ʻImiloa's 18th Lā Hānau Celebration (FREE!)

Sunday, February 25, 2024
10:00 AM 3:00 PM 10:00 15:00

ʻImiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii 600 Imiloa Place Hilo, HI, 96720 United States (map)

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ʻImiloa’s 18th Lā Hānau Celebration

Join us Sunday, Feb. 25 for our 18th birthday celebration as we honor Hawaiʻi’s native forest birds. This FREE event sponsored by KTA Super Stores features fun activities and crafts about Hawaiian manu, special live programs in our Planetarium with natural resource experts, hula and mele, and interactive exhibits. Enjoy a fun-filled day with the ʻohana while learning about our native birds and the ecosystems they inhabit.

Planetarium Presentations

Kanikuamanu

10:30 a.m. & 12:30 p.m.

Be immersed in the world of Hawaiian birds focusing on the diversity and beauty of their song! Exploring the rise and fall of the dawn chorus of birds allows us to draw parallels to their speciation and extinction. Join Pat Hart from the LOHE Lab as he introduces “O Ka Lele a Nei Auna,” a Hawaiian bird creation oli (chant), composed collectively by Kekuhi Kealiʻikanakaʻoleohaililani and members of ʻAhuimanu, a recently hatched group of bird-people from Hawaiʻi. This oli pairs our threatened native birds with fish kiaʻi (guardians) from the sea and plant kiaʻi from the land to help guide our birds back into abundance.

In Search of ʻAkēʻakē

11:30 a.m.

Alex Wang, Hawaiʻi Island Wildlife Biologist, will share is expertise for this twofold presentation on Hawaiian manu. Learn about some of Hawaiʻi's most endangered forest birds and immediate efforts in place to save them from near extinction. Then stay tuned for an inspiring story about the endangered ‘Akēʻakē (also known as the band-rumped storm petrel) and the long road to discovering their burrows on Maunaloa.

Hawaiian Forest Birds in Story and Culture

1:30 p.m.

Humans have a long history with birds in Hawaiʻi that is simultaneously both beautiful and disheartening. Since the earliest voyagers first landed here, the ʻāina, including our native birds, has shaped who we are and how we behave as residents of this island. In this presentation Noah Gomes will introduce some of the many roles that native forest birds play in our traditional stories, chants, and poetry on Hawaiʻi island.

Struggle for Existence

2:30 p.m.

Struggle for Existence combines animation and graphics with documentary material to spin a compelling story of an endangered finch on the verge of extinction living in the Extinction Capital of the World — The Hawaiian Islands. The Palila is a native forest bird that lives on the slopes of Mauna Kea Volcano on the Big Island of Hawai`i, fewer than 1,100 are survive in the wild. In 2025, five Palila finches remain, and a woman journeys to Hawai`i to see the last few birds.

The film questions how life is valued and preserved by man as a species nears extinction, through looking at past and present conservation efforts. Struggle for Existence contemplates Darwin’s theory of natural selection, inevitability of death for all living things, and our human instinct to “save nature.” Winner, Best Documentary CUNY Asian American Film Festival, Best Short Documentary, Student Category, American Conservation Film Festival. Screenings at Hawaii International Film Festival, DOCUtah, NY Asian American Film Festival.

Main Tent Entertainment

Unulau

10:30 a.m.

Under the direction of Kumu Hula Pele Kaio, Unulau is a hālau hula whose name means "The multitudes of UNU". UNU is a name that is shared by all hālau born from Unukupukupu, their mother hālau. Anchored in the philosophy, pedagogy, and fire traditions of the hula ʻaihaʻa, the hālau promotes and perpetuates ʻike (knowledge) and education through hula — as it is the platform by which they engage, inspire, and inform their relationship to the environment and the spirit.

Pōkiʻi Seto (live music performance)

11:15 a.m.

Kaleimaumaka Lorenzo (live music performance)

12:30 p.m.

Kinohi, Nāmaka, & Bruce (live music performance)

1:45 p.m.