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Maui’s Fairmont Kea Lani Resort Opens Hale Kukuna Cultural Center
18.01.2024 - 20:56 / forbes.com
I can often maintain objectivity in my travel-writing work with relative ease, slipping into neutral gear and assessing a hotel (or restaurant or spa) for its merits as well as its challenges. But when I know a place well and have loved it since long before travel writing became a serious endeavor for me, all bets are off. I certainly try to have an open mind in both critical directions, positive and negative. But — full disclosure — Maui’s Fairmont Kea Lani, in Wailea on the island’s South Shore, had me at hello nearly 30 years ago, and its recent transformation is, not surprisingly, spectacular. In particular, the new Hale Kukuna Cultural Center, which is now the focus of the property’s redesigned lobby, has reinvigorated this already harmonious, generous space.
While it’s now ubiquitous, and rightly so, for Hawaiian hotels to have full-time cultural advisors on staff, Fairmont Kea Lani has devoted 2,000 front-and-center square feet of its lobby to Hale Kukuna, upping the ante on centering Hawaiian cultural programming, education, events and activities. Kamahiwa Kawa’a, the property’s manager of Hawaiian culture, is leading the ongoing programming as it evolves. Regular classes already in the rotation include ʻukulele lessons, hula lessons, and lei making. Kawa’a says, “The opportunity to create and share a space dedicated to Hawaiian culture at the heart of Fairmont Kea Lani is an honor that comes with immense kuleana [responsibility]. Our vision and intention for Hale Kukuna is to serve as a space for both poʻe hoʻokipa and malihini [hosts and guests] to create meaningful connections with the culture, history, and spirit of this place — and in doing so, develop a deeper respect for this ʻāina [land] and place we call home.”
Designed as a living space where guests can immerse themselves in books, artifacts, stories and art, Hale Kukuna was conceived by Fairmont Kea Lani’s cultural advisory board and lineal descendants of Palauea, the area where the hotel sits, and the name invokes a “house of enlightenment,” honoring “kukuna” (rays of the sun), which represent nourishment. Many hotels tuck their cultural programming into hidden recesses of the property, and the Fairmont Kea Lani’s decision to place Hale Kukuna in the center of all coming and going — including guests’ arrival — underscores the importance of this gesture in solidifying its commitment to keeping Hawaiian stories and traditions alive, and sharing them with guests.
While any time is a good time to offer Hawaiian cultural programming to hotel guests, now is a particularly important time, as the island is still recovering from the devastating Lahaina wildfires of August 2023, which claimed for than 100 lives and did immeasurable damage to
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