The Office of Native Hawaiian Relations’ (ONHR) Heritage (Tourism) Opportunities in Hawaiʻi (HŌʻIHI) Grant Program serves to implement the Native Hawaiian Organization NATIVE Act Grants and the provisions of the Native American Tourism and Improving Visitor Experience Act (NATIVE Act).
Donor Name: Interior Business Center
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 06/21/2023
Size of the Grant: $200,000
Grant Duration: 36 months
Details:
The purposes of the NATIVE Act are to establish a more inclusive national travel and tourism strategy and has the potential to deliver significant benefits for Native Hawaiian organizations (NHO) as distinctly defined in the NATIVE Act, including job creation, elevated living standards and expanded economic opportunities. This notice of funding opportunity is administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, Interior Business Center, Acquisition Services Directorate (AQD) as part of the U.S. Government Interagency Agreement between the Office of Native Hawaiian Relations (ONHR) and AQD.
Tourism in Hawaiʻi has increasingly grown over the last century as visitor arrivals surpassed 10 million in 2020 and has seen a recovery since the drop in arrivals during the pandemic with 9.4 million visitor arrivals in 2022 in a State whose population is less than 1.5 million people. This volume of visitors has led to excessive pressure on the natural and cultural resources, including many long held sacred by members of the Native Hawaiian Community. Tourism in Hawaiʻi relies heavily on the Native Hawaiian culture as its overarching theme and draw and has operated as an extractive industry, depleting resources and often displacing Native Hawaiian Community members from their traditional lands, homes, and places of worship.
This ʻōlelo noʻeau serves as a foundational guide for ONHR’s HŌʻIHI Grant Program to aide in actions that:
- Showcase the heritage, places, art, foods, traditions, history and continuing vitality of the Native Hawaiian Community;
- Identify, enhance, revive, or maintain lōea (cultural traditions and practices), wahi kūpuna (ancestral spaces) and wahi pana (sacred spaces) that are important to sustain the distinctiveness of the Native Hawaiian Community; and
- Provide for authentic and respectful visitor experiences in Hawaiʻi;
Priorities
- Uplift, perpetuate, and in some cases revive, traditional Native Hawaiian practices (e.g., ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, kapa making, lauhala and kaula weaving, hula, amongst many others including lesser known practices) by creating opportunities for demonstrations, visitor education on history, usage, and protocols, or hands-on visitor participation experiences in the cultural practice;
- Support the maintenance, enhancement, and protection of Hawaiʻi’s natural resources, wahi kūpuna, and wahi pana at areas impacted by tourism;
- Enhance the entrepreneurial capacity for the Native Hawaiian Community by helping create business opportunities in the visitor industry, offering business development training, or stimulating economic activity; OR
Undertake related activities with visitors that convey respect and reaffirm the principle of reciprocation to the place, resources, and traditional knowledge holders and practitioners.
Funding Information
- Estimated Total Funding: $1,000,000
- Maximum Award: $200,000
- Minimum Award: $50,000
Performance Period
Performance period of twelve to thirty-six months beginning on the award date.
Eligible Applicants
- Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
- Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
- Nonprofits without 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
Additional Information on Eligibility
- Applicants must meet the definition of and criteria for a “Native Hawaiian Organization” as defined in the NATIVE Act, 130 STAT. 847, Section 3(3), codified at 25 U.S.C. §4352(3).
- Criteria include:
- A nonprofit organization;
- that serves the interests of Native Hawaiians;
- that is recognized for having expertise in Native Hawaiian culture and heritage, including tourism; and
- in which Native Hawaiians serve in substantive and policymaking position
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
