Still have questions?
We strive to shift narrative power to our community by making journalism more transparent, accessible and accountable. That includes being transparent about our own work.
If you have questions that aren’t answered here, please feel free to reach out to us at:
Why create Kaheāwai Media?
Our communities’ stories, knowledge and values have long been under- and misrepresented in the mainstream media, and we deserve better…
Kaheāwai Media is an invitation to our community to collectively reimagine and help build a media ecosystem in Hawaiʻi that reflects and uplifts the moʻolelo and ʻike of those who put so much into protecting it.
How is this different than other local media in Hawaiʻi?
We see examples all the time of mainstream local media failing our ʻāina and communities…
From The Garden Island trying (unsuccessfully) to replace real journalists with artificial intelligence, to Civil Beat’s inability to diversify its newsroom more than six years after acknowledging the problem, we believe that the current system isn’t working.
In the past two years alone, we’ve seen multiple new media providers emerge across Hawaiʻi, including news organizations like Overstory and Hawaiʻi Journalism Initiative.
We see that as an unequivocal sign that people across Hawaiʻi are demanding more from local media.
And, we still see an explicit need to center the voices of kiaʻi in local media.
Given that Native Hawaiians once sustained a population of nearly a million people across the pae ʻāina with no houselessness, hunger or environmental destruction, we think that local media are doing a disservice to us all by continuing to underestimate the ʻike and waiwai of indigenous stewards, BIPOC organizers and other movement builders.
At the same time, we’re also not here to “compete” with other media outlets. We’re here to uplift any stories, storytellers, and storytelling practices that center ʻāina and community — and we welcome opportunities to collaborate with other media organizations on projects that align with our values.
Why focus on kiaʻi, aloha ʻāina and collective liberation movements?
Kiaʻi have always led the way in caring for ʻāina and fighting injustice…
And, kiaʻi often come from the communities most impacted by oppressive systems, meaning they hold an abundance of lived experience and ʻike about what solutions are needed. Yet, they’re the same communities that the mainstream media has chronically undervalued, under-served, excluded and misrepresented.
Kiaʻi are the ones who serve their ʻāina and communities not for a payout or recognition, but because it’s their kuleana.
We believe that these are the voices journalists need to center.
How are we funded?
We’re trying to create a new way to fund local journalism — one that’s accessible to everyone and accountable to our community…
We believe everyone deserves access to quality local journalism, regardless of their income. That’s why stories published on Kaheāwai Media are free to read — and always will be.
That’s also why, to sustain our work equitably, we’ve created tiers where supporters contribute based on what they can afford.
If you make less, you pay less. If you make more, you pay more. Simple as that.
Higher-income members make it possible for Kaheāwai Media to remain focused on centering kiaʻi — those on the frontlines of protecting our ʻāina and communities from the many systemic crises we face today.
