Kāhuli Festival 2025
Saturday, October 25, 2025

Ke Kani Nei Ka Pūpū

Kāhuli Festival 2025
Saturday, October 25, 2025
3 pm to 9 pm | 4th Annual Kāhuli Festival

Interested in joining us?

Image: King’s Summer House (1853). King’s Summer House Warren Goodale (1897). “Honolulu in 1853”. Papers of the Hawaiian Historical Society.

Saturday, October 25, 2025
3 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Reduced Admission $10.00 for Kama‘aina and Military

The 4th Annual Kāhuli Festival’s theme focuses on renewing and restoring cultural connections for conservation and is titled Ke Kani Nei Ka Pūpū – The Land Snails Sing. Through this theme, we acknowledge the resilience of our Hawaiian land snails in an everchanging landscape and how the aliʻi of Hawaiʻi remembered them in the naming of places, like Kamehameha III’s Nuʻuanu home, Kaniakapūpū, and in storytelling. The festival offers an opportunity for the research, conservation, education, and natural cultural resource community to showcase how we mālama pū i ka ʻāina, especially through the cultural lens surrounding endangered Hawaiian land snails and other native species.

This is an opportunity to learn about, celebrate, and reconnect with the rich biocultural heritage of Hawaiʻi.

Great Lawn Stage Schedule

3 p.m. Opening and Welcoming Address

3:15 p.m. Kamehameha Schools Kapālama Concert Glee Club

4 p.m. Keynote Panel: “The Hawaiian Land Snail Naming Hui”
Talk story with members of The Hawaiian Land Snail Naming Hui, a group of Kanaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) cultural and conservation practitioners guiding the naming of Hawaiian land snails to reflect Hawaiian language, knowledge, and values.

5:30 p.m. Pua Aliʻi ʻIlima, Kumu Hula Victoria Holt Takamine, and Jeffrey Kānekaʻiwilani Takamine

6 p.m. Spotlight Panel: ”The Green Fee and Future of Conservation in Hawaiʻi“
A conversation with members of the Green Fee Advisory Council to discuss implications of a new policy that directs tourism revenue towards efforts to protect Hawaiʻi’s natural environment.

Spotlight Programs

Meet Live Native Snails!
Pūpū Ola: Kāhuli Captive Rearing Research Center
Science Adventure Center
3-9 p.m.

Queen’s Lei Presentation by Marques Hanalei Marzan
Kai Ākea | First Floor of Hawaiian Hall
5 p.m.
See the shell lei given to Queen Liliʻuokalani on her travels around the Islands. Bishop Museum cultural advisor Marques Hanalei Marzan will give a presentation on the significance of the lei and native snails in Hawaiian culture.

Pūpū Painting and Kūpeʻe Krafting
Gallery Lawn
3-9 p.m.

Kāhuli Art Display and Auction
Atrium of Hawaiian Hall
3-9 p.m.

Explore EXCORE: Behind-the-Scenes Fish Collection Tours
4 p.m., 5:30 p.m., and 7 p.m.
Meet in the Explore EXCORE: Art of Underwater Science exhibition in J. M. Long Gallery, Hawaiian Hall Complex and tour the Museum’s fish collection with Ichthyology collection manager Calder Atta.

Community Partner Booths & Activities
Great Lawn, Atherton Hālau, and Science Adventure Center Lawns
3-9 p.m.

Food and Drink Stations
Great Lawn
3-9 p.m.

The festival brings together the community of research and conservation partners, along with artists and cultural practitioners to showcase how we can develop a better community for Hawaiʻi’s future.

This is an opportunity to learn about, celebrate, and reconnect with the rich biocultural heritage of Hawaiʻi through hands-on cultural workshops and activities, talks by cultural practitioners, authors, researchers, and conservationist; family-friendly activity booths hosted by community partners; snail captive rearing exhibits featuring live endangered and rare snails from Bishop Museum’s Hawaiian Land Snail Conservation Program and the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Snail Extinction Prevention Program; art exhibits featuring local artists, cultural workshops, and more.

Although kāhuli is often mistakenly thought to refer primarily to the famous O‘ahu Tree Snails, the base of the word “huli” actually holds multiple meanings in Hawaiian. Huli means to turn over, as in turning the page of a book, but also turning, as we often do when looking under the leaves for the snails. It is also used to refer to searching, or seeking and exploring, as one does to better understand what the lands snails and their ecosystems need to thrive in our modern world. Kāhuli can refer to land snails broadly or to the singing of the land snails, or it may mean to change or to alter. In the broadest spirit we hope the Kāhuli Festival will serve as a change agent helping us to turnover our current way of thinking about conservation, to reconnect with the roots of what makes Hawaiʻi so special, and search for more sustainable and inclusive ways to bring about change. Through these efforts we want to bring awareness of not only the 759 species of land snails that are native to Hawaiʻi, but to the broader issues of biocultural loss that impacts us all. Like the snails, much of what is found in Hawaiʻi is unique to these islands yet provides a framework for us to better understand our place here, and in this world with one another. Together we can build a community that perpetuates and shares the rich cultural and natural history of the islands with one another, and the world, which is the only way we’ll be able to save the jewels of the forest, and other things that make Hawaiʻi so special.

Partner Festival Details Coming Soon!

Kāhuli Festival on Hawaiʻi Island: October 18, 2025
Kāhuli Festival on Maui: October 22, 2025
Kāhuli VIP evening on Oʻahu: October 24, 2025
Kāhuli Festival on Oʻahu: October 25, 2025.