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amanda hope haaheoleionalani yumi matsumoto
Birthplace/Hometown:
Honouliuli, Oʻahu
High School:
Kamehameha Schools Kapālama
UHM Degrees:
Currently pursuing an MA in English with a concentration in cultural studies
Current Occupation:
MA student and GRA at the Native Hawaiian Place of Learning Advancement Office
What inspired/inspires the path for your academic major?
My kumu are always the source, foundation, and inspiration for my studies. They are the reason because their own journeys opened the paths for the water of future generations to flow, and they lead me to the moʻolelo that reveal the (hi)stories we are constantly (re)living. We are all connected by the threads of our existence, and my kumu inspire me to be a better kanaka through my writing and research.
What are your future goals in your work?
My hope for the future is that my moʻopuna will know what it means to aloha ʻāina and to feel so loved by the environments that raise them. Every day, I fight for a future where my moʻopuna will one day be able to swim and be embraced by the waters of Puʻuloa. My writing attempts to affect change for this future that I dream with my ʻohana. Just as I know my kūpuna because of their writing and the legacy of the work they have left for me to continue, I hope to likewise be a good ancestor for my descendants.
We believe that at the heart of a Hawaiian place of learning is aloha ʻāina: the constant care for and reciprocation with Hawaiʻi’s people, places and practices.” How do you see your time at UH shaping the way you aloha ʻāina?
Mānoa valley is indeed mānoa and vast in depth and thickness—I am inspired by the ways our ʻāina teaches our campus to come together in community. I have met people from many parts of our world that I would not have met otherwise, and I am so thankful that UH Mānoa is a place where we can find pilina and deep connections that are so profound, they cannot be coincidence. Because we are constantly interacting with new people here, I am always thinking about what we have to offer each other. I believe that aloha ʻāina can be as simple as taking care of each other—the ways we offer and receive aloha to and from our ʻāina teaches us to take care of humans, too, and we learn to aloha the lands, waters, and stories that each of us carry.
What does UHM as a Hawaiian place of learning mean to you?
Our ʻāina here in Hawaiʻi is always already a Hawaiian place of learning. Mānoa valley has taught and fed our people for generations before this school was even conceived of being founded, and we are honored to learn from this place that hosts us. Waikīkī was once full of inland loʻi kalo and loko iʻa, and even our campus spans across multiple ʻili ʻāina of this area. We are simply one era of residing on this ʻāina, and we still have much to learn, so I am thankful for every experience, every morning rainbow brought by the ua Tuahine and the makani Kahaukani, who are the kupuna of this valley.
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