Eight Hawaiian bird species have been declared extinct since my birth in 1993. Their disappearance parallels the growing dislocation of Native Hawaiians from the islands, environmental deterioration, and my own distance from my Hawaiian roots. This work examines the unraveling of ecological systems and its direct impact on cultural continuity.

I have inherited Hawaiian pride along with separation and fractured access to firsthand familial knowledge. Guided by the Hawaiian practice of kilo, an embodied form of attentive observation, Before We Could Name It asks viewers to slow down and witness both what has disappeared and what remains, making visible the connection between ecological loss, cultural displacement, and individual survival.