Stories in The Kohala Center Leaflet
Mellon-Hawai‘i Fellows Achieve Successes
September/October 2012
The Academic Year 2011–2012 was a banner year for the Mellon-Hawai‘i Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowship Program! From acquiring tenure-track academic posts to publishing their research, past fellows are enjoying continued success in the pursuit of their chosen careers.
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Mellon-Hawai‘i Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowship Program: Supporting Hawai‘i’s Native Scholars
July/August 2012
Three Native Hawaiian scholars were recently awarded fellowships from the Mellon-Hawaiʻi Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowship Program to advance their academic careers. Marie Alohalani Brown, doctoral candidate in English at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UH Mānoa), and Kaipo Perez III, doctoral candidate in zoology with a focus in marine ecology at UH Mānoa, received doctoral fellowships. Dr. Katrina-Ann R. Kapā‘anaokalāokeola Oliveira, who received her Ph.D. in Geography in 2006 from UH Mānoa, received a postdoctoral fellowship.
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Promoting Hawai‘i’s History, Protecting Hawai‘i’s Resources: The Fifth Cohort of Mellon-Hawai‘i Fellows and Mentors
July/August 2012
This year’s cohort of Mellon-Hawai‘i fellows has deep roots in the islands, with their academic pursuits influenced by ‘ohana (family), teachers, and childhood experiences. Here’s a look at each of the fellows, their doctoral or post-doctoral work, and the journeys that led them to academic excellence.
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I Am Not Done Learning
Story, Photos, and Captions by Renee Pualani Louis, Ph.D., Mellon-Hawai‘i Postdoctoral Fellow
March/April 2012
I attended what is now known as Kamehameha - Kapālama Campus from the first grade. I remember being told over and over again that I was one of the privileged few Hawaiians who got to attend Kamehameha. We were told that for every one of us, there were at least five other students who did not get chosen. When I was younger, I found the repetition irritating because it always occurred as a result of someone’s transgression. Eventually, I decided to take advantage of that privilege and excel both academically and athletically. I graduated in the top ten of my class with my varsity letter sweater.
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A Culture Encoded in Language
Story, Photos, and Captions by Larry Kimura, Mellon-Hawai‘i Doctoral Fellow
January/February 2012
I went to Waimea Elementary and Intermediate School, the public school in my hometown of Waimea, South Kohala. Like me, many of my teachers were born and raised in that community and they taught several generations of Waimea’s children. The old school building has now been moved and converted into an art gallery in Waimea (I'm glad it’s been saved). Back then it consisted of six classrooms, from grade one to six, lined up in a row with a long lānai extending down the length of the building.
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The Mystery Islands
Story, Photos, and Captions by Kekuewa Kikiloi, Mellon-Hawai‘i Doctoral Fellow
November/December 2011
As a child I attended public school, first at He‘eia Elementary in Ko‘olau Poko until second grade. Our family moved to Mānoa for the next four years to live with my grandparents and to help take care of my grandmother. After elementary school, we moved back to Heʻeia and I attended King Intermediate School before I was accepted into Kamehameha for high school.
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New Cohort of Mellon-Hawai‘i Fellows Named
July/August 2011
Four Hawaiian scholars have been selected as 2011–2012 Mellon-Hawai‘i Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellows in recognition of their commitment to the advancement of scholarship on Hawaiian cultural and natural environments, Hawaiian language, history, politics, and society.
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Changing How We Think about Hawai‘i: The 4th Cohort of Mellon-Hawai‘i Fellows
Kekuewa Kikiloi, doctoral candidate in Anthropology at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
July/August 2011
Kekeuwa Kikiloi received a master's degree in anthropology in 2003 from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, where he also earned dual bachelor’s degrees in anthropology and Hawaiian studies with a minor in Hawaiian language. Kikiloi has worked extensively with Hawaiian land and resource management institutions—most recently as Native Hawaiian Cultural Program Coordinator for the Papahānaumokuākea (Northwestern Hawaiian Islands) Marine National Monument which spans Nihoa Island to Kure Atoll.
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The Power of Leading by Example By Hiapokeikikāne (Hiapo) Kichie Perreira, Mellon-Hawai‘i Doctoral Fellow
May/June 2011
I graduated as a nine year student (K–8) in 1988 from Our Lady of Good Counsel School in Pearl City. My teachers were very strict, and although I didn’t appreciate them fully at the time, I fondly remember them now as I navigate the straits of education with my own students (high school and university). I use the word “straits” in the most positive way, for in my mind, a worthy educator is one who can continue to inspire students to greater heights through example and spirit; such an ability needs constant honing and evolution for continued effectiveness.
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One of a Kind
March/April 2011
The Mellon-Hawai'i Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowship Program for Native Hawaiian doctoral and postdoctoral scholars has received funding for an additional three years. The Kohala Center recently received $500,000 from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to continue the program. “This is a significant commitment on the part of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,” said Matt Hamabata, executive director of The Kohala Center.
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Healing through Political Action and Education By Noelani Goodyear-Ka‘ōpua, Mellon-Hawai‘i Postdoctoral Fellow
March/April 2011
I am a graduate of Kamehameha Schools (Kapalama Campus) and am what they call “a lifer,” meaning that I attended from K–12 grade. I remember KS as a place that, because of its incredible resources and committed teachers, made me feel that anything is possible, that we as young people could achieve any goal we set for ourselves and could make lasting, positive change in Hawai‘i and beyond.
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Preserving His Native Tongue
January/Febraury 2011
Hawaiian scholar Keao NeSmith is currently a doctoral candidate in applied linguistics at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand. His doctoral dissertation is “The Teaching and Learning of Hawaiian Language and Culture in Public High Schools and Tertiary Level Schools in Hawai‘i: Issues Relating to Linguistic and Cultural Continuity and Discontinuity.”
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Revolutionizing the Teaching and Learning of Hawaiian
By Keao NeSmith, 2010 Mellon-Hawai‘i Doctoral Fellow
January/February 2011
I attended Kekaha Elementary School on Kaua‘i. My favorite recollections of elementary school are of teachers like Ms. Tsuchiya, Mrs. Gonsalves, Mrs. Okada, Mr. Bucasas, Ms. Bermodes, Mr. Nakamatsu, Mr. Martell, Mr. Suga, and others who left a permanent impression on me. These were teachers whom I felt enjoyed teaching and were inspiring to me. I really enjoyed elementary school and I love my hometown.
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Writing Books from which Everyone Can Learn
November/December 2010
Mellon-Hawai‘i Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Leilani Basham received her doctorate degree in political science in 2007 from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, where she also earned a bachelor’s in Hawaiian studies and a master’s in the history of the Pacific Islands. She is an assistant professor in the Hawaiian-Pacific Studies program at the University of Hawai‘i - West O‘ahu, teaching both Hawaiian language and Hawaiian studies.
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A Hawaiian Perspective
By Leilani Basham, Mellon-Hawai‘i Postdoctoral Fellow
November/December 2010
I was born in Texas and raised in various places on the U.S. continent. I also spent about two years outside of the U.S. I went to school in Texas, Louisiana, Michigan, Jamaica, and then back to Texas for high school. My most prominent memories of these places are of being the new kid on that proverbial first day at a new school. But then, before long, I adjusted and made friends.
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Achieving the Dream
October 2010
2010–2011 Mellon-Hawaiʻi Doctoral Fellow Noe Noe Wong-Wilson is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Maori and Pacific Development at the University of Waikato in New Zealand. Noe Noe’s thesis topic is dear to her heart: “Achieving the Dream at Hawaiʻi Community College: An Initiative for Native Hawaiian Student Success.” Noe Noe currently serves as the Native Hawaiian Student Success Coordinator at Hawaiʻi Community College (HawCC) on Hawaiʻi Island.
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The Architects of Our Own Future
By Noe Noe Wong-Wilson, 2010–2011 Mellon-Hawai‘i Doctoral Fellow
October 2010
My early experience with formal education began at Bingham Tract Elementary School in Honolulu. My teacher was Miss Kealoha—a lovely woman with a big, soft body. I remember that she would hug me and make me feel safe. I quickly became her star pupil and learned to read so well that I skipped first grade and went on to second grade the next year.
