Lanipō is driven by the collective art practice of Nālamakūikapō Ahsing & Kamehanaokalā Taylor. We are papermakers, printmakers, educators, and ʻāina stewards. Cultivating the health and abundance of the communities that have raised us, Lanipō believes in nurturing a self-sufficient Hawaiʻi empowered by a deep sense of aloha ʻāina, pono, and kuleana.
Our mission is to cultivate the health of ‘āina and kanaka through Native Hawaiian arts, culture, and education. We support ʻāina-based theories and practices that honor Kanaka Hawaiʻi ancestral knowledge, center cultural revitalization, and promote innovation rooted in tradition.
Our artistic practice and vision are informed by our work as educators and ʻāina stewards. The lessons of our land, people, and community are central to our process. Based in Waimānalo, Oʻahu, in the shade of Puʻu ʻo Lanipō, we cultivate ancestral foods and fiber arts plants including kalo, ʻulu, ʻuala, wauke, and hau to help sustain our communities both physically and artistically.
Lanipō is Kanaka Hawaiʻi owned and operated.
Our Mission
Meet our Team!
Kamehanaokalā Taylor
Co-Founder, Artist
T. Kamehanaokalā Taylor is a Kanaka Hawaiʻi researcher, writer, and mahiʻai from Waikupanaha, Waimānalo, Oʻahu. Kamehana’s work is informed by Hawaiian epistemologies and archival research as well as embodied research through ʻāina restoration. Centering ʻike Hawaiʻi, moʻolelo Hawaiʻi, and ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, Kamehana’s writing advocates for collaborative, culturally-informed reclamations of kanaka-ʻāina relationships.
Kamehana holds a B.A. in Hawaiian Studies and Hawaiian Language and an M.A. in English. As part of the Hoʻomau Nā Maka o ka ʻĀina team at Puʻuhonua Society, she supports the digitization and editing of transcripts from Joan Lander and Puhipau’s NMOKA film collection. As a mahiʻai, Kamehana cultivates ancestral foods on her family farm.
Kamehana was recently awarded the Red Mandarin and Lady Yi-suen Shen Scholarship by the University of Hawaiʻi’s English Department. She is also a recipient of the University of Hawaiʻi College of Arts and Sciences’ John Young Scholarship in the Arts.
Nālamakūikapō Ahsing
Co-Founder, Artist
J. D. Nālamakūikapō Ahsing is a Kanaka Hawaiʻi artist, mahi ʻai, and voyager.
Born and raised in Puʻuloa, ʻEwa, on the island of Oʻahu, Nālamakū serves as the ʻĀina Restoration Coordinator for Kauluakalana at Ulupō Heiau. Artistically, Nālamakū is a printmaker, carver, and papermaker.
He has exhibited artwork with the Hawaiʻi State Art Museum, Bishop Museum, Aupuni Space, University of Hawaiʻi, Puʻuhonua Society, Williams College Museum of Art and others.
He believes that the more we understand ʻāina as a kanaka, the more we can understand ourselves as kanaka.
