Kāhuli speaks to transformation as the 2025 Hawaiian Word of the Year

Kāhuli – to change, to alter, to overturn – is the Hawaiian word of the year.

Drawn from the opening lines of the Hawaiian creation chant, the Kumulipo, kāhuli was selected by the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo Ka Haka ʻUla o Keʻelikōlani, College of Hawaiian Language, as the 2025 Huaʻōlelo (Word) of the Year.

In the Kumulipo, kāhuli describes the transformation that warmed the Earth and unfolded the heavens, catalyzing the formation of the universe itself.

“Kāhuli speaks to transformation at a fundamental level—not surface change, but the kind of shift that reorders everything,” said Kaʻiu Kimura, director of the Hawaiian language college. “The word kāhuli acknowledges that transformation can feel disruptive, but it’s also how new worlds emerge.”

This meaning resonates with navigations of change on multiple fronts: federal shutdowns affecting vulnerable ʻohana (families), rising costs reshaping island economies, and climate disasters whose recovery continues across our communities. Political movements challenge unjust systems globally, while Hawaiʻi communities grapple with the cost of simply remaining home.

“We’re living through an era of kāhuli politically, environmentally, and culturally,” Kimura said.

In a year where the Kumulipo again resounded across its homeland, kāhuli reminds us that transformation is both inevitable and essential. Kāhuli moves away from the middle ground, emphasizing work that looks beyond “good enough” toward something worthy of our kūpuna’s (ancestors) vision and our moʻopuna’s (grandchildren) future.

“Kāhuli distinguishes between forces that merely break things and forces that break us free—from complacency,” Kimura noted. “It insists we unsettle what doesn’t serve us to make space for what must come next.”