Kamanamaikalani Beamer currently holds the Dana Naone Hall Chair in the Center for Hawaiian Studies with a joint appointment in the Richardson School of Law and the Hawai'inuiakea School of Hawaiian Knowledge at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa.
21 Facts About Kamanamaikalani Beamer
1.
2.
Kamanamaikalani Beamer is one of eight panelists appointed by Hawai'i Governor David Ige to hold stewardship over Mauna Kea.
3.
Kamanamaikalani Beamer was the cousin of Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame inductee Mahi Beamer and the granddaughter of musician and composer Helen Deisha Beamer.
4.
Kamanamaikalani Beamer eventually came to be the vocalist and guitarist for his band, Kamau, debuting their album "Live from the Lo'i" in 2007 when he was just 29.
5.
Kamanamaikalani Beamer graduated from Kamehameha Schools in 1996 and went on to Marymount College, where he received an Associate of Arts degree in 1998.
6.
Kamanamaikalani Beamer was offered a football scholarship, briefly attending Bethel College in Newton, Kansas, before attending to Occidental College in Los Angeles, California to be "closer to the ocean".
7.
Kamanamaikalani Beamer wanted to take Hawaiian language to satisfy the two years of a foreign language required to graduate; however, Occidental College did not recognize Hawaiian as a language, and so he returned to Hawai'i and finished his undergrad education at UH Manoa where he received his Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and Hawaiian studies in 2002.
8.
Kamanamaikalani Beamer went on to receive a Master of Arts and Ph.
9.
In 2005, Kamanamaikalani Beamer submitted his thesis for a Master of Arts in geography in which he focused on the impacts of colonialism on Hawai'i.
10.
Kamanamaikalani Beamer investigated the connection between foreign mapping of the Hawaiian Islands and the dispossession that accompanied it, shifting the previous guidance of land-tenure to a modern capitalist model.
11.
Kamanamaikalani Beamer sought to identify the role of traditional palena and understand how colonial mapping changed the Hawaiian landscape.
12.
Kamanamaikalani Beamer demonstrated that, despite Euro-American imperialism and the colonization that ensued, Native Hawaiians persevered not by resisting change, but by using it for their own means.
13.
From 2001 to 2015, Kamanamaikalani Beamer worked towards restoring the lo'i in Waipi'o Valley.
14.
Kamanamaikalani Beamer's time spent in the lo'i expanded his understanding of the state of water resources in Hawai'i.
15.
Kamanamaikalani Beamer was again nominated and reconfirmed to serve on the board in 2017, continuing to help manage Hawaii's public lands, water sources, and minerals.
16.
Kamana Kamanamaikalani Beamer has been a prominent figure in the movement to protect Mauna Kea, a sacred dormant volcano in Hawai'i, from what many native Hawaiians see as environmental and cultural desecration.
17.
Kamanamaikalani Beamer has used his position as a cultural practitioner and scholar to raise awareness about the importance of Mauna Kea to the people of Hawai'i and the government.
18.
Kamanamaikalani Beamer has been a critic of the construction of a large thirty meter telescope on Mauna Kea's summit.
19.
Kamanamaikalani Beamer has used his academic background to research the cultural and environmental significance of Mauna Kea, publishing numerous papers and articles on the subject.
20.
Kamanamaikalani Beamer has argued that the mountain is not only a site of cultural and spiritual importance, but an important ecological resource, with unique plant and animal species that are endangered by the construction of the telescope.
21.
In 2013, Kamanamaikalani Beamer was confirmed serve four years on Hawai'i's Commission of Water and Resource Management by then-governor Neil Abercrombie.