Story Quilt

By empowering youth as leaders, we create healing environments for collaboration and artistic expression, increase understanding and safety and foster positive systems change in our communities.

A group of people gathered outdoors in a covered space, engaging in arts and crafts activities, with tables, paints, and supplies around.
Multiple small watercolor paintings laid out on a floor, featuring abstract and nature-inspired designs in various colors and styles.

Wisdom Circles Oceania was born out of a need for safe and nurturing spaces for LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC youth in Hawaiʻi.

Through creative and cultural arts programming, Story Quilt drives our movement towards healthy communities of care. The goals of Story Quilt are to create understanding around the value for arts and healing-centered experiences in activating hope, building peace, and allowing youth to explore their natural, creative capacities.

​The culmination of Story Quilt is the creation of an expansive nine-foot art quilt by all participants that expresses their collective perspective on, and solutions for our communal needs.

The quilt becomes a living narrative of the community that it represents, growing with manaʻo as it travels across community groups. Youth lead and engage with participants to foster collaboration and spark imaginative solution-making.

Our programs are designed to address Hawai‘i’s severe lack of arts programming opportunities and priority is given to youth who will benefit from a trauma-informed program exploring the connections between art making, cultural identity, and relationship to the environment.

A person sitting cross-legged on the grass, painting a large white fabric with a colorful abstract design, surrounded by paint supplies and paper in an outdoor setting.

Participants learn to translate cultural and personal storytelling through the arts, find a deeper mind-body experience that fosters interconnection and increases understanding and safety. The therapeutic benefits of expressive arts for improving mental health, problem solving, and academic success are unparalleled and especially impactful for youth who have experienced adverse challenges.

Story Quilt opportunities are offered through trusted partnerships and Lāhui events:

  • KAʻEHU

  • Lāhainā Long-Term Recovery (Lā ʻOhana & Sacred Spaces)

  • Kīnai ʻEha

  • Hui o Waʻa Kaulua

  • Castle High School

  • ʻOnipaʻa Peace March (annually)

  • Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea (annually)

  • Hale o Lāʻie

  • Mālama Nā Pua o Haumea

  • Hawaiʻi Health & Harm Reduction