[intro music plays] [sound of ocean waves] HIKI NŌ, Hawai‘i's new wave of storytellers.

[intro music continues] Aloha and welcome to this week’s episode of HIKI NŌ, Hawai‘i's new wave of storytellers.

I’m Mina Nagasako.

And I’m Reese Lombardi.

We’re eighth graders at Lahaina Intermediate School.

We’re proud to host this episode from our campus in west Maui.

We are the only middle school located on the west side of Maui, and we are lucky enough to have panoramic views of the beautiful ocean.

During whale season, you can even sometimes see whales breeching.

But let’s dive into today’s episode.

Get ready to watch a variety of memorable stories from students across Hawai‘i.

There will be stories about music and dance, about science to care for the ocean - And creative strategies to raise funds for animals.

We will also get to learn how to rollerskate.

And stay tuned for a behind the scenes look at the making of this episode.

Along with a special interview with our HIKI NŌ mentor, Ryan Kawamoto.

[sound of an ocean wave] Let’s start with a story from here on Maui.

This story’s from a student at HP Baldwin High School who decided to create portrait of his father and his love for ukulele.

Let’s watch.

My name is Derick Sebastian.

I'm a ukulele artists, singer, songwriter, composer, producer, and friend.

Well, my childhood growing up in, uh, Kahului.

A lot of childhood friends hanging out skateboarding, playing baseball in the streets, uh, that led to baseball on the field.

And, uh, I just grew up loving sports.

My asthma got really bad in sixth grade, where, uh, I was pulled away from sports, and what happened was, I had nothing to do.

And when that happened, um, it was like a shock to me, you know, not being active at all.

And, um, lo and behold, my school security was playing his ukulele, Mr. Sam Ellis.

And I remember I was like, in awe, you know, that was like, wow, this is so cool.

He has an ukulele.

He's making it sound good.

He's playing it.

And I thought, "Man, this is so awesome."

Because I was so active in sports.

All of a sudden, everything was just taken away, and I wasn't feeling well might as well as bad.

And all of a sudden, I found the ukulele, and it just gave life to me and it inspired me, and I started to, you know, play songs that made me happy.

If I was sad, I would play sad songs.

If I was feeling the good vibes, I would play reggae songs.

And it just gave me, um, the option to emote.

It allowed me to emote to where it just felt good, and the ukulele just gave me that direction, you know, to help me find my way.

From then on, the ukulele has been with me ever since.

The biggest takeaway, or at least the best advice I could possibly tell somebody, is to always believe in yourself, is to always realize that you're on Earth for a reason.

You have a purpose to fulfill.

You're not here to just wake up, live, and then go to sleep.

You're here to make a difference.

And whatever that may be, then you go after it and you make that happen.

You find something that you are being fulfilled by, and you change the world by doing that.

[sound of an ocean wave] Now let’s show up to Hawai‘i Island, where students at Kua o Ka Lā Public Charter School bring us a story of taking care of the ocean and using science to measure its health.

For over four years, elementary and intermediate students along the south Kona coast of Hawai‘i Island have played a key role in cutting edge research.

Students at the Kua o Ka Lā Public Charter School collect water samples for scientists to analyze.

This process is known as environmental DNA, or eDNA research.

Environmental DNA is a process by which you, uh, pick up the presence of different organisms.

In our case, we're looking at, um, vertebrates, um, aquatic fauna, um, that would, uh, help us characterize the, uh, fish in that area.

The eDNA research will give us critical information regarding decision making for our near shore fisheries, particularly in the Miloli‘i community-based subsistence fishing area.

Every month students go to twelve different locations and collect ocean water samples.

They extract the water with syringes and push it through filters that collect genetic material.

They carefully remove the filters and insert them into vials and document when and where the samples were taken.

They write down their observations to track patterns in their environment, then the vials are sent to the oceanic institute on ‘Oahu for processing.

We unbox them, uh, we go through the sheet that has all the samples indexed on it, and then we start taking, um, the filters out of the little vials that they've been stored in and begin, uh, processing those, those filters.

You're looking at trends, and other things that will happen over the four to five years that we're collecting samples.

Fishing has sustained the community in Miloli‘i for generations.

eDNA supports this vital practice by helping them better understand and identify what species are in their waters, and whether invasive or endangered species are present.

eDNA research fits in with our curriculum because it aligns with our, our place-based, um, educational opportunities and making it so that it's relevant real science that is providing information for our community to manage their fisheries off Miloli‘i.

This collaboration between students and scientists is possible thanks to a grant from the Hawai‘i Community Foundation.

Through this partnership, teachers are helping students understand how to manage their resources and the environment that sustains them.

I believe, for a long time, that the only way we can make change is with our people in the environment, in the ocean, on the land, having deep relationship with these resources by learning from them, observing them, making, um, inferences, and these things make us become better stewards of the ocean.

