Meet Shelley!
From Miwa:
Meet Shelley Muneoka, our newest staff member at KAHEA! She is an amazing individual, and we are so blessed to have the gift of her time, talents, hands and mana’o. We are grateful to her and to all the generous individuals who have made her work possible. She is heading up our outreach efforts and is already making such an incredible difference. Mahalo!
Below, a few words from Shelley:
Last week, sitting at the KAHEA booth at an Earth Day event, someone came in to the booth wide-eyed and made a comment about how depressing it must be to be fighting on so many fronts. For a second, I nodded, but then shared that while sometimes disheartening, it has been absolutely inspiring, and moving, really, to meet people who care! While we often do face great odds, I always think back to one of my most favorite quotes from our beloved Queen Lili’uokalani “You must never cease to act because you fear you may fail”. There is more to that quote and you should all look it up to get the full juiciness of it, but I’ll leave you wanting more.
The Queen’s motto was ‘Onipa’a—often translated as “to stand firm” but I think that translation fits the term “Kupa’a” more. Ku means to stop, stand, halt, anchor. ‘Oni, on the other hand means to move . So whenever I think of ‘onipa’a, I think of something that is unstoppable, irrepressible, persistent, and determined. Mahalo to all the kama’aina who have been holding the line for all these decades—I am honored to be welcomed into your ranks.
