Nainoa Thompson
Master Navigator - Polynesian Voyaging Society
Nainoa Thompson is a Native Hawaiian navigator, Pwo Navigator, and President of the Polynesian Voyaging Society. Nainoa is widely regarded as the first Native Hawaiian in modern times to adopt and successfully use traditional Polynesian voyaging methods for open-ocean sailing and became the first Native Hawaiian in 600 years to navigate a voyaging canoe to Tahiti without instruments. He was introduced to traditional navigation by Herb Kawainui Kane and received his training from Master Navigator Pius “Mau” Piailug (1932-2010) from Satawal, Micronesia, and Will Kyselka. Nainoa was inducted into Pwo as a master navigator by Piailug on Satawal in 2007. Nainoa has captained and navigated Hōkūleʻa on numerous voyages and has passed on his knowledge for decades. Notable voyages include the Voyage of Rediscovery from 1985 to 1987, when Hōkūle’a sailed a total of 12,000 miles (19,000 kilometers) to various destinations throughout Polynesia, the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage 2013-2017 and now the Moananuiakea Voyage to circumnavigate the perimeter of the Pacific Ocean.
Dr. Noa Lincoln
College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa
Dr. Noa Kekuewa Lincoln is Kanaka Maoli who was born Kealakekua, Hawai’i Island. He is an associate professor of Indigenous Crops and Cropping Systems at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, and the co-founder and production advisor to the Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative. Noa completed his formal training at Yale University (ʻ03) in Environmental Engineering and Stanford University (ʻ13) in Biogeochemistry and Social Ecology. Noa’s primary interests are in combining traditional and modern knowledge of land management to evaluate social utility, rather than economic contributions. For many years he has worked to revitalize traditional dryland agricultural systems in Hawaiʻi, learning from the past while simultaneously feeding and educating the present. Noa is recognized as an emerging expert in Hawaiian crops and cropping systems and has worked and studied extensively across the Pacific Rim in California, Costa Rica, Brazil, New Zealand, Tahiti, the Marquesas, and Hawaiʻi. His work has significant impacts on agricultural communities in Hawaii and throughout the Pacific.
Dr. Konai Helu Thaman
University of the South Pacific (Fiji)
One of the longest serving staff of the University of the South Pacific before she retired (1974-2020), Dr. Konai Helu Thaman holds a Personal Chair (from USP) in Pacific Education and Culture, and was the UNESCO Chair in Teacher Education and Culture from 1998-2016. She was born and raised in the Kingdom of Tonga where she received her primary and secondary education. She studied at the University of Auckland (BA in Geography), Auckland Secondary Teachers' College (Teaching Diploma), the University of California at Santa Barbara (MA in International Education), and the University of the South Pacific (PhD in Education). She taught in high schools in Tonga before moving with her husband to Santa Barbara, and later in 1974 to Suva, Fiji. She has researched and published widely in the areas of curriculum, teacher education, indigenous education, women and university management, and more recently Pacific research frameworks and education for sustainable development. She has held a number of senior management positions at the USP including Director of the Institute of Education (IOE), Head of the School of Humanities, and Pro Vice Chancellor. Until her retirement she was a member of the Joint ILO/UNESCO Committee on the Recommendation on the Status of Teachers (CEART) and is a Fellow of the Asia Pacific Centre for Educational Innovations in Development (APEID). She was also a member of the UNESCO Asia Pacific Scientific Committee on Research in Higher Education and the UNESCO Global Monitoring Committee for the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD). In 2000 she and a small group of Pacific educators founded the Rethinking Pacific Education Initiative which has continued to be an important force in educational development in the Pacific Island region.
Konai is also a poet whose work is studied by school children throughout the Pacific and beyond; many of her poems have been translated into several languages including Chinese, French, German & Tongan. Five Collections of her poetry have been published: You the Choice of My Parents (1974); Langakali (1981); Hingano (1987); Kakala (1993) and Songs of Love (1999). She is married to Randy Thaman, Emeritus Professor of Biogeography at USP. They have two adult children, and three grandchildren.
