Nānākuli special education teacher wins HSTA’s Pono Award

K​​​​a Waihona O Ka Na’auao Public Charter School special education teacher Gaison Keliʻi Pio Adams was told growing up that speaking Hawaiian wouldn’t get him very far.

“A lot of people around me said that Hawaiian wouldn’t get me anywhere, that it’s a dying language,” Adam said.

Instead, he spent years proving the opposite.

On Saturday, Adams received the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association’s Pono Award for his creation of ʻAumakua Flag Football, a volunteer-led co-ed program that gives youth an opportunity to learn and play football through ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi while building confidence, leadership skills and cultural identity.

Adams, who has been an educator for 11 years, was honored during a special HSTA ceremony on May 16 at the Honolulu Country Club. The Pono Award, sponsored by HSTA’s Human and Civil Rights Committee, recognizes union members who advocate for social justice and uplift students, educators and communities through their work and service.

Returning home to serve his community

The Kula Kaiapuni ‘O Ānuenue graduate and former college football player returned home to Hawaiʻi after attending Mount San Antonio College in California and Nicholls State University in Louisiana. He said he felt a responsibility to serve his community and become the kind of role model he rarely saw growing up.

“Becoming a teacher wasn’t always my goal,” Adams said. “It was more of a calling. It was more of a need of my community.”

“We didn’t see many male figures, especially Native Hawaiian male figures, in our community being teachers and guiding our youth […] I felt like it was a kuleana, a responsibility that I needed to do.”

Adams launched ʻAumakua Flag Football in 2022 at Ka Waihona O Ka Na’auao for his own child and classmates enrolled in Hawaiian immersion education at his school. The program quickly expanded and now serves more than 150 youth.

“We just wanted to create a place for them to feel comfortable, to learn flag football in the language that they felt comfortable in,” Adams said.

The program blends athletics, mentorship, and culture. Students learn football terminology and communication in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi while also participating in beach cleanups, paddling, and gardening activities rooted in mālama ʻāina (caring for the land).

“When I see our students, our players, my children speaking ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi on the football field, it brings a sense of pride to my heart,” Adams said. “It allows them to help build that self-identity, that self-actualization of who they are as Native Hawaiians.”

George, a student on the team, said, “It’s fun because I get to learn a new language. I’m Hawaiian, but I just don’t know how to speak it, and it gives me an advantage to learn more.”

Adams added, “Even if they’re not Native Hawaiians, it’s great just building that sense of connection to this ʻāina, this place of Hawaiʻi.”

The work carries personal meaning for Adams. He recalled his grandfather describing being reprimanded in school for speaking Hawaiian at a time when schools suppressed the language and culture.

“I remember him breaking down and crying and telling me, ‘I’m so proud that this is happening,ʻ” Adams said. “It’s something that he thought would never happen.”

He also grew up learning how to play football in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi after attending Hawaiian immersion school.

“My first time learning how to push a sled [a high-intensity conditioning exercise], learning how to take the right steps, was all in Hawaiian. So, I wanted to share that opportunity with Hawaiian immersion students here. That was one of the main driving forces for me, which is giving back and paying it forward, and more of a responsibility.”

Isa, another student on the flag football team, said, “I feel pretty empowered when I’m able to speak ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi […] and being able to bring back the language and revive the culture a little bit, and just be able to show people that it’s not it’s not gone. We’re still going.”

The team is also co-ed, allowing boys and girls to play together, fostering a spirit of inclusiveness among students.

The impact of his work beyond the field

Adams shared that the football players not only learn and speak Hawaiian. Family members have shown an interest in learning, too.

“There are a few students who came in not having any clue of what it [ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi] is. Some of them, even the parents, started to get into it. They started taking Hawaiian language classes outside of here. They ended up enrolling their kids in Hawaiian immersion programs.”

Former players now return to mentor younger students after continuing their athletic careers in high school.

“They always come back,” Adams said. “They come back, and they run around and train with the younger kids.”

Adams said he hopes students leave the program with more than football skills.

“What I hope they will carry with them from this program is a sense of identity,” he said. “Being respectful. Being humble. Never giving up. All of the good Hawaiian values.”

Although HSTA honored Adams with the Pono Award, he credited the entire community for building the program and supporting the students.

“It’s not me,” Adams said. “It’s a collective. It’s a community. They always say it takes a village to raise a child. I really firmly believe in that.”

“It’s definitely not me. It’s all of us. It’s the whole village,” he said.

Watch a video of the ceremony held by HSTA’s Civil and Human Rights Committee honoring winners of both the 2026 Pono Award and the Friend of Youth Award.

Read about HSTA’s 2026 Friend of Youth Award winner, who created a foundation that has empowered more than 1,000 young people on Hawaiʻi Island with water-safety knowledge and life-saving skills, as she honored the lives of her two sons who died in separate accidents.