Help Us Create a Sacred Native Hawaiian Burial Ground

E mālama i nā iwi kūpuna — Protect and honor our ancestors.

Aloha, my name is Keoni Kealoha Alvarez. I am a Native Hawaiian filmmaker, cultural advocate, author, and founder of KAPU – Sacred Hawaiian Burials, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving, protecting, and educating our communities about Native Hawaiian burial traditions and iwi kūpuna.

For more than two decades, I have dedicated my life to documenting Hawaiian burial traditions and advocating for the protection of our ancestors. Through this work, I have witnessed the challenges Native Hawaiian families face when trying to find culturally appropriate places where their loved ones can be laid to rest with dignity and according to Hawaiian values.

Today, I am asking for your help to take this mission to the next level: to establish a permanent Native Hawaiian burial ground where Hawaiian families can respectfully bury their loved ones and perpetuate traditional Hawaiian burial practices for generations to come.

Our Vision

Our vision is to acquire and preserve land in Hawaiʻi specifically for a Native Hawaiian burial ground—a peaceful, protected place centered on Hawaiian culture, spirituality, mālama ʻāina, and respect for our kūpuna.

This would be more than a cemetery. It would be a place of cultural continuity—a place where Hawaiian families can honor their loved ones, where traditional knowledge can be perpetuated, and where future generations can understand that caring for our ancestors is part of caring for who we are as a people.

Our long-term dream is to make burial opportunities available to Native Hawaiian families regardless of their financial circumstances.

What Your Donations Will Support

Funds raised through this campaign are intended to help with the steps necessary to establish the burial ground, including land acquisition, planning and professional services, legal and permitting expenses, cemetery licensing and compliance, environmental and archaeological review where required, cultural consultation, infrastructure, landscaping, perpetual-care planning, and other costs necessary to responsibly establish and maintain the burial ground.

We will work to keep supporters informed as the project develops and specific costs, land opportunities, approvals, and milestones are established.

Why This Matters

Our iwi kūpuna deserve dignity. Our families deserve culturally respectful choices. And future generations deserve a place where Hawaiian burial traditions can continue.

This is an opportunity to build something that can remain long after we are gone—a protected place created for our people, our families, and generations yet to come.

I cannot accomplish this vision alone.

I humbly ask our Hawaiian community, friends of Hawaiʻi, cultural organizations, businesses, foundations, and everyone who believes Indigenous traditions deserve to survive to stand with me.