Dr. Angela Fa‘anunu
University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo
Dr. Angela Fa‘anunu is an Assistant Professor of Sustainable Tourism at the College of Business & Economics (CoBE) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. She teaches courses in tourism, sustainable agribusiness & island food systems, foundational courses in business, and maintains the Certificate of Sustainable Tourism at CoBE. Angela’s research is in sustainable tourism planning, particularly in agriculture-, indigenous-, and culture-based tourism. Angela grew up in the remote island of Vava‘u, in the Kingdom of Tonga in the South Pacific and received her higher education in the United States at Middlebury College (BA), University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (MSPH), and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (Ph.D). Her ability to operate within multiple worlds has shifted her current focus to developing indigenous and alternative frameworks for tourism and sustainability. She is influenced by her background in Urban and Regional Planning as a community and environmental planner. She continues to work with rural communities throughout the Hawaiian Islands to facilitate the management of their natural and cultural resources against the threats of tourism impacts while leveraging tourism for sustainable self-determination. She co-owns Kaivao Farm, LLC and is the president of Hilo-based non-profit, Resilient Pacific.
Dr. Chip Fletcher
University of Hawaii at Mānoa
Dr. Chip Fletcher is the interim Dean of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and Director of the Climate Resilience Collaborative research team. He is Professor and past Chair of the Department of Earth Sciences and past Chair of the Honolulu Climate Change Commission. Chip’s research focuses on assimilating global trends in decarbonization and climate projections, integrating climate projections for Hawaiʻi to understand future shocks and stresses driving adaptation needs, and modeling the impacts of sea level rise in Hawaiʻi. Chip teaches Earth Science, and Climate Change, and with his students has published over 100 peer-reviewed scientific research papers. He is the author of three textbooks on: 1) Hawaiian shorelines, 2) Climate change, and 3) Earth Systems. Chip is a frequent public speaker, and contributor to local and national media. He has been principal advisor in funding and awarding over 35 graduate research degrees in Earth and Planetary Sciences.
Dr. Tarisi Vunidilo
University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo
Dr. Tarisi Vunidilo has a MSc in Anthropology and a Postgraduate Diploma in Maori and Pacific Development, from the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, a Postgraduate Diploma in Arts, majoring in Archaeology, Australian National University, Canberra, and a BA in Geography, History and Sociology, University of South Pacific, Suva, Fiji. She worked at the Fiji Museum from December 1994 to February 2001, before moving to New Zealand with her family. She completed her Phd in Pacific Studies in January 2016- on the topic of “iYau Vakaviti-Fijian Treasures, Cultural Rights and Repatriation of Cultural Materials from International Museums”, at the Centre of Pacific Island Studies at the University of Auckland (New Zealand). She was a Professional Teaching Fellow (PTF) and Lecturer at the University of Auckland from 2012 to May 2018 before taking up her new role as Assistant Professor in Anthropology at the University of Hawaii-Hilo since August 2018. She currently holds a Post Doc position with the University of Gottingen in Germany as part of the Sensitive Provenances-Human Remains from Colonial Contexts (2021-2024).
Kamuela Enos
Center for Indigenous Innovation & Health Equity
The University of Hawaiʻi (UH) Office of Indigenous Knowledge and Innovation (OIKI) is directed by Kamuela Enos, MA. Director Enos is of Hawaiian ancestry and his family of origin has a long history of direct community-based activism tied to the restoration of ancestral practices as a means to foster socio-economic well-being. The purpose of OIKI is to serve as a catalyst, convener, and pathway for UH students, faculty, and regional communities of practice to support and grow the contemporary application of ancestral knowledge and systems.
Prior to his role as Director of OIKI, Director Enos was a commissioner on President Obama’s White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, the Director of Social Enterprise at MAʻO Organic Farms (a community, Hawaiian-led youth centered social enterprise) and a lecturer at UH Mānoa’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning, teaching courses on community-based planning methodologies.
Dr. Randolph (Randy) Thaman
University of the South Pacific.
Dr. Randy Thaman (Fiji) is Emeritus Professor of Pacific Islands Biogeography at The University of the South Pacific (USP and has long championed the need for building synergies between indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) and modern, scientific knowledge (MSK) as the basis for sound community-based biodiversity assessments, conservation and management. Joining USP in 1974, at retirement, he was the longest-serving staff member, co-founder of the environmental science and studies degree programme and the only member of USP to have has conducted research and co-published (with his students and local PI co-authors) on biodiversity and indigenous knowledge issues in all 12 USP member countries. He was awarded a personal chair as Professor of Pacific Island Biogeography in 1992; invested as a Member of the Order of Fiji (MF) for service to Fiji by the Chancellor of the Order of Fiji, his Excellency, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara in 1997; made an Honorary Member of IUCN at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, Jeju, Korea in 2012; and was a co-recipient of the Inaugural Pacific Islands Leadership Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013 for his environmental leadership in motivating students to understand the interconnectedness of nature and human life. He is also a keen sportsman, and was recognized as the 1996 (FASANOC) Coach of the Year after his Fiji national men’s basketball team won the Oceania Basketball Championship.
