Felicia Cowden has been a household name on Kauai’s North Shore for many years, dating back to the days when she co-owned Hanalei Surf Company. Since 2004, Cowden’s work has shifted to provide life-based education for middle school children with
Felicia Cowden has been a household name on Kauai’s North Shore for many years, dating back to the days when she co-owned Hanalei Surf Company.
Since 2004, Cowden’s work has shifted to provide life-based education for middle school children with Akamai Learning, coupled with a resilient social outreach and a weekly KKCR radio show which has slowly spread her image to all corners of Kauai.
TGI: How would you describe your days at Hanalei Surf Company?
Felicia Cowden: I have very fond memories of my 18 years in business with a routine interface with the surf community, visitors, wonderful staff and our amazing young surfers on our surf team. My daily work as a buyer and manager of our store helped me to really understand our economy, the struggles of the working class, the role of nature, and the gift of the visitors who come to Kauai out of love and respect for this sacred jewel of an island on which we are blessed to live and caretake. The important blend of serving the residents of our community is number one, which becomes the draw for those who come to visit. Our part-time family of second-home citizens and regular visitors exists because of Kauai’s effort to not exploit either nature or to extinguish our host culture. We must take great care to avoid the destruction of either. This position as a small business owner had me involved with years of public policy through boards on economic development, education and youth-at-risk, most notably in my capacity as president or vice-president of the Kauai North Shore Business Council for nine years.
TGI: How is your life now?
FC: My life has shifted tremendously. The financial responsibility of a business employing 40-plus staff members is relentless. It is hard to really look up and out from that perspective. When I was out of my business and had the time to stop, observe and ponder all of the patterns around me, I had the time to react to the world from a perspective that did not sit secondary to the need to keep all of the bills paid. My perspective was able to shift at least 90 degrees to consider a non-business model. Almost everything I have done for the past eight or so years has been as a volunteer. I still work very hard due to my nature. The difference is that I am consistently aware that every act of my busyness is essentially a choice.
TGI: What made you take a whole new direction in life, and when did it happen?
FC: There were a few key shifts that caused new directions in my life. A profound, difficult change was in being forcefully bought out of my business. The positive side was through reinvesting the purchase amount, I was able to experience the freedom that comes through redirecting that capital to investor income. I lowered all of my expenses and was able to have the freedom to focus on my most important job of raising my beloved sons and nurturing the world around them. I built Akamai Learning, an alternative middle school, home school group, which was my second key element that changed the direction of my life.
“Akamai” loosely translates to intelligence or common sense in Hawaiian. That learning pathway brought the students and me to two completely fresh directions in my life. One was through using permaculture to transform our ‘Yarden’ into providing an amazing amount of food, making the film, Akamai Backyard, and joining the board of Regenerations Botanical Gardens to help others do the same. Learning projects also brought me to KKCR Kauai Community Radio with a public affairs show.
Now, Akamai Learning almost happens at an adult level on the radio as the listeners, guests and I explore issues that occur on the island and learn about them together. My public personality has shifted from being a retailer to a champion of nature-based agriculture, a radio programmer and an educator of youth.
TGI: What does Akamai Learning do for the children and for the Hawaiian culture in general?
FC: Can I reframe that question to ‘What have the children and the Hawaiian Culture done for Akamai Learning?’
Number one: It has forced me to (be a) role-model, having the confidence to demonstrate for the students that we are responsible for our own solutions. Learning the wisdom of the Hawaiians’ ahupuaa land-management system has reshaped our sense of what is necessary.
While the program was at my house, we would learn from locations like Waipa, Limahuli and with kumu like Levon Ohai and James Alalem, among others, about traditional Hawaiian practices. This year our program of 28 students is located at Waipa, partnering with the foundation to provide a consistent cultural lens. We are fortunate to have the underlying support of Kapule and Lorilani Torio, Stacy Sproat and the Waipa team, Hayley Ham Young Giorgio, Atta Forest and others to be nourished in a 1,600-acre, mountain-to-the-sea learning environment that is nature-based. The blessings are too many to really count.
TGI: What do you love the most about Kauai, and why?
FC: The people, the immense beauty of our natural world and the wisdom that the traditional Hawaiian culture has to share about how a population can live resiliently in balance with our island. It is an honor and a privilege to be a part of helping that lesson be lifted up to the world.
TGI: If you could go back in time, what would you do differently?
FC: I would try to change my basic nature to having things hurt less when I am disappointed. I also wish I had been able to learn patience and humility a little bit earlier and faster. It is still a continuing process.
TGI: What are you most afraid of in the future?
FC: I am not afraid of the future.
TGI: Do you ever think about running for office?
FC: Many people honored me with the request for putting my name in for consideration for Councilwoman Nadine Nakamura’s seat. I did. It felt really nice to see many of my friends and people whom I respect to be with me on the list for consideration. I feel good about the council’s choice for Mason Chock. Were I to run for office, the County Council is the most interesting position, because I respect the people who sit on the council for their courage, competence and independence. Do I agree with all of their positions? No. Balance is really important as none of us hold all the answers. My interests run much stronger at the island level more than the state legislature … I actually really like my life as it is and would have to minimize these other efforts I really value. Were I to run for office, the motivation would be out of a sense of kuleana rather than ambition.
TGI: What does Kauai have to offer to the rest of the world?
FC: I’d like to be selfish on this one. I want Kauai to achieve remarkable resilience and self-reliance for the benefit of all who call this home. May that achievement serve as a beacon of hope and possibility for the rest of the world. Better yet, I’d like as many places on this planet to build their own localized path to resilience right along side Kauai. We are all truly in the same canoe.
