Nicole Naone is a weapon of Kanaka Maoli and Korean ancestry based in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi best wielded to confront the historical and ongoing injustices within indigenous communities. Her diverse creative practice spans film, sculpture, virtual reality and design, where medium is dictated by mission. An alumna of the prestigious Sundance Institute Indigenous Program and the recipient of the David H. and Doris C. Crowell Award of Excellence from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (BFA), Naone is acclaimed for her impactful film works, including the landmark feature film WAIKIKI (Producer, 2020) and the MTV spot Hawaiians, Unite (Writer/Director, 2021). Her extensively cited installations; Mauna Fuji (2014), Kalaoke o Mākua (2019), PIKO (2021), and Bikini and the Bikini (2023)— further underscore her pivotal role at the intersection of art and justice for the Hawaiian community.

Naone is best known for her contributions to spaces of Native Hawaiian resistance, most notably in the fight to protect Maunakea, and the repatriation of Hawaiian bones and artifacts with Hui Iwi Kuamoo.

My ancestors were tacticians and warriors who understood that the survival of our people required more than endurance— it demanded strategy, adaptability, and action. My existence is a result of their resistance, and my practice is a continuation of theirs.

I engage with various mediums, selecting each based on strategic utility. My approach is fluid yet deliberate, always seeking the precise point where pressure can be applied to unsettle, shift, and reveal. Some pieces are built to bear the weight of historical erasure, making visible what has been deliberately obscured. Others act as interventions— subtle and intentional disruptions that course-correct false narratives.

My work does not engage with the past as a site of nostalgia, nor does it seek reconciliation within colonial paradigms. It is the continuation of Indigenous resistance through methodologies of refusal, resurgence, and survivance—ensuring that what must endure is preserved, what must fall is dismantled, and that space is made for what comes next.