Meet our Facilitators and Partners

We cannot do this work alone! We are so appreciative of the facilitators and partners who collaborate on our events. Contact us, if you’re interested in becoming a facilitator.

Mailani Maka'ina'i

Mailani Makaʻinaʻi is a celebrated Hawaiian speaker, producer, and cultural practitioner born and raised in Kailua and Kahaluʻu, now based in Las Vegas. A six-time Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award winner and TEDx speaker (Disney Aulani, 2013), she has shared Hawaiian music and storytelling across digital platforms and on Hawaiian Airlines since 2009. With a B.A. in Hawaiian Studies and a minor in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, Mailani has also practiced lomilomi since 1987. She currently serves as Board President of Hui Mauli Ola (501c3) and has led partnerships with HARA, OHA, and ANA, advancing cultural and community wellness through education and advocacy.

Cultural Advisor

Bianca Nicole Bennett

Bianca is an ʻōiwi creative operations director and writer from Kaimukī, Hawaii. She currently lives in New York City where she has volunteered for the last 14 years at the American Museum of Natural History in the Butterflies and Astrophysics departments. She is currently pursuing a masters degree in Thanatology and does daily walks in Greenwood Cemetery, ​in which she has seen groundhog​s, skunk​s, ​some hawk​s, and a few bats. Her family's ʻaumakua is the pueo, but she's only ever seen one once.

Workshop Facilitator
Workshop Facilitator

Sky Julian Kamano’okalani
Bruno

Meet Sky Julian Kamano’okalani Bruno — a Hawai‘i-born multimedia artist, cultural practitioner, and filmmaker. Rooted in Kanaka ʻŌiwi tradition, his work spans film, image-making, and technology, weaving memory, voice, and self-determination. From the Smithsonian to underground circles in NYC and Hawai‘i, he builds spaces for return, resistance, and story.

Workshop Facilitator

Katia Kalei Barricklow

Katia Kalei Barricklow is a Native Hawaiian filmmaker, writer, and photographer who seeks to uncover forgotten histories and build connections across oceans through her art.

Her work sits at the intersection of the personal and the political – exploring themes of memory, identity, belonging, and resistance through immersive visual storytelling. Her films have screened across the country, amplifying voices too often left unheard. 

Workshop Facilitator

Naz(areth) Kekainalu Kawakami

Naz(areth) Kekainalu Kawakami is a writer, actor, editor, and photographer from Honolulu, Hawaii. He has written and edited numerous stageplays and screenplays, and has appeared in several theatre productions . Most notably, he wrote, produced, and starred in Every Day in Kaimuki (2022, dir. Alika Tengan), a feature-length film which premiered at Sundance Film Festival - the first Native Hawaiian written/directed film to do so - where it was nominated for the Innovator Award. He has been a professional editorial and screenwriter for eleven years. His work has been published in NPR, Rolling Stone, Jenkem, Insider, Flux, Popeye, Creem, and Esquire, among others. He is in his second year as Editor in Chief of Monster Children, a Sydney/LA/NYC-based skateboarding/music/surfing/art publication founded in 2003. Naz currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. 

Workshop Guide Creator

Rozette De Castro

Rozette is a storyteller, urban planner and community weaver that aims to communicate the emotions that run deep in their heart. They firmly believe that living and navigating a life centered on community love and care is what will move us towards that radical just future we all are working towards. To Rozette, spaces and feelings truly go hand in hand. They were born and raised in the beautiful islands of the Philippines, and yet call the Bay Area, California home (Ohlone Lands). They are currently living in Lenape Lands- Brooklyn, New York- where they are beginning to retrace steps through stories towards home. A home where they can feel the ocean's breeze.