Noelani Arista
Noelani Arista was born in Honolulu and educated at the University of Hawai?i at M?noa and Brandeis University. She received training in Hawaiian oli, orature and literature from Kumu Manuha?okalani Gay, P?maika?i Gaui, John Keola Lake, Rubellite Kawena Johnson and John Charlot. Her Kumu ??lelo Hawai?i include: Hau?oli Victorino, Malia Melema?i, Puakea Nogelmeier, Kalani Makekau-Whittaker, Hau?oli Akaka, Kalani Akana, Lalepa Koga and Kaleikoa Ka?eo.
Arista has received further training in Hawaiian language, history and literature by working on projects and performances to benefit the community, with Kumu Sam Ohukaniohi?a Gon, Kathryn M?healani Wong, Edith McKinzie, Jeffrey Kapali Lyon and Kale Langlas.
Noelani Arista is a Historian of Hawai?i and the U.S. Her research interests include Hawaiian governance and law, Hawaiian intellectual history, Historiography of Hawai?i, Colonialism and missionization, Native language archives and translation. Her work as a historian seeks to engage the “archives” of Hawaiian language source materials, (the largest indigenous language archive in the U.S.) making primary materials available in Hawaiian and English–in order to write better history.
To this end she is working to develop digital humanities projects focused on the kanikau (Hawaiian laments), Hawaiian governance, and a public project that focuses on understanding “aloha” through mele which began as popular facebook group called 365 days of aloha.
Noelani Arista’s dissertation, “Histories of Unequal Measure: Euro-American Encounters With Hawaiian Governance and Law, 1796-1827,” won the Society of American Historians Allan Nevins Prize, for the best dissertation written on an American Subject. Her work on Hawaiian-U.S.
History has been supported by generous fellowships from Dartmouth College, The University of Pennsylvania (UPENN), The McNeil Center for Early American Studies, The Woodrow-Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, The Mellon Foundation, and the Kohala Center. Arista has served as a member of the Hawaiian Historical Society (2011-2013) and is trustee on the board of the Weetumuw Wôpanâak Charter School working to open the first Wôpanâak immersion school.
Source: University of Hawai?i at M?noa Department of History