Walter Ritte
‘Āina Momona
Walter Ritte is a Kanaka Maoli activist, cultural practitioner, educator, and prominent community leader from Ho‘olehua, Moloka‘i, Hawaiʻi. He began his activism as one of the "Kaho‘olawe Nine," a group of activists who successfully landed on Kaho‘olawe in January 1976, and stayed hidden for 35 days in opposition to the military bombing of the island. Through the activism of the Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana, the island was eventually returned to the State of Hawaiʻi. Ritte has coordinated numerous community efforts to fight for water rights, opposition to land development, and the protection of marine animals and ocean resources. Ritte remains an activist, focusing his opposition on overdevelopment, GMOs and was arrested while protesting the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea in July, 2019. Ritte co-founded the nonprofit ‘Āina Momona in 2017 and serves as its executive director. The organization focuses on environmental health, social justice, food security, and Hawaiian sovereignty. Based at Keawanui Fishpond on Moloka‘i, the kānaka maoli-led organization is dedicated to improving the public history of Hawaiʻi and Native Hawaiians.
Kaipo Kekona
Ku'ia Agricultural Education Center
Kaipo Kekona was born and raised on Maui in Lāhainā. Kaipo manages a 12.5 acre farm site known as Ku'ia Agricultural Education Center in the ahupua'a of Ku'ia on Legacy Lands of Keliʻi Kulani in Maui. Their mission is to reclaim space as a native historical food property and to introduce to the community to practices that would encourage a healthier food system and soils. Kaipo is also the Chair of the Lāhainā Chapter with the Hawaiʻi Farmer's Union United. He also serve as Po'o for the Aha Moku Ka'anapali Council for the district of Ka'anapali Moku that goes from Pu’u Keka'a to Makamaka'ole. In this position, he advocates for generational resource management practices and implementing more traditional management practices. Kaipo and his wife, Rachel Kapu, have four children and are lineal descendants to Maui. Kaipo has donated his services to the Kai'apuni 'O Lahaina Hawaiian immersion school programs, in the facilitation of their agricultural education programs. Kaipo strongly believes in the importance of generational knowledge to ensure a healthy thriving and a functional society and environment.
Dr. Larry Kimura
Ka Haka ʻUla O Keʻelikōlani, College of Hawaiian Language
Dr. Larry Kimura, often referred to as the Grandfather of the Hawaiian Language Revitalization movement, has been teaching Hawaiian language and culture at the University of Hawaiʻi for over fifty years. He is the founding President of the ʻAha Pūnana Leo Hawaiian medium preschool programs that established Hawaiʻi’s Hawaiian Language Immersion Program in 1987 and continues to Chair the Hawaiian Māmaka Kaiao New Hawaiian Words Dictionary project and is the Director of the UH at Hilo Hawaiian Language College online Kaniʻāina Native Hawaiian Speech Repository.
Roen Hufford
Hawaiian Kapa Artist
Roen Hufford (Kanaka Maoli) is a master tradition bearer of ka hana kapa. Roen was born on Molokaʻi and grew up on the island of Oʻahu. Roen was highly influenced by her mother, the late Marie Leilehua McDonald, a renowned kapa artist and lei maker who published two seminal books on Hawaiian lei making; Ka Lei – The Lei of Hawaiʻi (1997) and Nā Lei Makamae – The Treasured Lei (2003). Roen assisted her mother with preparing and giving demonstrations of lei making and worked with her Aunt Irmalee on Kauaʻi, making floral arrangements for celebrations and significant events. Her years of working with plants and flowers would later be a tremendous reservoir of knowledge for the challenges of making and adorning kapa. Roen studied art at the Pratt Institute in New York and received a degree in fine arts from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She worked for the City and County of Honolulu and then became a self-employed florist. Roen and her husband Ken, operate Honopua Farm in the uplands of Waimea, Hawaiʻi Island. She creates extraordinary kapa pieces inspired by the beauty of the plants, animals, and landscape of her Hawaiian home. Her kapa are highly sought after by a wide range of collectors and cultural practitioners. Roenʻs work has been included in exhibitions held at prestigious venues including HOEA Gallery, the Bishop Museum, Maui Arts and Cultural Center, the Kahilu Theater Gallery, East Hawaiʻi Cultural Center, and the American Savings Bank’s Loʻi Gallery.
