1. Winona Kapuailohiamanonokalani Desha Beamer was a champion of authentic and ancient Hawaiian culture, publishing many books, musical scores, as well as audio and video recordings on the subject.
20 Facts About Winona Beamer
1. 2.
Winona Beamer was an early proponent of the ancient form of the hula being perpetuated through teaching and public performances.
3.
Winona Beamer was a teacher at Kamehameha Schools for almost 40 years, but had been expelled from that same school as a student in 1937 for dancing the standing hula.
4.
Winona Beamer's grandson Kamanamaikalani Beamer is a professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and CEO of the Kohala Center.
5.
Winona Beamer ran a Waikiki hula studio for three decades.
6.
Winona Beamer was born Winona Kapuailohiamanonokalani Desha Beamer to Pono and Louise Beamer on August 15,1923, in Honolulu, United States Territory of Hawaii.
7.
Much of her early life was spent on the island of Hawaii, under the guidance and tutelage of her grandmother, Helen Desha Winona Beamer, who taught her hula at about the age of three.
8.
Winona Beamer attended Colorado Women's College, Barnard College, and Columbia University, studying anthropology.
9.
Winona Beamer is credited with coining the term "Hawaiiana" as early as 1948.
10.
Winona Beamer was briefly expelled in 1937 from the Kamehameha Schools for performing a standing hula.
11.
Winona Beamer was a pivotal influence in reviving the art of the ancient hula, in the face of a more commercialized version invented for the tourism trade in Hawaii.
12.
Winona Beamer ran her mother Louise's Waikiki hula studio for three decades.
13.
Winona Beamer brought international attention to the hula and other forms of Hawaiian storytelling through music and the Native Hawaiian arts.
14.
Winona Beamer had been the Hawaiian culture instructor at the Kamehameha Schools when the curriculum became in danger of being cut.
15.
Winona Beamer wrote a May 1997 letter to the Hawaii Supreme Court, expressing her concerns, and asking for the resignation of trustee Lokelani Lindsey.
16.
Winona Beamer became the catalyst for a groundswell that led to an investigation of the Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate trust.
17.
Winona Beamer's letter resulted in a public outcry over the management of the estate trust.
18.
Winona Beamer became known as Auntie Nona in Hawaii, and was a champion of teaching authentic Hawaiian culture.
19.
Winona Beamer moved to Lahaina, on the island of Maui, in 2006.
20.
Winona Beamer was survived by her musician sons Keola and Kapono, her only grandchild, Kamanamaikalani Beamer, and two Hanai children: a daughter, Maile Loo Beamer, and a son, Kaliko Beamer-Trapp.