Hoʻākea Source 2026 Grant Awardees

Ka Moolelo o Ka Makani Kaili Aloha

Manana Paschoal
2026 Visual Art Grant Recipient

"Ka Moolelo o Ka Makani Kaili Aloha" creates a faithful retelling of its namesake through 3D animation. As a renowned love story of Kīpahulu, the project draws primarily from a 1980 publication by renowned mea kākau Thomas K. Maunupau in Ke Alahou, itself a partial republication of the 1922 article “Akai Makaikai no Kaupo, Maui” in Ka Nupepa Kuokoa which attributes the story to kūpuna Joseph V. Marciel, Josua Ahulii, and Alapai Kapaeko. Alongside animating the most intact written account, Paschoal will research additional versions of the moʻolelo, including an oral account shared by Kīpahulu-born kupuna Kāwika Kaʻalakea, honoring the proper preservation protocols of Hawaiian historiography.



MAXIMUS PASCHOAL (henceforth Manana) is a Maui-born ʻŌiwi, Oʻahu-based 3D artist, and student and admirer of ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi whose work aims to celebrate Moʻolelo Hawaiʻi via the creation of supplementary visual material for Hawaiian language text-based literature and sound recordings, with the conservation of the original texts/recordings being of topmost priority.  Growing up in Kīhei, Maui, in the early 2000’s, Manana’s visual aesthetic is a remembrance of the slow days spent at his multi-generational family home in Wailuku, watching his siblings and cousins all crowding a room playing offline local multiplayer games of vibrantly colorful, expressive, low-poly worlds. Ideally, his work serves as an invitation to increase your literacy on the topic of traditional Hawaiian stories through his supplementation with a visually compelling, whimsical, and approachable platform available to those from all walks of life.