[Blog] Reflections From Aleena, Our Founder, Every Sunset Promises A Sunrise
(June 20, 2025)
The decision to sunset Red Star International, Inc. marks both the end and beginning of season and cycle—one that is quite personal to me as the founder. When I first led Red Star International Inc., from my home in the Arizona desert, I always envisioned us supporting Indigenous wellness on an international level.
I achieved that dream when I left the country back in 2014 to live in Aotearoa (New Zealand) on the traditional homelands of my hoa pūmau—husband and life partner. This personal leap of faith led Red Star’s work in a new direction, one centered around water and building a global Indigenous community. That community evolved into the Restoring Balance Collaborative—a network of land and water stewards deeply committed to protection and care.
While Red Star International, Inc. prepares to set, at my home in the Southern Hemisphere, we are preparing the Collaborative to rise during the Spring Equinox. The timing of this transition is culturally significant to me as Yoeme, and to the place I now call home. It marks a time of transformation and the start of something new.
This is a powerful reminder of my own new beginnings as I fully embrace my life here in Aotearoa.
As we enter this final chapter of Red Star’s sunset on September 22, 2025, we do so with immense gratitude and reverence for what we have built together. Between now and September, you will learn more about our next chapter with the relaunch of the Collaborative—carrying forward a vision for restoring balance to the world through Indigenous-led land and water stewardship.
Find more details about the Collaborative, including an exciting announcement about A Meeting of Sacred Waters in our June newsletter.
Thank you to our relatives, community partners, and friends.
Chiokoe utte’esia,
Aleena M. Kawe, MPH (Yoeme)