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silent auction, door prizes, keiki activities, participant demo alley, eahou gallery
When we think about our origins, we usually think of our 2014 board and staff retreat at Kaʻala Farms. We spent the morning clearing weeds out of a loʻi that had been lying fallow and opening it back up to water flow again. Then we spent the afternoon taking turns talking, sharing our manaʻo about what it was that Purple Maiʻa was founded to do. In retrospect, we had a lot of questions on our minds that we were trying to work through together:
Can our kids succeed as technology makers, and if they do, what will that look like? Can we as Hawaiians and people of Hawaiʻi do technology innovation–is that ok? Were our ancestors innovators and can we call ourselves that too? Can technology be a way to rapidly upskill our people, access higher incomes, and keep people from having to leave Hawaiʻi? Are we just helping disadvantaged kids–or is our work, at its core, about systems change? Nine years later, it feels like the answer to all those questions is yes. The confirmation is in the programs and people that succeeded along the way and showed us glimmers of what the future could be. Our minds have turned to new questions now:
