Enacting Kūʻē through Makawalu Discourse: A KanakaʻŌiwiCrit Study of Native Hawaiian Students

Paper Abstract: This research article applies a Kanaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) Critical Race Theoretical (KanakaʻŌiwiCrit) framework to examine Native Hawaiian students’ experiences with kūʻē (resistance). Through a qualitative data analysis of 91 student voices from four panels, four public hearing testimonies, and 43 newspaper essays published from 2019 to 2024, this article answers how Kanaka ʻŌiwi students in the K–12 and higher education sectors kūʻē (resist) in public discourse. Findings reveal that students engage in makawalu (multiple perspectives) discourse to address cultural, economic, educational, and social issues affecting Kanaka ʻŌiwi. They invoke ʻike kūpuna (ancestral wisdom) to construct a kahua (foundation) of Kanaka ʻŌiwi knowledge, which includes Hawaiian language, proverbs, stories, and aloha ʻāina (love of land). Students strengthen this kahua by sharing ʻike kumu (foundational knowledge) and ʻike ponoʻī (personal knowledge). The wisdom shared in this article demonstrates how Indigenous knowledge systems (a) kūʻē colonial worldviews and practices under Hawai‘i’s settler state, (b) disrupt majoritarian narratives about youth participation in civic activities, and (c) affirm the potentialities of family-school partnerships to kūʻē for the Lāhui Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian nation) and the global Indigenous community.

News & Publications

  • April 1, 2025 – This project’s manuscript has been published online. Access it here.

  • September 2, 2024 – A manuscript based on this project has been accepted for publication in Education for Information.

  • October 26, 2023 – I gave a presentation of this project as a paper-in-process at the Critical Race Studies in Education Association's annual meeting in Peoria territory (Chicago, IL).