[singing] By mixing tradition and science, students are learning how to save their ocean and help their community.

This is Ashley D'Ambrosio from Kua o Ka Lā Public Charter School for HIKI NO.

[sound of an ocean wave] Next let’s travel to Kauai to visit a special thrift shop with a mission to help animals in need.

This story is from the students of Kaua‘i High School.

For years the Kaua‘i Humane Society’s thrift store, BloomingTails, has been a hotspot for both locals and visitors alike.

So, BloomingTails is a thrift store and it operates like a regular thrift store.

People donate, you know, things that they are no longer, um, needing.

And we go through the donations and, you know, make them available for sale, the things that we can resell.

And people come to Kaua‘i, they make this, um, one of their stops.

It's a fun, uh, where, store and an off-beaten path in the warehouse area.

And it's just, it's, it's fun.

We, we have some people that come almost every day just to see what we get out every day because we get the best donations.

As BloomingTails closes each sale, a new door is open for the animals at the Humane Society ready for their new beginning.

The proceeds benefit the Kaua‘i Humane Society.

So, um, make the puppy and kitty money here when you shop and when you donate.

And we also have, um, we call it the pawlace, you know, which is, uh, an area that we have for adoptable cats from the, uh, Kaua‘i Humane Society that we have over so that people can, so that the cats get a little bit more exposure.

It's also a reminder, a reminder of why we do what we do here at the thrift store and where the proceeds go to.

The donations help the animals, but that's just the start of their new lives.

Simple acts can make a difference.

Change is always happening, and it's, it's what you do with that change, and providing, um, a second life, if you will, whether it be to animals finding a new home, or for items that you're not using in your home anymore, coming here and finding a, a new reason.

I guess that would be a new beginning for, for inanimate objects as well.

And I guess that is a new beginning.

Thanks to the support from the community and the staff at BloomingTails, there will be no shortage of new beginnings for both the donated items and the animals at the Kaua‘i Humane Society.

For HIKI NŌ, I'm Mikayla Karimi.

This story is from the HIKI NŌ archives.

It was produced by Waiakea High School students on Hawai‘i Island, and it highlights a creative program that leads to more kitten adoptions at the Hawai‘i Island Humane Society.

Hi my name is Lauren.

I am the Community Programs Director at Hawai‘i Island Humane Society.

Lauren takes on the responsibility of managing all three Humane Society shelters on Hawai‘i Island, including the Kea‘au, Kona, and Waimea shelters.

After being exposed to the stray animal problem across the entire island, Lauren began her search for a creative way to find forever homes for thousands of shelter animals.

Even with three shelters island-wide, the Humane Society is still forced to – - Take in about 10,000 animals every year, about 50% of that is cats.

So, we have very limited resources at our shelter.

So that includes, um, funding, volunteers, space is a huge problem for us.

So, one day, I was at our shelter and I was in our kitten area, and I was playing with some kittens.

And with all these kittens for adoption, I was trying to think of ways to get them adopted.

Um, and I was listening to our staff, and they were talking about how stressed they are because it's hard working in the shelter.

Um, and they were saying that they wanted to go do yoga for relaxation.

And I literally looked at the kitten and I listened to my staff, and I went kitten yoga, kitten yoga.

And I was like, Is that a thing?

Can I make that a thing?

And, and that's how it happened.

Kitten yoga is a really great way to get our cats out of the shelter environment.

That also gives the kittens a chance to interact and play and for people to get to know their personalities, um, and it's a great chance for them to just be kittens.

We like to have this event because the adults who come to classes regularly can bring their kids into the studio.

So, it's nice to be able to have somebody that the whole family can go, too.

Yeah, I think it was more fun because the cat's like, came and crawled on you and stuff.

So, our cost for these events is pretty low.

Um, the studio donates their time, um, and we just pay for an instructor.

Um, so everything goes back to helping the animals which is really fun for us.

Since hosting the first kitten yoga event, the Hawai‘i Island Humane Society has already seen the program have a positive influence on the whole community.

So, we had a really special kitten come into our shelter, and his name is Levi, and he was a blind kitten.

And the last time we did kitten yoga, he got to come to our event and got adopted.

And that was really special because we've been looking for a home for Levi for a while, and even the day of the event, I didn't know if he would be okay for us to bring him.

Um, and I made a last-minute decision to bring him, and he ended up finding his forever family.

I hope to gain an awareness from the community that we definitely need people to adopt animals.

Anybody can help in any way.

So even if you can't adopt, um, think about fostering.

If you can't bring an animal home temporarily, think about volunteering at our shelter or at events.

If you can't volunteer your time, think about donating even $1 counts, or old towels or anything.

We always need help in any way.

So, I really think anybody can get involved with helping our animals.

If a donation is too much of a stretch, simply reaching out to the shelter volunteers and thanking them is enough.

