Fiscal Year 2023 HŌʻIHI NATIVE Act Grant Program for Native Hawaiian Organizations | D23AS00343

Opportunity Information: Apply for D23AS00343

The Fiscal Year 2023 HOIHI NATIVE Act Grant Program for Native Hawaiian Organizations is a discretionary federal grant opportunity administered through the Department of the Interior (via the Office of Native Hawaiian Relations, ONHR) to support heritage and cultural tourism work led by Native Hawaiian Organizations (NHOs). It is tied to CFDA 15.068 and implements provisions of the Native American Tourism and Improving Visitor Experience Act (the NATIVE Act, 25 U.S.C. 4351 et seq.), which aims to make national travel and tourism strategies more inclusive while generating tangible benefits for Native communities. In the Hawaii context, the program is framed as a way to support Native Hawaiian self-determination in the visitor industry while promoting respectful, accurate, and community-serving cultural tourism that can contribute to job creation, stronger local economies, and improved living standards.

The grant is grounded in the reality that tourism in Hawaii is extremely large relative to the state population and has placed heavy pressure on natural and cultural resources, including places that are sacred and deeply significant to the Native Hawaiian Community. The opportunity description explicitly recognizes longstanding criticisms that tourism has often functioned as an extractive industry, relying on Native Hawaiian culture as a central draw while contributing to resource depletion and, in some cases, displacement from lands, homes, and places of worship. Against that backdrop, the program emphasizes a shift toward regenerative tourism, meaning visitor experiences and tourism-related activity that reinvests in the restoration and long-term health of cultural sites, natural resources, and the people and practitioners who sustain Native Hawaiian knowledge and traditions.

The organizing principle of the program is the Hawaiian value of "hoi hi" (treating with reverence or respect), reflected in the proverb "E hoi hi aku, e hoi hi mai" (show respect, get respect). ONHR uses this idea to promote a visitor model where tourists are treated as guests and are expected to share kuleana (responsibility) toward place, culture, and community. In practical terms, the grant supports projects that (1) showcase Native Hawaiian heritage, places, arts, foods, traditions, and history in ways that reflect the continuing vitality of the community; (2) identify, enhance, revive, or maintain cultural traditions and practices (lea), ancestral spaces (wahi kupuna), and sacred or storied places (wahi pana) that sustain the distinctiveness of the Native Hawaiian Community; and (3) provide authentic and respectful visitor experiences that do not commodify or harm what they claim to celebrate.

For FY 2023, ONHR highlights four main program priorities, and applicants are expected to propose projects that align with one or more of them. First, the program supports efforts to uplift, perpetuate, and sometimes revive traditional Native Hawaiian practices by creating demonstrations, structured visitor education (including history, usage, and protocols), and in some cases hands-on participation opportunities that are designed and governed appropriately by cultural knowledge holders. Examples named in the notice include olelo Hawaii, kapa making, lauhala and kaula weaving, hula, and other lesser-known practices, with the solicitation also clarifying that cultural practices can include traditional farming, food preparation, material gathering, production of implements and adornments, and cultural activities such as dance, chant, song, arts, construction, and recreation. Second, the program prioritizes projects that maintain, enhance, or protect natural resources and culturally significant places (including wahi kupuna and wahi pana), especially in areas experiencing tourism impacts. Third, it supports projects that build Native Hawaiian entrepreneurial capacity in the visitor industry, such as helping create business opportunities, providing business development training, or otherwise stimulating economic activity in ways that benefit the community. Fourth, it funds related visitor-facing activities that communicate respect and reinforce reciprocity to the place, its resources, and the traditional knowledge holders and practitioners who steward them.

Eligibility is limited to entities that meet the NATIVE Act definition of a "Native Hawaiian Organization" (as codified at 25 U.S.C. 4352(3)). The key criteria described are that the applicant must be a nonprofit organization that serves the interests of Native Hawaiians, is recognized for expertise in Native Hawaiian culture and heritage (including tourism), and has Native Hawaiians serving in substantive and policymaking positions. The opportunity’s eligibility categories also list Native American tribal organizations (other than federally recognized tribal governments), nonprofits with 501(c)(3) status (other than institutions of higher education), nonprofits without 501(c)(3) status (other than institutions of higher education), and "Others," but the controlling requirement emphasized in the narrative is meeting the NHO definition under the NATIVE Act.

From the funding details provided, the opportunity is listed as Funding Opportunity Number D23AS00343, categorized as a discretionary grant under the Community Development activity category. The award ceiling is $200,000. The posting shows an original closing date of 2023-06-23 and a creation date of 2023-04-21. The overall intent is to resource Native Hawaiian-led, culturally grounded projects that reshape tourism away from extraction and toward respectful, community-benefiting experiences that protect places, perpetuate living traditions, and strengthen economic opportunity for Native Hawaiians.

• The Interior Business Ceter in the community development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Fiscal Year 2023 HŌʻIHI NATIVE Act Grant Program for Native Hawaiian Organizations" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.068.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2023-04-21.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-06-23. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $200,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: 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 that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Others.

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