Sulieti Fieme’a Burrows, Tui Emma Gillies, and Aroha Gillies
Tongan Tapa Artist
Sulieti Fieme’a Burrows Sulieti Fieme’a Burrows MNZM is an award winning artist and expert in the creation of ngatu, the decorated bark cloth. She has exhibited her work across the globe and had many works acquired by major public institutions including, The Royal Academy of Art in London and The National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. Born in Tonga in 1951, Sulieti moved to New Zealand in the 1970s, bringing her knowledge of ngatu, the Tongan form of tapa, and other traditional Tongan crafts. Sulieti is also a passionate advocate for the revival and continuation of this traditional Tongan artform, sharing her knowledge and experience with the world and passing her knowledge and skills to her daughter and granddaughter who are currently practising the art of ngatu.
Tui Emma Gillies is an award winning Tongan New Zealand artist who specialises in tapa art. She works both as an individual and collaboratively, alongside her mother Sulieti Fieme’a Burrows. Tui's work has been exhibited around the world and sold to museums and collections, including The Royal Academy of Art in London, National Gallery of Victoria, National Maritime Museum of New Zealand and Pick Museum of Anthropology in Illinois. In a project called Falevai Flava, Tui and Sulieti returned to their home village of Falevai in the Vava'u island group in Tonga and revived the lost art of tapa by making two large ngatu with the women of the village. Tui has presented on her projects in Europe, Australia and the Pacific and gave a TEDx talk on Tongan Kupesi. Tui is the 2023 Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies Artist in Residence at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.
Aroha Heilala Gillies is 9 years old, and attends St Annes Primary School in Auckland New Zealand. She loves her multiple cultures, spending time with her pet animals and making art while mixing up new colours.
Kekaianiani Irwin
Hale Kuamoʻo Hawaiian Language Center
Dr. Kekaianiani Irwin is a kamaʻāina of Hilo Hanakahi, Kekaianiani is a product of Hilo Union School, Hilo High, and UH Mānoa as well as Hawaiian immersion “kaiapuni” teaching positions at Pāʻia, Pūʻōhala, and Samuel M. Kamakau. Now at the Hale Kuamoʻo Hawaiian Language Center, he serves as Curriculum Project Design and Development Manager. Collaborative work on Pāhana ʻĀina Lupalupa books with friends at Kamehameha Publishing, kaiapuni teachers, and others in the community is resulting in Hawaiian language educational resources grounded in aloha ʻāina and long-term sustainability of ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi and ʻāina aloha through place-based education.
Kiele Gonzalez
Kamehameha Publishing
Dr. Kiele Gonzalez is a kaikamahine of the ʻĀpuakea rains of Kāneʻohe, Oʻahu, and Hāna, Maui. Her love for ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi was nurtured by her makuahine, Leimomi Akana, and her kula—Kamehameha Schools Kapālama, UH Mānoa, and UH Hilo. Kiele is an editor at Kamehameha Publishing where she works on exciting projects like Pāhana ʻĀina Lupalupa that amplify Hawaiian perspectives, elevate ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, and perpetuate ʻike kupuna.
Lito Arkangel
University of Hawaii at Hilo
Along with being a full time professional musician/entertainer, Lito Arkangel (Kanaka Maoli) is also a Lecturer at the University of Hawai’i Hilo educating students in Kinesiology, Hawaiian Studies, and Music departments.What makes Lito even more unique, and when the timing is right, he often shares the “moʻolelo” or History and/or story behind many of the Hawaiian songs that he performs as he helps to paint a beautiful setting to the music that he sings. Lito has balanced his life of education and entertainment by incorporating them together through the art of engagement and his passion for music.
