Hoʻākea Source 2025 Grant Awardees

I OLA KANALOA

Davianna McGregor & Craig Neff
2025 Grant Recipients

I OLA KANALOA (2026) is a place-responsive project organized by the Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana (PKO), a grassroots organization established in 1976 to protect the sacred island of Kahoʻolawe. Over the past half century PKO has led community efforts to remediate, revitalize, and recover the island’s abundant futures. I OLA KANALOA continues this work through the form of a huakaʻi or service learning trip, thematic group exhibition, archival film screening, and public program series to mark the 50 year anniversary of PKO’s founding. This project is led by PKO core members Craig Neff (artist/activist) and Davianna Pōmaikaʻi McGregor (historian/educator).



Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana (PKO) is a community-based, archipelago-wide grassroots organization founded in 1976 to protect the sacred island of Kahoʻolawe. The smallest of the eight main Hawaiian Islands, Kahoʻolawe was used by the U.S. military for live-fire training and as a bombing target for nearly five decades from the early 1940s until 1990. PKO is responsible for putting an end to this devastation and for leading on-the-ground efforts to remediate, revitalize, and recover the island in accordance with Native Hawaiian values, beliefs, and practices. Over the past half-century, PKO members have organized workshops, training sessions, service learning trips, and religious ceremonies; participated in town hall meetings, court hearings, and international tribunals; and produced concerts, exhibitions, films, and publications at the intersection of art, culture, education, activism, and healing. Through their extensive collaborations and partnerships on local, national, and international levels, PKO has helped to inspire generations, instilling in them a deep love for Hawaiʻi and a long-term commitment to abundant futures for the greater Pacific.