This is Taylor McCann from Waiakea High School for HIKI NŌ.

[sound of an ocean wave] Now let’s take a break and shine a light on our HIKI NŌ mentor, Ryan Kawamoto, and see some behind the scenes footage of the filming of this episode.

So today, we had, uh, Ryan, who is our mentor from HIKI NŌ.

He's on campus today, and he's going to be teaching all of my classes, uh, about shot sequencing.

I went over how to, uh, shoot B-roll and how to shoot, you know, five or six different essential shots so that the students could go ahead and make their own sequences.

Uh, this is something that I find students really need help on.

You know, how to film B-roll, how to tell a story using five or six different shots.

On it, I just want you to look at the different types of shots they use to make this piece, and this is about how to - I really loved Ryan's workshop.

I think for me it, it allowed the students to see that what I have been teaching is, it validates what I've been teaching.

As he was teaching, I had one of the girls go, "Miss, you know, that's kind of what you taught me."

I go, “Yeah, it is, right?” I love that I have someone from the industry that came to the school and just solidified everything that I've been teaching.

So, after we did the workshop with the students and went over how to shoot B-roll and how to tell a story using a sequence, uh, we went and filmed host segments for HIKI NŌ, and that consisted of two students who were the hosts, and they learned their lines and also read their lines over our teleprompter on iPad.

We had one student who was a camera operator and director, another student who focused on audio.

We had another student that ran the teleprompter and did the slate.

We had another student that held the boom mic, and we had another student that also, um, held our reflective board.

We had one more student that went over the script to make sure that we recorded everything that was on the screen.

And stay tuned for a behind the scenes for the making of this episode.

PBS Hawai‘i and HIKI NŌ coming to campus, it helps bring more meaning to the program that I'm teaching.

When students get to do a host shoot for HIKI NŌ, one of the greatest things they get to learn is how to actually put their skills into use, how to work as a team, how to put together production, how to solve problems, and their work will ultimately be shown on the air and online so, uh, they can see the end results of their hard work.

And it also gives the students, you know, real life practice on what, you know, media production actually entails if they do want to go into, um, media production later on.

And that's really essential, because a lot of times, uh, students don't get to do that in the real world.

You know, they're just they're doing their project, and they're sort of like, good enough.

But in this instance, we could really teach them how to record things up to broadcast standards for PBS Hawai‘i and HIKI NŌ.

[sound of an ocean wave] Back to the show.

Let’s meet a master of Japanese dance in this story produced by students at McKinley High School on ‘Oahu.

Japanese performing arts is a lifelong learning experience and can be very strict at times.

However, I feel this is one way of growing as a performer.

Bryson Goda, who was known as Hanayagi Mitsjyuro to his students, began dancing with the Hanayagi Dancing Academy - Hawai‘i Foundation at the age of four.

After many years of training, uh, I was given the opportunity to practice in Tokyo, Japan, I was granted the professional name of Hanayagi Mitsjyuro, and thereafter for a couple of years after that of rigorous training, I obtained my shihan status, or a master teacher status.

What I personally enjoy most about teaching is willing the rich culture of Nihongo and Nagauta music to individuals of all ages and seeing their progression.

I relate to my students to always strive to take it to the next level.

There is always a way to better perfect your art.

By learning these performing arts, we learn the culture and history of Japan, how to use the body in various ways, and Japanese etiquette in general.

Many of the dances we teach at the Hanayagi Dancing Academy - Hawaii Foundation have choreography from about 200 years ago.

Along with teaching the cultural essence and history of Japanese dances, Bryson Goda has performed a number of Japanese cultural entertainment at the Hanayagi Dancing Academy.

However, during the lockdown the Hanayagi Dancing Academy has experienced difficulties that have hindered their practices and performances.

One of these obstacles included spectators being unable to view these performances, which has left a devastating gap due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Not having an audience, it had a very different feeling, as there's a certain aura that you get by performing in front of, uh, individuals, and you can feel the energy from the audience when performing.

My fondest memory about dancing would have to be performing at the Kabukiza theater in Tokyo, Japan for the memorial recital of our former, uh, headmasters Hanayagi Juske the Second, and Hanayagi Juske the Third.

I think this is something that, uh, I miss, and, uh, as a performer, um, having the audience enjoy your performance and, and feeling their, their happiness and warmth.

The purpose of performing these Japanese dances is mainly for entertainment, but its significant purpose is also to preserve the historical culture of traditional Japanese dancing.

Cherishing each movement from generation to generation ‘til this day still amazes me.

Our goal is to carry this on to our next generation.

From President William McKinley High School, this is Jennifer Lee for HIKI NŌ.

[sound of an ocean wave] Now, let’s meet another dedicated dance teacher profile by students at Kapa‘a Middle School on Kaua‘i in this HIKI NŌ archive story.

