Mission

The Kanaka Economic Development Alliance (“KEDA”) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to empower the Native Hawaiian community and improve our collective livelihoods and the life of the land through self-led economic development. At KEDA, we support development that promotes equality and takes into consideration all that we are, in all of our diversity as a people.

Vision

Through our work, we envision a future global network of Native Hawaiian owned businesses.  Our goals include:

• Connecting businesses in Hawaii with businesses throughout the Native Hawaiian diaspora.
• Promoting increased revenue flows through new intra-community economic activities and a Hawaii export market.
• Advocating for the creation of new jobs, providing meaningful opportunities for our people.

Working together towards these goals empowers us to express ourselves through our culture in both a traditional and modern sense and provides us a way to live and work firmly rooted in our values systems.

For the team here at KEDA, this work is a labor of love.  Our organization was established in 2019, but our mission has been in existence in some form or another for decades, if not generations.  This work is about ensuring that we continue to exist as a people, and that all that we are and all that we hope to be is part of our future.  We see in our Kanaka economy one of the most important expressions of our self-determination and identity.  This is how we express our will to survive and to thrive.