Dr. Haunani Kane
NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo
Dr. Haunani Kane is a Kanaka Maoli scientist, surfer, and voyager from Kailua, Oʻahu. Haunani received a Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of Hawaiʻi and is a National Science Foundation postdoctoral research fellow. Kane is the first Native Hawaiian woman to receive her doctorate in geology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Haunani’s life is guided by the values and storied history of her kūpuna (ancestors). Haunani has been mentored since her youth in traditional Hawaiian wayfinding and navigation. Haunani has spent nearly 200 days at sea aboard both traditional sailing and modern research vessels. She was an integral part of the Polynesian Voyaging Society’s worldwide voyage, lending her services as both a traditional navigator as well as the director of sciences. Using the ocean as her classroom, the sky as her blackboard, and islands as models for sustainable living, Haunani has found a unique way to blend observation and traditional knowledge to form a world view that focuses upon the similarities rather than the differences among western and indigenous science.Kane’s research combines coastal geomorphology, paleo-environmental reconstructions, spatial analysis and the perspectives of a native islander to investigate how islands, reefs and island people are impacted by changes in climate. As a NSF postdoctoral research fellow, she has spent nearly 200 days at sea aboard both traditional sailing and modern research vessels. In addition, Kane's research and teaching relies upon reestablishing ancestral relationships to place. Through this process, she strives to provide a more inclusive understanding of the impacts of environmental stressors and ensure that the best available climate science data is reflective of all stories of place and their people. Haunani is currently working with her students and colleagues at the MEGA Lab to better understand how islands in Papahānaumokuākea response to rising sea levels and storms.
Wallace (Wally) Wong
Wong Way Farm
Wallace (Wally) Wong is a Kanaka Maoli who grew up in Kaimuki in the heart of Honolulu. In the early 90s, Wally moved to Waimea on Hawai’i Island. Wong Way Farm was established in 2005 after Wally and his family moved to Hakalau on the Hamakua coast of Hawaiʻi Island. Wong Way Farm’s philosophy is “If you plant it; it will grow”. He initially planted maiʻa, kalo,ʻulu and kukui trees. Since then he has added a few citrus, avocado, mango, lychee and niu trees as well as chickens, ducks and goats. Occasionally he also grows ʻuala. Wally also grows mana ‘ulu, a dryland kalo variety, and palehua which is a cross between Hawaiian and Palauan varieties that he got from the UH Kona Research Station in Kainaliu. Since 2020, Wong Way Farm has been a member of the Hawaiʻi ‘Ulu Cooperative. Wally is also a crew member of the Polynesian Voyaging Society and participated in numerous legs on the Malama Honua Worldwide Voyage. He is a passionate outrigger canoe paddler and coaches the UH Hilo paddling club.
Kalisi Mausio
Hawai’i Farm Trails
Kalisi Mausio is the founder and CEO of Hawai’i Farm Trails, and the Managing Director of the Onomea Farm Hub. She is also the co-owner of Kaivao Farm and Matamāhina Farm, two agroforests just north of Hilo on Hawai’i Island. She spent time as a Ph.D. student focused on modeling indigenous food crops for climate adaptation and previously worked at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office for Coastal Management as a Geospatial Analyst. Kalisi received her M.S. in Tropical Conservation Biology and Environmental Science from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo and her B.A. in Geology & Environmental Studies from Bowdoin College, Maine. She was born and raised in the Kingdom of Tonga and has since lived and worked over the last 20 years in Fiji, New Zealand, and now Hawaiʻi.
Kalani Kahalioumi
Ploynesian Voyaging Society
Kalani Kahalioumi had his first encounter with Hōkūleʻa in 1997 when she was in Makua Bay for Israel Kamakawiwoʻole’s Celebration of Life. Kalani swam to Hōkūleʻa and a crew member asked him to check the anchor. “I havenʻt let go of the rope yet; still hanging on,” he says. To him, Hōkūleʻa means “rebirth, new life, joy.”Kalani says his first time sailing on a waʻa kaulua was at home in “Kiaʻi i ka Hilo Bay,” where he is now Director of Ocean Recreation Programs for Hawaiʻi County. He has since served as Watch Captain, Safety Officer, Rescue Swimmer and crew member on many voyages and several legs of the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage, both on Hōkūleʻa and Hikianalia. For every voyage he wants to see “safe passage, always, and the passing on of knowledge.” And itʻs no different now on Moananuiākea, as he looks forward to gathering and sharing “knowledge for my community.”When voyaging, there is one thing Kalani misses: ʻohana. But when back on land in his everyday life, he has a long list of what he misses most at sea: “the stories, fishing, nice windy days, snack time.”
Kailin Kim & Ho'ola Honey 'Ohana
Ho'ola Honey
Kailin Kim was the youngest crew member to sail Hōkūleʻa home from Palmyra in 2009 and has continued learning and growing on canoes Makaliʻi, Haunui and Hinemoana in Aotearoa. She graduated from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo with degrees in Hawaiian Studies & Agriculture which led her to caring for honey bees.
Kai Hudgins was born and raised in Waimea, Hawaiʻi and has been voyaging for the last 20 years. In 2015, he sailed Hōkūleʻa across the Tasman Sea from New Zealand to Australia as part of the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage.
