Voices, movement and moments of reflection filled Kennedy Theatre at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in early February as ANNO’26: Bridging Generations, a biennial conference brought together scholars, artists and community members for two days of exchange. Hosted by the ʻAhahui Noiʻi Noʻeau ʻŌiwi—Research Institute of Indigenous Performance (ANNO), the conference explored how Indigenous performance sustains knowledge, language and relationships across generations.
The second biennial conference featured panels, workshops and special events that emphasized learning through practice.
Participants took part in everything from hula workshops led by UH Mānoa theatre and dance instructor and Kumu Hula Tracie Kaʻōnohilani Farias Lopes to kapa making, puppet making, carving and a movement-based session by Sami L.A. Akuna that invited reflection on storytelling and the body.
“We hope that the conference delegates engaged in the many offerings of the two-day event and see the importance of Indigenous performance as a site of knowledge production, cultural preservation, and collective imagination,” said Tammy Hailiʻōpua Baker, who co-founded ANNO and is a director of UH Mānoa’s award-winning Hawaiian theatre program.
One panel, Aloha ʻĀina Embodied: The Praxis of ʻAha, was conducted entirely in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi. The session featured several kumu, including Kaliko Baker, an associate professor at Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language; Kaipu Keala, an assistant professor at Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, Kaulu Luuwai, an attorney with Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law at William S. Richardson School of Law, and Snowbird Bento, kumu hula of Ka Pā Hula O Ka Lei Lehua.
Panelists discussed how aloha ʻāina is expressed through performance and community practice, reflecting on the ways language and movement inform artistic and community-based work.
Celebration and story
The conference concluded with a hoʻolauleʻa, a celebration that combined conversation and creative sharing. Events included a film screening of MĀHŪ: A Trans-Pacific Love Letter, directed by Lisette Flanary, digital cinema professor at UH Mānoa and a preview of a new hana keaka (theatre work) by UH Mānoa Hawaiian theatre graduate student Ikaika Mendez. The production, Lele Wale, reflects on community rebuilding after the Lahaina wildfires, honoring those who were lost, those who survived, and those continuing the work of rebuilding on Maui. Performances run March 4–8 at the Earle Ernst Lab Theatre at Kennedy Theatre.
- Related UH News story: Lahaina’s story lives in new hana keaka production, February 5, 2026
Established in 2022 through the UH Mānoa Provost’s Strategic Investment Initiative, ANNO advances Hawaiian and Indigenous performance through scholarship, curriculum and outreach, supporting ongoing research and creative practice at UH Mānoa.
