Corinne Okada Takara is an Oʻahu-based biomaterial artist, seed lei maker, lauhala weaver, and educator whose practice explores the intersections of ancestral craft, biology, and participatory design.
As a Yonsei kamaʻāina settler and the daughter of a toy designer, Takara grounds her practice in playful exploration, identity, and responsibility to place. Drawing on Kānaka ʻŌiwi principles of pilina (reciprocal care) and kuleana (privileged responsibility), she uses bio-collaborative play, intergenerational storytelling, and local material practices to reimagine how we weave relational and ecological infrastructures.
In Hawaiian, ulana, “to weave,” also carries the meaning “to prophesy.” Takara’s work asks who gets to participate in dreaming, making, and stewarding sustainable futures, while expanding our ideas about the spaces, materials, and communities that make innovation possible.