Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Kanaka Maoli (Indigenous Hawaiian) composer and sound artist Leilehua Lanzilotti wrote her string quartet ahupuaʻa as part of a larger educational project designed to teach children about the water cycle. The traditional Hawaiian ahupuaʻa system refers to land divisions that extend from mountain to sea, designed so a single community could sustain itself through shared care of ecosystems. “Within any community, you had people that were farming taro in the middle of the ahupuaʻa, or fishing in the ocean and creating freshwater ponds,” according to Lanzilotti. “Through these community connections, you had everything that you needed within one community.”
Learn more at OjaiFestival.org
Kanaka Maoli (Indigenous Hawaiian) composer and sound artist Leilehua Lanzilotti wrote her string quartet ahupuaʻa as part of a larger educational project designed to teach children about the water cycle. The traditional Hawaiian ahupuaʻa system refers to land divisions that extend from mountain to sea, designed so a single community could sustain itself through shared care of ecosystems. “Within any community, you had people that were farming taro in the middle of the ahupuaʻa, or fishing in the ocean and creating freshwater ponds,” according to Lanzilotti. “Through these community connections, you had everything that you needed within one community.”
Learn more at OjaiFestival.org
