About the film

Before there were maps, there were ancestors. Before there was history, there was a primordial longing—a collective breath blowing across the water, calling Hawaiʻi from beneath the sea, whispering: “I love this place. I want to live here”. Kupuna ʻĀina follows the legacy of that love, surviving erasure and a century of war waged through the illegal 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, the suppression of language, the banning of hula, and the theft of land.

This is not Hawaiʻi from the postcards. Through the voices of kūpuna (elders), modern warriors, cultural practitioners, and women, men, and youth finding healing with ʻāina, the film honors a profound remembering of ancestral ways. It is a journey of reclaiming ancient rhythms, revitalizing language, and embracing the sacred duty, the kuleana, to secure a living future for generations to come. Here, the people of this land alchemize historical pain into power. Not despite the wound. Through it.