Kauanoe Kamanā

Kauanoe Kamanā is a Hawaiian language educator. Since the Hawaiian Renaissance of the 1970s, she has worked towards reestablishing the Hawaiian language in everyday life. Kamanā is cofounder and president of ʻAha Pūnana Leo, an organization of private schools for Hawaiian language immersion instruction. She is also an associate professor at the College of Hawaiian Language at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo.

Early life and education Kauanoe Kamanā was born in 1954 in Honolulu and raised in Kalihi, on Oʻahu, and Kalamaʻula, on Molokaʻi. When she was growing up, very few people of her generation spoke Hawaiian, and she did not learn conversational Hawaiian in her home.

She attended Kamehameha Schools in Kapālama, studying French and graduating in 1969.

Kamanā studied Hawaiian language under Larry Kimura at the University of Hawaiʻi. In 2010 she earned a Ph.D. in Hawaiian and Indigenous Language and Culture Revitalization from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. She was the first person of Native Hawaiian ancestry to receive a Ph.D. in that topic from the College of Hawaiian Language. Their two children were raised with Hawaiian as the sole language of the home and schooling, attending schooling conducted in Hawaiian through high school graduation. Kamanā serves as the president for Ke Kula ʻO Nāwahīokalani’ōpu’u, a Hawaiian immersion laboratory school for prekindergarten to grade 12 students in Kea‘au.