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A New Historical Context
July/August 2010
University of Hawaiʻi doctoral scholar and Mellon Hawaiʻi Fellow Sydney Iaukea has signed a contract with University of California Press to publish a book based on her 2008 doctoral dissertation, “E Pa‘a ‘Oukou: Holding and Remembering Hawaiian Understanding of Place and Politics.”
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Filling in the Missing Pieces
By Janis Wong
July/August 2010
Sydney Iaukea’s manuscript draws on her great-great-grandfather’s unpublished writing to chronicle Prince Kuhio’s suit against Queen Liliuokalani, which charged the Queen with mental incompetence in an effort to break her trust. “It is a case that represents the complicated familial and property relationships that we still encounter today,” Iaukea said. “When the U.S. occupied Hawaiʻi, they rewrote land laws through an American lens that disrespected the worldview of the Hawaiian Kingdom and disempowered the Kingdom and the Queen herself.
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Third Cohort of Mellon-Hawai‘i Fellows Named
June 2010
Five Hawaiian scholars have been selected as 2010–2011 Mellon-Hawai‘i Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellows in recognition of their commitment to the advancement of scholarship on Hawaiian cultural and natural environments, Hawaiian language, history, politics, and society.
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Our Ways of Knowing: Meet the 2010 Mellon-Hawai‘i Fellows
June 2010
Leilani Basham, Ph.D., Political Science (2007), University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
Noelani Goodyear-Ka‘ōpua, Ph.D., (2005), University of California, Santa Cruz
Keao NeSmith, doctoral candidate in Applied Linguistics at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand
Hiapokeikikāne Kichie Perreira, doctoral candidate in the Hawaiian and Indigenous Language and Culture Revitalization Program at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo
Noe Noe Wong-Wilson, doctoral candidate in the School of Maori and Pacific Development, University of Waikato, New Zealand
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Best in the Country
May 2010
Dr. Noelani Arista, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Assistant Professor in History and 2008 Mellon-Hawai‘i Doctoral Fellow, has been awarded the prestigious Allan Nevins Prize by the Society of American Historians for the best-written doctoral dissertation on an American subject. Arista’s dissertation, “Histories of Unequal Measure: Euro-American Encounters with Hawaiian Governance and Law 1793-1827,” focuses on the early connections between Hawai‘i and New England and addresses questions of law and jurisdiction in early nineteenth-century Hawai‘i.
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New Thinking for Hawai‘i and the World
May 2010
Dr. Jane Kamensky compared Dr. Noelani Arista’s work to an earlier Nevins Prize winner, Willie Lee Rose, who won the prize in 1963. “Rose's pioneering ‘Rehearsal for Reconstruction’ brought African-American history into the mainstream of modern American thought. Her book was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the Francis Parkman Prize when it was published in 1965. The Allan Nevins Prize launched Rose's brilliant career, one of the most important of the 20th century. I expect we'll say the same thing about Arista in the 21st century," Kamensky said.
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A Generation of New Leaders
April 2010
Dr. Kamanamaikalani (Kamana) Beamer, 2008 Mellon-Hawai‘i Postdoctoral Fellow, was recently appointed as Land Legacy Education Manager in the Land Assets Division (LAD) of the Endowment Group of Kamehameha Schools, Hawai‘i’s largest Native trust. As Land Legacy Education Manager, Beamer provides leadership for the division which manages Hawai‘i agricultural and conservation lands in an effort to achieve a balance of cultural, economic, educational, environmental, and community benefits.
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Kamana Beamer Photo: Kamana Beamer.
April 2010
Kamana Beamer was among the first cohort in the Mellon-Hawai‘i Fellowship Program which supports Native Hawaiian scholars who are committed to the advancement of scholarship on Hawaiian cultural and natural environments, Hawaiian history, politics, and society. The program provides Native Hawaiian scholars the opportunity to complete their dissertations or to publish original research.
