Noelle M.K.Y. Kahanu is a

Native Hawaiian Native Hawaiians (also known as Indigenous Hawaiians, Kānaka Maoli, Aboriginal Hawaiians, First Hawaiians, or simply Hawaiians) ( haw, kānaka, , , and ), are the indigenous ethnic group of Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaii ...

academic, curator, writer, and lawyer. A former director of community affairs at the

Bishop Museum The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, designated the Hawaii State Museum of Natural and Cultural History, is a museum of history and science in the historic Kalihi district of Honolulu on the Hawaiian island of Oʻahu. Founded in 1889, it is the lar ...

, she directed the 2010 documentary film ''

Under a Jarvis Moon ''Under a Jarvis Moon'' is a 2010 documentary film about the young men, mostly of Hawaiian origin, sent in the 1930s and 1940s to colonize the Line Island of Jarvis and the Phoenix Islands of Howland and Baker. Directed by Noelle Kahanu and ...

'', about the young Hawaiian men sent to work on Howland, Jarvis, and

Baker Island Baker Island, formerly known as New Nantucket, is an uninhabited atoll just north of the Equator in the central Pacific Ocean about southwest of Honolulu. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia. Its nearest neighbor is Ho ...

Biography

Noelle Kahanu was born in

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

. She is of Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, and Scottish background. In 1998, she graduated with a bachelor's in political science from the

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa The University of Hawaii at Mānoa (University of Hawaii—Mānoa, UH Mānoa, Hawai'i, or simply UH) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Manoa, Mānoa, a neighborhood in Honolulu, Hawaii. It ...

. She then pursued a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

degree from the

William S. Richardson School of Law The William S. Richardson School of Law is the professional graduate law school of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Located in Honolulu, Hawaii, the school is named after its patriarch, former Hawaii State Supreme Court Chief Justice William ...

at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, graduating in 1992. She subsequently served as

counsel A counsel or a counsellor at law is a person who gives advice and deals with various issues, particularly in legal matters. It is a title often used interchangeably with the title of ''lawyer''. The word ''counsel'' can also mean advice given ...

to the

United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is a committee of the United States Senate charged with oversight in matters related to the American Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Alaska Native peoples. A Committee on Indian Affairs existed from 1820 to 19 ...

from 1992 to 1997. Returning to Hawaii from Washington, Kahanu then worked for the

Office of Hawaiian Affairs The Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) is a self-governing corporate body of the State of Hawaii created by the 1978 Hawaii State Constitutional Convention. Background In 1893, pro-American elements in Hawaii overthrew the monarchy and formed the ...

and the Native Hawaiian Education Council. From 1998 to 2014, she worked for the

, a history and science museum in

, eventually becoming its director of community affairs. While at the museum, she produced 25 exhibitions on Native Hawaiian art, history, and culture, and helped shape the museum's extensive renovations. She has also worked on efforts to

repatriate Repatriation is the process of returning a thing or a person to its country of origin or citizenship. The term may refer to non-human entities, such as converting a foreign currency into the currency of one's own country, as well as to the pro ...

artifacts taken from Indigenous groups, alongside her partner, Eddie Ayau. With Heather Giugni, Kahanu co-directed and co-produced the 2010 documentary film ''

'', which told the stories of the young Hawaiian men sent by the U.S. government to secretly colonize Howland, Jarvis, and

s in the Pacific before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The film had its origins in a 2002 exhibition at the Bishop Museum, "Hui Panalāʻau: Hawaiian Colonists, American Citizens." Kahanu's own grandfather, George Kahanu Sr., had been one of the men sent to Jarvis Island. Since 2014, Kahanu has worked as a specialist at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa's American Studies department. In 2023, she was selected as one of three curators of the 2025 Hawaiʻi Triennial. In 2020, she was a co-author of the book ''Refocusing Ethnographic Museums Through Oceanic Lenses''. She has also published works of poetry, including pieces written in

Hawaiian Pidgin Hawaiian Pidgin (alternately, Hawaiʻi Creole English or HCE, known locally as Pidgin) is an English-based creole language spoken in Hawaiʻi. An estimated 600,000 residents of Hawaii speak Hawaiian Pidgin natively and 400,000 speak it as a seco ...

, as well as the children's book ''Raven and the Sun: Echoing Our Ancestors''. She has produced works of traditional art using modern materials, and in 2008, Senator

Daniel Inouye Daniel Ken Inouye ( ; September 7, 1924 – December 17, 2012) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Hawaii from 1963 until his death in 2012. Beginning in 1959, he was the first U.S. representative f ...

, with whom Kahanu worked on the Committee on Indian Affairs, selected her to decorate Hawaii's ornament on the

White House Christmas tree The White House Christmas Tree, also known as the Blue Room Christmas Tree, is the official indoor Christmas tree at the residence of the president of the United States, the White House. The first indoor Christmas tree was installed in the White ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kahanu, Noelle Living people People from Honolulu University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni William S. Richardson School of Law alumni Native Hawaiian writers Native Hawaiian academics Writers from Hawaii University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa faculty Poets from Hawaii American women lawyers Year of birth missing (living people)