feels like — I think about the ʻaʻaliʻi.
There is an ʻōlelo noʻeau that many of us grew up hearing: He ʻaʻaliʻi kū makani mai au; ʻaʻohe makani nāna e kūlaʻi. I am a wind-standing ʻaʻaliʻi; no gale can push me over. It is a saying about resilience — about bending without breaking, about holding your ground in the hardest conditions. It is also, simply, a description of the plant itself. And honestly, it is a description of us.
Our newest artwork, a collaboration with Sugar Caddy, features the ʻaʻaliʻi — one of the most steadfast native plants in all of Hawaiʻi.
Found across the islands from mauka to makai, the ʻaʻaliʻi (Dodonaea viscosa) grows where few other plants will.¹ It is a pioneer — one of the first to colonize lava fields and one of the few native plants that can survive fire, its seeds persisting through the burn to grow again.¹ Its dense root system anchors the soil, controlling erosion on ridges and hillsides that would otherwise wash away.² Its wood is so hard it sinks in water — historically used by kūpuna for canoe building, weapons, agricultural tools, and house construction.¹ Its papery seed capsules, flushing in shades of red, pink, and bronze, have long been prized for lei.¹
But the ʻaʻaliʻi is more than tough. It is a generous plant. In degraded landscapes across the islands, conservationists rely on it as a pioneer species to jumpstart forest restoration — creating shelter and conditions for more delicate plants to follow.³ Where the land has been wounded, the ʻaʻaliʻi shows up first.
This piece is dedicated to the Waikoloa Dry Forest Initiative, a nonprofit committed to preserving, protecting, and restoring native Hawaiian dry forest through land management, education, and grassroots advocacy.⁴ The ʻaʻaliʻi is one of the key species of that ecosystem — and a symbol of exactly the kind of quiet, persistent kuleana that work like theirs embodies.⁵
This artwork will also be featured at Merrie Monarch — a week-long festival honoring King David Kalākaua's vision for perpetuating Hawaiian traditions, language, and arts.⁶
The ʻaʻaliʻi does not ask for easy conditions. It stands in the wind and holds. We hope this piece is a reminder that we can too — and that the land we love is worth standing for.