To increase community interest in plants through interactive gameplay and cultural storytelling.

ʻĀinaQuest sprouted from a moment of collective inspiration during the 2023 Build4Good AI Hackathon hosted by Purple Maiʻa. While the challenge was to develop AI solutions benefiting our community, our team uncovered a deeper calling: to restore pilina (relationships) between people and native plants that had been weakened through generations of urban living. 

Our team—Amy McKee, Kurt and Corinne Takara, Carolyn Rojsutivat, Mike Sarimento, Jack Hobbs IV, and others—shared personal stories of growing up in urban Honolulu, surrounded by plants we couldn't name or connect with. This shared experience revealed a cultural disconnection we were determined to heal through play and storytelling. 

In just 48 hours, we transformed this vision into our first tangible creation: a deck of plant-mon playing cards that blended traditional knowledge with interactive gameplay. This wasn't merely a hackathon project—it was the seed of a movement to reconnect our community with the living heritage that surrounds us. 

Since that transformative weekend, ʻĀinaQuest has continued to grow as we play, learn, and develop together. Through our work, we're cultivating meaningful relationships not only with the plants that sustain our islands but with each other and the cultural knowledge that binds us to this place.