ALOHA NŌ is a call to know Hawaiʻi as a place of rebirth, resilience, and resistance; a place that embraces humanity in all of its complexities — with a compassion and care that can only be described as aloha. In the words of Kanaka ʻŌiwi (native Hawaiian) philosopher Dr. Manulani Aluli Meyer, “Hawaiʻi is vital now, and our way of spirit is the spirit of aloha. Ulu aʻe ke welina a ke aloha. Loving is the practice of an awake mind.” 

Contrary to its ubiquitous and over-commodified presence, aloha is an action that comprises a profound love and truth-telling, a practice that has been kept and cared for by the people of Hawaiʻi for generations. This practice of aloha engenders a deep connectivity to the ʻāina (land), oceanic environment, elements, and each other. It enables us to protect and defend inter-archipelagic relations, that which we love, and our mutual interdependence. It allows us to manifest sovereignty and self-determination, and to stand in solidarity with others.

By collapsing two, seemingly opposite, notions — “no” in English with “nō,” an intensifier in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language) — ALOHA NŌ reclaims aloha from a colonial-capitalist historicity and situates it as a transformative power that is collectively enacted through contemporary art. While specific to Hawaiian and Pacific environments, ALOHA NŌ resonates across other cultures and geographies, especially sovereign lands with similar histories and struggles against colonial occupation and capitalist violence. 

Through ALOHA NŌ, we will undo the harmful, misogynistic, stereotypical images of Hawaiʻi, and instead embrace the kaona (layered meaning) of aloha as manifested in a myriad of forms, including aloha ʻāina (love of land), mo‘okū‘auhau (genealogy to people and place), mo‘olelo (storied traditions), and ho‘opono (healing through speaking truth, forgiveness and mutual emergence). More than a theme, ALOHA NŌ also guides the process of curatorial and artistic engagement, creating a method of relationality to ʻāina, sites of exhibition, and audiences.

ALOHA NŌ invites all — native islanders, settlers, immigrants, and tourists — to experience and un/learn how to enter and center a place called Hawaiʻi. ALOHA NŌ is a call to know, an invitation to form new understandings of love as acts of care, resistance, solidarity, and transformation.