[music plays] I can say that ballet has been the one theme in my life that has been so utterly consistent.

To Ms. Jennifer Bell-Gray, dance is not just a series of movements put to music.

Instead, it has guided and shaped her life, and at one point was a form of healing.

When I was 13, my father died in an accident suddenly, and I couldn't really express myself in talking so dance was really my outlet for grief.

Ms. Bell-Gray has been expressing herself through dance since the age of three when she saw Swan Lake and instantly fell in love.

Seeing the dancers move to this Tchaikovsky music in this beautiful way made me feel like a bird, made me feel like a swan.

Ballet remained a dependable and stable outlet as she and her family left Kaua‘i and moved from one country to the next.

We moved to Hong Kong.

I lived there for three years.

After that we moved to the northern part of Thailand for one year, and from there we moved to England, and then at the age of 10 was when I auditioned for the Royal Ballet School.

At the Royal Ballet School in London, England, Ms. Bell-Gray danced before thousands of people, even British royalty.

But after many long and painful hours in the studio, her sights begin to focus on a new goal.

There were blisters, many blisters, strained muscles, soreness, aches and pains, feeling mentally fatigued, wondering, "Can I really do this?"

Upon graduating from the Royal Ballet School, I came home to Kaua‘i.

I had this hope that one day I'd have my own company.

A conscious decision to leave the stage in pursuit of inspiring young dancers led her to open the Kaua‘i Dance Center where, for the past 19 years, she has used her personal experiences to relate to her students.

I was very shy growing up.

I didn't talk much.

I really put myself in their shoes to understand what would be the most effective way to reach them and to develop their confidence in themselves.

Uh, I would say that I was shy to be performing in front of people.

I had never really done that before.

She's very interactive.

She likes to make sure you know what you're doing before she continues.

She will reposition your body so that you feel what it's like to do the move correctly.

Ms. Bell-Gray loves teaching ballet, lyrical and hip hop to a new generation of dancers.

But it's not just about technique.

She hopes dance has a positive impact on their lives, as it does on hers.

It's been a privilege to teach my students and be involved in my students’ lives and watch them grow.

You help someone strategize to bring out the best in themselves.

Because the performance, boom, it's over, but the memory of it - that can last you a lifetime.

This is Shinae Thomas from Kapa‘a Middle School for HIKI NŌ.

On our story about the dance teacher, I was pretty well-rounded along with Shaday, my partner.

We kind of work together on everything.

When we'd film, we'd go film together when we would edit, we'd edit together and just feed off of each other's ideas in a way.

The story took about a full school year to complete.

Our mentor was Terry, and she would continuously give us more and more feedback that we would go back and rewrite our scripts with and just do little things that really just made the story better overall.

And at times, it could be frustrating at first, finding out that there's more that you have to change when you thought it was done.

But after that quick second of frustration, you're like, okay, we got to get on this, and you know it's for the best for the good of the story.

Really just learning how to make a story flow, how to make it sound good from one subject to another and not just be blocks of information throughout the piece.

I think what I learned most from the HIKI NŌ experience is that things take time.

You require a lot of patience to be successful in life, and you definitely need friends and people around you to rely on.

Everybody comes together and helps give feedback and everyone works together to make it happen.

[sound of an ocean wave] Looking for a new hobby?

The students of Kalani High School on O‘ahu bring us this how-to video about the art of roller skating.

When you think of skating, what comes to mind?

Ice skating, skateboarding, or what about roller skating?

Roller skating is a popular recreational activity that many people in the country love to do.

Let's learn how to do this fun hobby.

First, you will need to put on your skates.

Place your skates as if you're lacing your sneakers.

Make sure the upper middle part is tight.

You shouldn't feel any pain or uncomfortableness, and your toes should be able to wiggle.

Next, keep your stature straight.

Keep your chin up and straighten your shoulders.

Make sure to keep your core tight and lower your hips.

Now it's time to get moving.

To begin, put your feet in a V position.

Then with your arms and palms down, begin shifting your weight to the left side of your body, then shift towards the right.

Continue this pattern and don't look down.

If you want to stop, try to use the toe stop wheel.

Shift your weight towards one side of your body.

With your other foot, begin dragging your toe to the ground until you stop.

If you cannot use your toe stop just yet, find a wall and skate up to it with your elbows and hands bent.

Now it's your turn.

Remember, practice makes perfect.

This is Stacey Bay from Kalani High School for HIKI NŌ.

[sound of an ocean wave] Thank you for watching this episode of HIKI NŌ.

We hope you've enjoyed the work of Hawai‘i's new wave of storytellers.

We sure enjoyed sharing these stories with you.

Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Instagram and TikTok.

You'll see some bonus behind the scenes content and keep up to date with the latest and best stories of Hawai‘i’s youth.

See you next week for more proof that Hawai‘i students HIKI NŌ, can do.