For Immediate Release
April 12, 2024
Contact:
Mike Inacay (Schatz) at press@indian.senate.gov
SCHATZ: $1 MILLION IN NEW FEDERAL GRANT FUNDING TO EMPOWER NATIVE HAWAIIAN COMMUNITY, SUPPORT CULTURAL EDUCATION FOR VISITORS NOW AVAILABLE
Applications For Funding Now Open On Grants.Gov
New Funding From Grant Program Created By Schatz-Authored NATIVE Act
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) today announced that the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Native Hawaiian Relations has made an additional $1 million in annual funding for Native Hawaiian Organizations (NHOs) available through the Heritage Opportunities in Hawai’i (HŌʻIHI) grant program. The funding is made possible by the Native American Tourism and Improving Visitor Experience (NATIVE) Act, 2016 legislation authored by Senator Schatz to help empower Native communities through cultural tourism. NHOs interested in applying for the funding must submit applications electronically to Grants.gov no later than 5:59 p.m. HST on Monday, June 3, 2024.
“NATIVE Act grant funding continues to help empower the Native Hawaiian community to tell their own stories and build their own economic opportunities,” said Senator Schatz, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.
“The NATIVE Act has been impactful to the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association (NaHHA) directly and to the hundreds of Native Hawaiian owned and led organizations our programs support to create opportunities for kānaka to engage in meaningful ways with other, ʻōiwi-owned businesses, creating culturally appropriate products and services that can be shared with residents and visitors, and providing for Native to Native collaborations that innovates on the cultural foundations of our heritage,” said Malia Sanders, Executive Director of the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association. “We are so grateful for Sen Schatz leadership and advocacy to Native Hawaiian small business growth, and efforts to create products and services that are sustainable, socially responsible, and speak to the essence of Hawaiʻi as pono representations of Hawaiʻi and our culture.”
“Native Act funds continue to foster the growth and development of projects and programs that contribute in genuine ways to the empowerment of the Native Hawaiian people,” said Kealiʻi Haverly, Vice President of Cultural Theming, Sustainability, Projects and Facilities at the Polynesian Cultural Center. “These grants have and will continue to contribute to long-term and systemic change needed to remove barriers that Native communities face in tourism, business and commerce.”
This is the third year that funding has been made available to NHOs through the HŌʻIHI grant program. This and other NATIVE Act initiatives have provided more than $4 million in funding to Native Hawaiian organizations.
###