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Art inspires people to connect, explore new ideas and address pressing social, environmental and cultural issues. Native artists and culture makers have long been at the forefront of change—not just chronicling it, but igniting it.

The fills an urgent need in the world today: to increase the profile of Native arts as a powerful expression of community and spirit, vital to the health of not just Native peoples, but our society as a whole. When we speak of the arts, we mean the vast creative force of dance, music, visual arts, literature, and film. It includes traditional arts that draw on the history of customary practices and innovative contemporary expression where Native artists are gaining world-class status.

The has launched its new regional Fellowships for Native Hawaiian artists. The 12 awardees for 2015 all share a commitment to passing cultural knowledge to future generations, and addressing important issues through their arts practice.

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Hawaii faces the challenge of balancing economic development and environmental sustainability as the islands’ fragile ecosystems and oceans are at a crucial tipping point. And Native Hawaiian youth must negotiate complex identity challenges. Native Hawaiian voices and cultural knowledge are often lost amid a sea of competing interests, and yet they have so much to contribute to crafting unique solutions to challenges faced by diverse communities.

That’s why the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation is so pleased to help amplify the unique power and voices of Native Hawaiian artists.

Focusing on four of the Native Hawaiian artist fellows that were awarded provides a window into the depth of talent and experience present in this inaugural cohort of 12 regional Native Hawaiian Fellowships.

��Abigail Romanchak is a printmaker originally from Maui and now residing on Oahu. Abigail’s work focuses attention on the way in which various overlaid systems of land division, and the transformation of land into property, trouble the connection between humans and the natural environment. Her print-installations suggest not only the contrast between nature and technology, but between traditional indigenous and contemporary settler cultures as they have left their pathways on the land. Abigail likens her process, tedious and devoted to giving those lines physical form, to the work of conservationists in the field; each carved gesture like a step on a hike through the bog, the shifts between surface and depth like the imprints left by a hiker’s boot—where scientist and artist may find a common purpose. Abigail will create a new body of work focusing on the impact of climate change in Hawai`i for an exhibition in Hanover, Germany.

“If you want to hear a tree sing, soak a piece of its bark in water and place it on a fire. Every bird, every storm, every story of that tree’s life is contained in that bark, and will come out in song as the steam is released. So, too, is the power of sound vibration all around us. It gets in our skin, and embeds itself there,” says Liko Martin, a musician, social activist, and prolific composer of some of the most popular songs in Hawaii. His style is both direct and metaphoric, flavored by the many cultural and spiritual realms, physical environments and socio-political circumstances that have shaped his life. He’s most proud of his songs that weren’t as well known, such as “The Good Earth,” which was composed while spending time along the rugged coast of Kāʻū on the big island of Hawaii, while defending a historic ancient village complex and aquifer from being exploited and ravaged by private interests. His music seeks to inform one’s perspective through the use of instrumental sound waves and words that can invoke one’s senses, affording a greater level of understanding and sensitivity, camaraderie and conviction to bring about healing, comfort, and change.

��Maikaii Tubbs is a visual artist who makes beautiful art from trash. He is interested in the ways that the natural and the man-made have come together over time. This new “nature” allows trees to grow tall and strong while cigarette butts, glass shards and plastic bottles protrude from soil tainted with automobile emissions and liquid toxins. It includes an ocean covered in a plastic soup, which kills animals that ingest it while creating floating habitats for other marine life. He is interested in these things because he is fascinated by how things adapt to the changing environment and what it takes to survive. Originally from the island of Oahu, Maikaii is currently in New York studying at the Parsons School of Design. Looking at trash as the new, “natural” resource, for his new work, he will collaborate with communities in Hawaii to clear the coastline of an estimated 2,000 pounds of trash and debris to create art that addresses the challenges of sustainable coastal environments.

At the heart of Dalani Tenahy’s traditional arts practice is sharing what she has learned about kapa making, an ancestral practice of fashioning clothing adornments from the bark of the wauke, or paper mulberry tree. She loves the many disciplines involved in kapa making; horticulture, graphic design, natural dye production, education and research, wood, stone and gourd work for tools, and the meditative rhythms of the beating itself. Most of the “masters” working on kapa in Hawai`i have passed away. The work requires great discipline, patience, and rigor: Working with modern tools and ancient traditions; learning cultivation methods to produce the smooth, straight stalks of wauke that allow students to have a wonderful experience in their kapa-making; becoming a scientist in the kitchen laboratory; boiling up the bark, petals, leaves and roots that become the brilliant blues, greens and yellows of kapa dyes. Dalani says all of this motivates her to teach and pass on what she has learned.

Change is best brought about by the people who need it the most, and lasting progress comes from building their strength to advocate on their own behalf. The arts can be a powerful path toward these goals, elevating and amplifying the voices of those affected by historical injustice. Through art and culture, we can convey vivid stories of diverse Native life, in both its beauty and complexity. We can help to build understanding between native and diverse peoples and focus together on issues that we care about in order to work toward a better world for all.