P U L S E O C E A N I A
Supporting the creative resilience of Pacific people realizing their full potential for themselves, their communities, and the world.
ABOUT US
Mōhala i ka wai ka maka o ka pua.
Pulse Oceania founder Nawahine Lanzilotti believes that a healthy creative ecosystem is essential to the success of future self-sovereignty in the Pacific.
To this end, Pulse Oceania's mission is to support indigenous performance in Hawaiʻi through the production of festivals, workshops, artist exchanges, and land-based protocols.
WAIWAI / VALUES
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Pacific centered, driven, and celebrated: we recognize that the multi-cultural, intersectional, diverse global communities and networks of Pacific Islanders is too often flattened and more diverse voices are needed for better representation
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Kilo and theory: both embodied physical experience and theoretical labor are essential for creative growth and will be part of the unique solutions contributed from the Pacific region to the world
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I KA WĀ MA MUA, I KA WĀ MA HOPE | Honoring and responding to Pacific artists preceding us: we acknowledge the many unique, innovative contributions made by our ancestors and previous generations of cultural practitioners and artists around the world and we follow in their footsteps
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Pilina and process over product: building holistic, sustainable support for Pacific performing artists requires responsiveness to community needs and space for slowness in the development of new ideas
FOUNDER / CEO
Nāwāhineokalaʻi Lanzilotti
Nawahine Lanzilotti is a kanaka ʻōiwi (Native Hawaiian) artist and arts educator born and raised in lower Mānoa valley on Oʻahu in Hawaiʻi. She holds graduate degrees in ethnomusicology (ʻ12) and experimental music (ʻ19) from Eastman School of Music and the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College respectively. From 2012-2018, Nawahine lived between Hawaiʻi and New Delhi, India training in hula, studying North Indian classical music, and creating new performances with artists across North India. Working with indigenous artists in India and the continental US motivated her to return home in 2019 to build more opportunities for global exchanges between Native Hawaiians and international indigenous artists.
In May 2023, Nawahine founded Pulse Oceania to advance Pacific sovereignty (for our food, lands, and waters) through projects that support indigenous creative processes and artistic exchanges. In support of this work, Nawahine was selected to join the third cohort of the Culture of Health Leadership Institute (CoHLI) through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Collaborative for Health Equity in 2024.
