Hoʻākea Source 2025 Grant Awardees
Colleen Kimura
Nā Leo o Kapa
Avalon Paradea
OUR JOY iS SACRED
Lani Punani
Babaeng Babae Na
Hercules Goss-Kuehn
The Renkon Project
Noe Tanigawa
I OLA KANALOA
Davianna McGregor & Craig Neff
OUR JOY iS SACRED
Lani Punani2025 Grant Recipient
OUR JOY iS SACRED aims to celebrate and explore their relationships with their elder MVPFAFF+ LGBTQIA+ — all the alphabets — and Hawaiʻi’s Māhū queer youth, outside of viewing them as more than just entertainment; not just how they can entertain us, whilst still being thoroughly entertained. They will explore themes of grief, forgottenness, care, empathy, sexuality, protecting joy, spirituality, archives, community, and aloha ‘āina. Collectively, OUR JOY iS SACRED archives the present and chronicles the future, celebrates and protects sacred joy, and honors the interconnectedness of the human-in-community experiences of being Māhū and queer in Hawai‘i and its surroundings — the greater Moana Nui, the Philippines, and the world.
Lani Punani is Filipino bakla bangah born and raised on the wessai of O’ahu with ancestral roots in the Philippines. Lani’s multifaceted practice encompasses soundscape production, DJing, film, photography, design, body movement, painting, and whatever their spirit feels called to. Their work is guided by interconnected relationships, transnational feminism, anti imperialism, archives, oral histories, joy, ancestral memory, diaspora, dreams, community care, feelings, and unfiltered raw everyday human living experiences.