Ka Pā Hula O Laʻakea

Ka Pā Hula O Laʻakea centers adult women as cultural carriers while welcoming committed youth, educators, artists, and community members through workshops, intensives, residencies, and community-based programming. The pā functions not only as a hula school, but as a living learning environment where hula is practiced as a lifestyle, pedagogy, and pathway for healing. Training extends beyond movement to include genealogy, storytelling, protocol, land-based knowledge, and ethical cultural engagement.

The work of Ka Pā Hula O Laʻakea is deeply relational and collaborative. Over the years, the hālau has partnered with kumu hula, cultural practitioners, educators, and institutions across Hawaiʻi, the continental United States, and internationally. Through cultural exchanges, invited teaching, immersive workshops, and collaborative performances, the hālau contributes Hawaiian cultural knowledge to global conversations around Indigenous sovereignty, intergenerational healing, leadership, and land stewardship—always grounded in respect for place, consent, and cultural responsibility.

Ka Pā Hula O Laʻakea maintains a growing presence beyond Hawaiʻi, including an established chapter in New York City, where the hālau shares Hawaiian cultural programming and education through festivals, community gatherings, interdisciplinary collaborations, and international-facing platforms. International engagement is approached as reciprocal exchange, emphasizing cultural protocol, relationship-building, and accountability to source communities.

Ka Pā Hula O Laʻakea’s programming is sought by universities, arts institutions, cultural organizations, and community leaders in Hawaiʻi, the continental United States, and abroad who are engaging with themes of cultural preservation, social justice, trauma-informed practice, and Indigenous leadership. Programs are adaptable to each context and may include performance, lecture-demonstrations, place-based intensives, community healing workshops, and immersive cultural education.

Kumu ʻAuliʻi Aweau is a formally recognized Kumu Hula ʻŪniki ʻAilolo graduate, havingcompleted the traditional rites of passage that confer the responsibility, authority, and committment to teach, guide, and perpetuate hula within lineage-based practice. This initiation affirms her role as a cultural bearer entrusted with the transmission of ʻike hula, protocol, and ancestral knowledge in accordance with the teachings and lineages of her kumu. Her leadership of Ka Pā Hula O Laʻakea is grounded in this lineage, responsibility, and lifelong commitment to cultural integrity, accountability, and service to community.

As the cultural foundation of Kumu ʻAuliʻi’s broader healing, leadership, and educational work, Ka Pā Hula O Laʻakea serves as a bridge between ancestral knowledge and contemporary global communities. Through hula, healing, and reciprocal exchange, the hālau cultivates spaces of restoration, accountability, and belonging—ensuring that Hawaiian cultural practices remain living, relevant, and responsibly carried forward across generations and geographies.

Dancers Unlimited is honored to collaborate with Ka Pā Hula O Laʻakea as a sister hālau and cultural partner, supporting the sharing of Hawaiian cultural education, performance, and community-based programming through national and international presenting opportunities.

Founded in 2013 and led by Kumu Hula ʻAuliʻi Aweau, Ka Pā Hula O Laʻakea is a culturally grounded hālau hula and healing academy rooted in Hawaiian lineage, ancestral knowledge, and place-based practice. What began as a women-centered healing space on Oʻahu has grown into a multi-island, continental, and international network dedicated to the protection, preservation, and perpetuation of Hawaiian culture through embodied education, collective care, and community stewardship.

Kumu Hula ‘Auli’i Aweau

ʻAuliʻi Aweau is a Kanaka Maoli, born and raised in Hawaiʻi, who has spent nearly three decades working at the intersection of cultural healing, leadership development, and trauma-informed practice. Rooted in Hawaiian values and ʻike kupuna, her work honors hula as both a sacred art form and a powerful methodology for healing, resilience, and transformation.

ʻAuliʻi is the Founder of Laʻakea Healing LLC, established in 2007, where she supports individuals, executives, organizations, and communities through culturally grounded healing and leadership consulting. She is also the Kumu Hula of Ka Pā Hula O Laʻakea, guiding practitioners through healing-centered hula practice and ʻike-based leadership.

Since joining Dancers Unlimited in 2010, ʻAuliʻi has served as a trusted Cultural & Spiritual Advisor, supporting dancers and leadership through cultural guidance, wellbeing support, organizational alignment, and mission-centered leadership and board development. Her presence helps anchor the company in integrity, responsibility,and long-term sustainability while nurturing both artistic excellence and collective care.