Pakela Akaka – Māhina 2018

Pakela Akaka, was a student trainee in the 2018 Māhina program.
Hailing from Kapahulu but reared across a spectrum of military stations in the Pacific, I am familiar with the hardships of detachment from culture, land, and people that indigenous populations have been plagued with. The bitterness of this knowledge has given me a deeper appreciation for the sweet love and joy I find in relationships. To seek and protect those relations are what drives me, for it is not the pains and losses, but the desire to hope and love that defines me.