Voyaging brought Kai and Kailin together when they met sailing on Hōkūleʻa 10 years ago. With the values of the canoe as their family’s foundation, they started Hoʻōla to rescue honey bees on Hawaiʻi island through live bee relocations. They believe that helping the bees is a true investment in our future, and are continually motivated by their 3 keiki.
Kekuhi Kealiʻikanakaole
Kumu Hula, Hawaiian Cultural Practitioner, and Award Winning Singer
Kekuhi Kealiʻikanakaole is an educator who has trained in the tradition of Hula ʻAihaʻa and Hula Pele, chant and ritual for 39 years under Hālau O Kekuhi, named for her grandmother, Edith Kekuhi Kanakaʻole. She was ritually elevated to the status of Kumu Hula (hula master) of Hālau o Kekuhi by her mother, Kumu Hula Pualani Kanahele, and her aunt, Kumu Hula Nalani Kanakaʻole. Kekuhi is also an award winning singer and cultural expert. One of Kekuhi's passion's is strengthening the relationship between Hawaiʻi ecological wisdom and scientific wisdom. Kekuhi served as the Senior Scholar at The Kohala Center for 20 years. In an effort to broaden her service to people beyond the hālau, Kekuhi has developed Ulu Ka ʻŌhiʻa - Hula Consciousness Seminar and Hālau ʻŌhiʻa - Hawaiʻi Stewardship Training to teach basic Hawaiʻi practices that can connect anyone, anywhere, to their inner and outer landscapes. Kekuhiʻs most important message in this effort is: "I ola ʻoe, i ola mākou nei", my life is dependent on you and your life is dependent on me.
Haunani Keamo
Ke Kula ʻO Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu Iki Laboratory Public Charter School
Haunani Keamo is a Kanaka Maoli, born and raised in Hilo. She is fluent in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi and works as an educator at Ke Kula ʻO Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu Iki Laboratory Public Charter School in Keaau, Hawaiʻi Island, where she teaches mathematics at the Hawaiian medium school. Haunani is currently a Ph.D student in the Hawaiian and Indigenous Language and Culture Revitalization Program in the Ka Haka ʻUla o Keʻelikōlani College of Hawaiian language at UH Hilo. Her doctoral research focuses on indigenous approaches to mathematics education. Haunani is the vice president of Resilient Pacific, a Hilo-based non-profit run by all Kanaka Maoli and Pacific Islander wahine (women) board members. Haunani is a passionate outrigger canoe paddler and ho‘okele (captain) for Puna Canoe Club where she also serves on its board.
Nalu O'Connor
Pacific Internship Programs for Exploring Science (PIPES)
Nalu O'Connor is the Program Leader for the Pacific Internship Programs for Exploring Science (PIPES) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. Nalu received this Bachelor of Arts degree in Hawaiian Studies from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The PIPES is an umbrella program that brings together several undergraduate internship efforts. Since it started, PIPES has provided over 830 meaningful undergraduate internships at more than 100 agencies and organizations across Hawaiʻi and the US-Affiliated Pacific Islands. Nalu is actively investing, growing, and developing the next generation of aloha ʻāina leaders by building partnerships across Hawaiʻi and the Pacific and developing innovative programming to support the next iteration of aloha ʻāina internships, mentorships, research and partnerships.
Mio Kamioka
University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo
Mio Kamioka is an outspoken Indigenous Melanesian woman, human rights and environmental justice advocate, and aquatic biologist of mixed Japanese and Papua New Guinean heritage. Mio is passionate about changing the narrative about what it means to be “developed”. She is currently working under the mentorship of Dr. Angela Fa‘anunu to critically analyze and problematize the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In doing so, she hopes to help develop a more holistic approach for sustainable development that is meaningful and attainable for the Indigenous peoples of Oceania. Further research endeavors include studying the relationship between stewardship and the Hōkūle‘a.Mio holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Environmental Science and a minor in Peace and Justice Studies from Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio. She is currently pursuing her Master’s of Science degree in Tropical Conservation Biology and Environmental Science from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo.
Yolanda Joab Mori
Island PRIDE (Promoting Resilience through Involvement, Development & Education) Micronesia
Yolanda Joab Mori is...
Easten Tanimoto
Tanimotofoto
Easten Tanimoto of Tanimotofoto is a photographer, filmmaker, and storyteller based in Hilo, Hawaiʻi.
