About Us
Pili Nā Moku (PNM) is a multi-island climate resilience initiative that brings together community-based organizations, Native Hawaiian practitioners, government agencies, and academic partners to strengthen stewardship and climate adaptation across Hawaiʻi.
Funded through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Resilience Regional Challenge, the initiative represents one of the largest investments in community-led resilience in Hawaiʻi. Over the next five years, PNM will support restoration, stewardship, and governance initiatives across five focal moku or hui moku (districts), including West Kauaʻi; Waiʻanae, Oʻahu; Molokaʻi; Central Maui; and Kohala, Hawaiʻi Island. These locations were selected for their strong potential to advance Native Hawaiian stewardship and cultural practices in areas that have historically lacked climate-adaptation investments.
The program’s resilience vision is grounded in the moku system, a traditional Hawaiian framework for land and ocean management that connects ecosystems and communities from mountain ridges to coral reefs. Historically, this system supported collaborative stewardship and sustainable resource management across diverse landscapes and habitats.
Today, revitalizing the moku system offers a powerful pathway for addressing climate change while strengthening cultural stewardship and community governance. Through partnerships with community practitioners and stewardship networks, PNM supports restoration of forests, streams, wetlands, dunes, loko iʻa (fishponds), loʻi kalo (taro garden), and coral reefs while strengthening the systems of knowledge and leadership that sustain them.
Partners
These projects are led by a collaborative of twelve partners spanning state and county government agencies, academia, national and local non-profit organizations, and collectives of Indigenous and local stewards. This list is just the beginning as the team will be working to continually expand partnerships particularly with grassroots organizations in the focal moku. Our intent is to work together to build an enduring program and long-term partnerships that will support vital community governance and ʻāina stewardship for long beyond the five year funding provided by NOAA.
-University of Hawai’i Sea Grant College Program (Project Lead)
-Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources (Co-lead)
-Kuaʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo (Co-lead)
-The Nature Conservancy
-Hawaiʻi Conservation Alliance Foundation Hawaiʻi Office of Planning and Sustainable Development
-Conservation International Hawaiʻi
-Kupu ʻĀina Corps County of Maui
-Department of Hawaiian Home Lands Mālama Learning Center
-Kaʻala Farm Inc.
-Groundswell Services Inc.
Pili Nā Moku
2525 Correa Road, HIG 239
Honolulu, HI 96822
(808) 956-7031
Co-PIs
Bradley M. Romine
Katy Hintzen
Read more about our name and it’s meaning and how our logo reflects this project.
Our Name and Logo
The Meaning of Our Name
Pili to cling, stick, adhere, touch, join, adjoin, cleave to, associated with, be with, be close or adjacent; clinging, sticking; close relationship.
Nā is a plural article meaning “the.”
Moku refers to an “island” or “district” (within the Hawaiian system of biocultural stewardship and land tenure).
Pili Nā Moku is intended to evoke the interconnectedness of communities, ecosystems, and governance systems across moku. The phrase reflects the Hawaiian worldview of interdependence and collective stewardship. It is by strengthening relationships within and across moku that we build resilience.
The Meaning of Our Logo
The icon draws inspiration from pili grass, with each feathery stigma symbolic of one of the five moku with which Pili Nā Moku collaborates. Pili grass seed’s ability to “move” is driven by moisture–its long barbed awns (bristles) absorb the rain or dew, expand, and then contract as they dry, enabling the seeds to twist and drill into the soil. This mechanism secures the seeds, allowing them to anchor and thrive even in demanding environments.
The pili grass’s self-propulsion and perseverance symbolize the tenacity and resilience of Hawai’i communities.
About the Artist
Nicole Makaʻāhinaʻālohilohi Jack (Maka) is a Native Hawaiian multimedia artist based in Kapahulu, O‘ahu. She has contributed to the design and execution of large-scale murals statewide, both collaboratively and as an independently commissioned artist. She is also a carver who works primarily with natural materials. Maka has done commissioned graphic design work for apparel, logos, and large-scale installations. Her work has appeared in gallery exhibitions in Hawaiʻi, New York, and California.
Currently, Maka works in Environmental Conservation as an Invasive Species Field Technician and finds the natural world a primary influence on much of her art. Maka draws heavily on her collegiate background in Pacific Islands Studies with a Focus in Arts and Culture, and finds profound inspiration in the indigenous genius of her ancestors.