Aloha ‘Āina | Love of the Land

Hawai‘i

What We’re Doing
Protecting the land that connects Native Hawaiians and others to the living Hawaiian culture and history.

Our Goal
To connect people to ʻāina (land) and support their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.

Support Our Work in Hawai‘i

Aloha ʻĀina by the Numbers

35,000+

acres of land restored and returned to Native Hawaiian–led agencies or organizations

projects returning land to Native Hawaiian–led agencies or organizations

Sustaining and Resisting

“ʻĀina,” the Hawaiian word for “land,” means that which feeds. It encompasses the Hawaiian worldview of a reciprocal and familial relationship between people and land. Connection to ʻāina is essential to the physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being of Native Hawaiians.

ʻĀina serves as the foundation of everything in Hawai‘i—culture and identity, traditional and customary practices, subsistence farming, fishing, hunting, gathering, healing arts, and religious rituals. Healthy communities fuel the health of these practices.

The concept of aloha ʻāina, or love of the land, teaches that if you take care of the land, it will take care of you. Trust for Public Land’s Aloha ʻĀina program partners with Native Hawaiian communities to protect ʻāina (land) from development and return these lands to Hawaiian agencies and organizations for community-based stewardship or ownership, empowering all in Hawaiʻi to aloha ʻāina (love land).

The Aloha ʻĀina program exemplifies TPL’s organizational commitment to equity, health, and community. In Hawai‘i, TPL has the privilege of working with dedicated stewards that have committed relationships to place and culture and welcome all to reconnect with ʻāina.

“For the ancient Hawaiian people, forced to survive on the most remote island chain in the world, ‘aina meant more than just ‘land’. . . it meant ‘that which feeds,’” says Kamuela Enos, former director of social enterprise of Māla ʻAi ʻŌpio—“youth food garden” (MAʻO Organic Farm). “The concept entails people being connected to the land, in intimate relationship to it.”