“Ma ka hana ka ʻike

Ma ka ʻike ka mana.”

-“Through work comes knowledge, through knowledge comes power.”

Our Mission

 Mana Palapalaʻs purpose is to provide educational services, culturally relevant experiences, and social learning opportunities through games, multimedia resources, and community focused projects.  Mana Palapala will create and implement educational curriculum for students, teachers, families, and community members. Mana Palapala will additionally produce digital resources, trainings, and physical products for use in order to further the mission of giving people accessible, diverse, and relevant educational resources.

Our 2040 Vision

In Spring of 2025 our founders, Andi Kirk and Noah “Lala” Faumuina, first developed the idea of Mana Palapala. With the help of their very first Keiki Cohort they developed the game system Ka Pala as well as determined what their vision for the nonprofit would be.

Mana Palapala seeks a strong, independent future for Hawaiʻi.

After identifying the vision statement, the Mana Palapala team identified 3 different “pillars” that Mana Palapala would pursue in order to obtain our vision. Mana Palapala believes that by implementing these 3 pillars of work into the community by 2040 will begin to create a strong and independent future for Hawaiʻi. Read more about our 2040 Vision goals, and our 3 pillars below.

Curriculum Development

We see a world where education is collaborative and rooted in culture.

We want to partner with teachers, students, parents, and cultural leaders to create fun and interactive elementary school curriculum that can be taught through the lens of Hawaiian culture while acknowledging participants own cultural diversity. This includes creating traditional learning materials (such as worksheets) and interactive classroom tools (such as educational roleplaying games).  We want students to use their imagination, cultural background, and pen and paper to put meaning behind their education. Additionally, we provide teachers the tools to create their own curriculum based in play, moʻolelo, and traditional knowledge.

Building a Strong Local Workforce

We see a world with strong, thriving, and educated Hawaiians and Kanaka ʻOiwi.

We want to uplift local people in their chosen fields by becoming a tool for connection. We hope to hire local and Kanaka ʻOiwi workers as well as provide internship opportunities for young people entering the Hawaiʻi workforce. We hope to hire young local artists and writers to tell their own unique stories in our games, worksheets, and website.  In addition to our normal content, we want to develop a digital and physical magazine that tells the story of Mana Palapala, the communities weʻve worked with, and what the kids in our programs have done to support their local communities.   In the future, we hope we can expand our job program by adding community mentors, and do resume building and hiring events.  We also believe that knowledge and experiences outside of academia are incredibly valuable.  We choose to highlight lived experience and cultural knowledge as well as academic knowledge.

Community Resilience

We see a world where we can come together with our community to learn, share, and celebrate.

Our goal is to create regular events that bring kumu, keiki, and community together.  We want to be able to pass down traditional knowledge as well as give people a space to meaningfully connect with one another.  We want to uplift existing groups that promote the sharing of knowledge and the caring of ones community.  In the future we hope to create our own monthly groups for people in Hawaiʻi that highlights the resilience of Kanaka ʻOiwi, and that celebrates their success in our communities. In addition to community events we want to teach our keiki how to actively participate in their community and help those in need. We want keiki to be able to identify and solve issues in their own communities and be able to help them implement a solution.

Our Founding Team

  • Noah "Lala" Faumuina

    Founder / Director of Game Design

    Lala is a Kanaka ʻOiwi game master, writer, musician, and community educator. He is originally from Kalihi, but currently lives in Kaneohe. For the past 5 years Lala has been running TTRPGs for keiki on east ʻOahu with his company, Paʻani Kaʻao. Lala is Mana Palapalaʻs Director of Game Design and go to game master.

  • Andi Kirk

    Founder / Managing Director / Interim Treasurer

    Andi Kirk is a community educator, activist, and game master. They currently split their time between Mana Palapala and working as a peer support mentor at Kinai ʻEha. Andi began working with Lala 5 years ago, and they have since developed the Kāpala game system. Andi is the current Managing Director and the Interim Treasurer.

  • Bella Finau-Faumuina

    President

    Bella “Kumu Bella” Finau-Faumuina is a Kanaka ʻOiwi educator, community leader, cultural practitioner, and mākua. As a former DOE educator, Bella has created alternative education programs for east ʻOahu elementary and middle schools, and her expertise lies in incorporating ʻike Hawaiʻi into curriculum. Bella is from Kalihi, and currently works at Liliʻuokalani Trust as the Director of Wellness.

  • Dana Vennen

    Vice President

    Dana is a community educator, and is the current director of Theraputic Horsemanship of Hawaiʻi. Dana was born and raised in East ʻOahu and has over 20 years of experience managing nonprofits. Additionally, Dana advises Mana Palapala on working with kids with a variety of physical and intellectual disabilities.

We couldnʻt do any of our work without the help of our wonderful community partners!

Learn more about their work, and what they do for Mana Palapala.

Our Community Partners

Mana Palapala AI Policy

Mana Palapala believes in supporting local artists, writers, and creators to the fullest extent. We highly value the time and talent it takes to create something that matters, and therefore believe in full transparency when it comes to AI usage. All of the ideas, writing, photography, and art that comes from Mana Palapala is made by people. The only type of AI that Mana Palapala might use is for editing purposes (checking for spelling, grammar, and proper source citation), but when possible we prefer to outsource the work to people. Additionally, we try to screen our contractors work to ensure that AI was not majorly used in any way. Overall, any AI work that is presented is purely accidental, and we want to prioritize human creation over generated work.