Namahana accolade awarded to veteran homestead advocate on Maui

A 30-year Hawaiian homelands leader and advocate was honored recently at the 32nd Celebration of the Arts. Kekoa Enomoto received the Namahana Award of Excellence at the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua resort March 29. The distinction salutes “kupuna (elders) who have served the culture with a zest for life.” 

The Waiohuli native Hawaiian homesteader is a kahuna kakalaleo, or chanter of prayer. She serves as a charter director of two Valley Isle nonprofits: Pāʻupena Community Development Inc. that works for Hawaiian homesteaders, and the disaster-relief organization, Nā Kiaʻi O Maui, founded in the wake of the Aug. 8 Maui wildfires. 

A career journalist, she retired as a staff writer, copy editor and columnist for two daily newspapers. The cultural practitioner of hula and outrigger-canoe paddling has medaled at outrigger World Sprints in Australia in 2016 and England in 2022. 

Organizers named the award for the late Aunty Lydia Namahana Maioho, the longtime kahu, or caretaker, of the Mauna ‘Ala — Royal Mausoleum State Monument on Oʻahu. Namahana was lauded as a zesty ambassadress at the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua. At the citation ceremonies, Enomoto noted she herself is a Kamehameha Schools Kapālama classmate of the award namesake’s son, Abraham Maioho. 

This year’s Celebration of the Arts was held over Easter weekend, from March 29-30, 2024. Next year’s event takes place over three days in April, 2025. More information is posted online at: kapaluacelebrationofthearts.com.