A Pacific creative incubator community
Fanning the flames of Pacific creativity for the future health of our peoples and our planet
Happy 1 Year,
Pulse Oceania!
501(c)(3) established Nov 19, 2024
ABOUT US
Mōhala i ka wai ka maka o ka pua.
The blossom thrives where water flows
Pulse Oceania believes that a flourishing creative ecosystem
rooted in aloha ʻāina will advance the health of our communities and lands wherever Hawaiians live in the world.
Our vision
is a thriving and healthy Pacific Islander community in Hawaiʻi at the forefront of global experimental performance.
Our mission
is to bring to light out-of-the-box performance projects not supported in the local marketplace through creative exchange rooted in aloha ʻāina.
What we do
We unite performing artists and creative writers in collaboration through:
virtual & in-person creative cohorts; land-based artist retreats; cultural exchanges; and our annual Pacific New Arts Festival (initiating in 2026).
WAIWAI • VALUES
Makawalu
Centering and celebrating the multitude of Pacific voices and methods:
We celebrate the multi-cultural, intersectional, diverse global communities and networks of Pacific Islanders too often flattened; we strive to amplify equally diverse voices and experiences that reclaim their narrative on their own terms.
Additionally, we believe that both cultural, embodied knowledge practices (eg "kilo") and theoretical labor are essential for creative growth and will be part of the unique solutions contributed from the Pacific region to the world.
Moʻokūʻauhau
Honoring and responding to Pacific artists preceding us:
We acknowledge ʻike kūpuna–the insightful, innovative contributions made by our ancestors–as our constant source of inspiration and learning; we celebrate the advances made by previous generations of cultural practitioners and artists around the world in whose footsteps we follow.
Pilina
Relationships and process over product:
Building holistic, sustainable support for Pacific performing artists requires responsiveness to community needs and space for slowness in the development of new ideas.
Aloha ʻĀina:
Growing collective consciousness in service of the land and people
ʻĀina is what sustains us both physically and creatively. It is the piko (source) of our inspiration and of the wisdom of our ancestors. We commit to growing creatively and realizing our unique gifts so we may be of service to a more caring and sustainable future in which we do not have to displace ourselves from our own lands.
FOUNDER & PRESIDENT
Aloha mai kākou. My name is Nawahineokalaʻi.
I was born and raised in the ʻāina of Punahou, ʻili of Mānoa, ahupuaʻa of Waikīkī, moku of Kona, mokupuni of Oʻahu, in the Hawaiʻi paeʻāina.
From 2012-2018, I lived between Honolulu and New Delhi, India training in hula, studying North Indian classical music, and creating new performances with artists across North India. Working with indigenous artists from Northeast India and the continental US motivated me to return home in 2019 to build more opportunities for global exchanges between Native Hawaiians and international indigenous artists.
I hold an MA in Ethnomusicology and an MFA in experimental music from Eastman School of Music and the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College, respectively.
In 2024, I was selected as a Culture of Health Leadership Institute (CoHLI) fellow. This is an 18-month program from the National Collaborative for Health Equity with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that brings together professionals across all sectors to advance health equity and fight white supremacy through the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) framework.
In 2026, I have been selected as a First Peoples Fund Native Performing Arts Fellow, as well as a Wehiwehi Fellow (supporting Native Hawaiian performing artists at the intersection of identity and contemporary creative practice).
I founded the nonprofit Pulse Oceania for Pacific Island performers to realize our most courageous work and participate in the global stage without having to displace ourselves from our lands.