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The Hawaiian Language Shall Live
January 2010
In this issue we are pleased to feature the work of Mellon-Hawai‘i Doctoral Fellow Kauanoe Kamanā, who is earning a Ph.D. in Hawaiian Language and Indigenous Language and Culture Revitalization at the College of Hawaiian Language at the University of Hawai‘i (UH) at Hilo. Kauanoe’s dissertation title is “Ke Ō O Ka ʻIke Kuʻuna Ma O Ka Moʻokiʻina Hoʻoponopono Ma Ke Kula ʻO Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu: Living Traditional Culture through the Contemporary Application of the Conflict Resolution System, Moʻokiʻina Hoʻoponopono, at Ke Kula ʻO Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu School.”
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Living Traditional Culture
By Kauanoe Kamanā
January 2010
I attended Kamehameha Schools from kindergarten, which I entered in 1956, through to my high school graduation in 1969. I remember that there were children there who had families just like mine. My favorite teachers were those who had expectations and aloha and who inspired me to do my best. The great majority of my teachers were not Hawaiian, but those few who were had a distinct knowledge base and behaviors that I could relate to. This held true throughout my schooling at Kamehameha.
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Indigenous Ways of Being
November/December 2009
In 2008, through the generosity of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Kamehameha Schools, the Mellon-Hawai‘i Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowship Program was established at The Kohala Center. This program provides fellowships to Native Hawaiian scholars whose research is about Hawai‘i’s natural and cultural landscapes or about Hawai‘i’s history, politics, or society.
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Voices that Need to Be Heard
November/December 2009
Thanks to a generous gift of $125,000 from the Kahiau Foundation, the Mellon-Hawai‘i Fellowship Program will be expanded in the 2010–2011 academic year to support a total of five doctoral and postdoctoral fellows—two more fellows than in the current academic year. The Kahiau Foundation joins with The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Kamehameha Schools, and The Kohala Center in supporting the Mellon-Hawai‘i Fellowship program for Native Hawaiian scholars.
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Anchored Within the Ocean
By Karin Na‘auali‘i Amimoto Ingersoll
November/December 2009
My family and the informal education they instilled in me have helped to keep me anchored within the ocean, connecting me to my identity as a contemporary Hawaiian. As a child, my grandmother’s sister would take me and all the other grandchildren out crabbing and torch fishing under the moon in Maunalua Bay, and my parents would dedicate weekends to experiencing the beach.
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Mellon-Hawai‘i Fellow Profile: Ku‘ualoha Ho‘omanawanui
October 2009
Ku‘ualoha Ho‘omanawanui earned her doctorate in English from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, where she is an assistant professor of Hawaiian Literature in the English Department. Ku‘ualoha was awarded one of three Mellon-Hawai‘i Fellowships for the 2009–2010 academic year, which includes a grant of $50,000 to support her as she completes her book project.
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The Importance of Hawaiian Literature By Ku‘ualoha Ho‘omanawanui, Mellon-Hawai‘i Postdoctoral Fellow
October 2009
My first school was the Nazarene Preschool in Kailua, O‘ahu. I remember being impressed with learning colors, numbers, and shapes. I attended Windward Preparatory Academy from kindergarten through second grade, Enchanted Lake Elementary for part of grade 3, then Kapa‘a Elementary on Kaua‘i from grades 3-6, then Kapa‘a Intermediate and High School.
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Native Hawaiian Scholars Awarded Mellon Fellowships
July/August 2008
Five leading Hawaiian scholars have been selected as the first cohort of Mellon-Hawai'i Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellows. Three postdoctoral fellowships of $50,000 each and two doctoral fellowships of $40,000 each were awarded for the 2008-09 academic year. Fellows were evaluated on the basis of their leadership potential and their demonstrated commitment to the advancement of scholarship on Hawaiian cultural and natural environments, or Hawaiian history, politics, and society.
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Mellon-Hawai‘i Fellowship for Native Hawaiian Scholars
February 2008
The Kohala Center is pleased to announce the establishment of a new fellowship program for Native Hawaiian scholars. Made possible by a $500,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the program will provide doctoral and postdoctoral fellowship opportunities for Native Hawaiian scholars who are early in their academic careers and others, who are committed to the advancement of scholarship on Hawaiian cultural and natural environments, Hawaiian history, politics, and society.
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