Those passing by in Kalihi on Oʻahu may find themselves staring at a vision of Hawaiʻi’s future.
On the intersection of one of Honolulu’s busiest industrial districts and the harbor sits a building that is now home to a lush mural where a canopy of painted native plants seem to have grown over a once blank wall.
Kānaka Maoli artist Kaiʻili Kaulukukui teamed up with the nonprofit organization Grow Good Hawaii to create the piece. The mural is part of the “Re-imagining Wao Kānaka” movement, which challenges residents to imagine a greener future for Hawaiʻi.
Kaulukukui and Grow Good Hawaii founder Paul Arinaga joined HPR to talk about the artwork and the initiative it represents.
“Wao Kānaka is the ancient Hawaiian word for the realm of humans, and the idea was for this whole project really was to try to get people to reimagine what our current concrete jungle could look like,” Arinaga explained to HPR. and also what it used to look like, because there used to be far more plants, obviously.”
“Short of being able to actually plant real life … the idea is to show what could be done by using this trompe l'oeil technique, which is deceiving the eye, you know, creating a 3D image on a 2D surface.”
For Kaulukukui, the vision behind Wao Kānaka was a perfect fit with his philosophies as an artist.
“When I heard this, the idea for this mural, I absolutely loved it,” he said.
“It's not about the destruction of the building, it's about the harmony of growing the trees and the plants with the building so that they're kind of there together in a harmony in the space.”
The mural can be seen on the corner of Kalani Street and Waiʻakamilo Road in Kalihi-Pālama. More information about Grow Good Hawaii can be found here.
This story aired on The Conversation on Aug. 13, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
