Grab the popcorn! And maybe some tissues.
Fair warning, we get deeply personal in this film titled “Seeing with Hawaiian Eyes” by ʻōiwi storyteller and Maui girl Hunter Nahoʻoikaika.
Farming is just the entry point. What we're really doing here at Polipoli is tending to a relationship with aloha ʻāina that runs through our ʻohana for generations. This film tells that story.
Click play (a quick 12-minute watch) or keep reading for behind-the-scenes scoops.
A Connection We Didn’t See Coming
What started out as Hunter’s senior project at Chapman’s University’s film school took on a life of its own. Seeing with Hawaiian Eyes was featured at the Hawaiʻi International Film Festival, the American Documentary and Animation Film Festival, in-flight on Hawaiian Airlines, and broadcast on Outside Hawaiʻi/OC16.
When Hunter cold-emailed us about her senior documentary project, we almost said no. But something about her gave us pause—the way she talked about her values, the care she took with our concerns, the sensitivity she brought to telling ʻōiwi stories.
Then we found out her ʻohana is from Waiehu, just down the road from Polipoli Farms.
Turns out this "stranger" was no stranger at all. As we deepened our relationship, we discovered that connections between our ʻohana run deep across generations. Chicken-skin kine stuff.
In the end it felt like a connection that had to happen. Hunter was always supposed to tell this story.
Aloha ʻĀina Through Storytelling
As a former journalist, I see so much of my own journey in Hunter’s. We’re two Maui girls growing up between worlds, trying to find our way back to our roots through moʻolelo.
Kānaka maoli have always been master storytellers. It's how our culture moved through the generations, and I love seeing a new generation keeping those traditions alive. Hunter's film is a beautiful example of that.
Ready to dive in? Set aside a quick 12 minutes and watch Seeing with Hawaiian Eyes here.
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