Kanoeʻulalani Morishige, Ph.D.
Kanoeʻulalani Morishige, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor
Embedded Files
Assistant Professor
ʻO wau iho nō ʻo Kanoeʻulalani Morishige a no Oʻahu mai au. He Hawaiʻi au, he makuahine au, a he mea kālaimeaolakai nō hoʻi au. I am a Kānaka ʻŌiwi scientist deeply committed to supporting ʻĀina Momona, healthy and thriving communities of people and place.
Palena ʻole ka mahalo i koʻu ʻohana, nā kūpuna, nāʻ āina, nā kumu, a me nā kaiāulu makamaka ola that I have the privilege of serving and learning from. Mahalo to the ʻŌiwi leaders and communities who created the foundation for us to build on and fought many battles to make what we do today possible.
My Background
My Background
My academic path has led me to earn Bachelor's degrees in Hawaiian Studies and Marine Science at the University of Hawaiʻi in Hilo in 2012 and a Ph.D. in Marine Biology from here at UH Mānoa. As a co-founding member of Na Maka Onaona and a researcher trained in both Western and Indigenous methodologies, I apply biocultural research through tools assessing reproductive biology and seasonal variation in community diversity and population ecology of key intertidal grazers, ʻopihi and hāʻukeʻuke, limu (algae/seaweed), and local biophysical drivers of changes. Over the past 16 years, this long-term biocultural monitoring has evolved through ʻŌiwi inquiry of kilo through Huli ʻia and exploring various tools of western science to understand the seasonal productivity of coastal ecosystems working alongside ʻŌiwi communities.
Before joining Kamakakūokalani as faculty, I helped manage the Native Hawaiian Program at NOAA’s Papahānaumokuākea National Marine Sanctuary and UNESCO Mixed Natural and Cultural World Heritage Site, supporting the weaving of ʻŌiwi knowledge, values, practices, and communities in research, governance, and policy through Mai Ka Pō Mai.
Mahalo to these organizations and programs that have been part of my journey:
Keaholoa STEM Program at UH Hilo
PIPES Program at UH Hilo
The Nature Conservancy Marine Fellowship Program
I am a Kānaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) scientist and Assistant Professor at the Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where I also serve as graduate faculty in the Sustainable Fisheries Program. In an ʻŌiwi worldview, fisheries are part of ʻāina ( that which feeds, sources of sustenance) and my research focuses on transforming fisheries research and management through ʻĀina Momona (healthy and thriving communities of people and place). Within this framework, ʻāina is our kumu (teacher) and kūpuna (ancestor). Huli ʻia is our process of being present, paying attention, and learning to re-remember how to read the stories of our ʻāina. Through Huli ʻia, we weave ʻike kūpuna (ancestral knowledge) and kilo as an ʻŌiwi scientific methodology with tools of institutional Western science to build our collective understanding of what ʻāina needs to be productive, healthy, and resilient.
As co-founder of Nā Maka Onaona, I work alongside ʻŌiwi communities through pilina (relationships) grounded in long-term commitment to people and place, reciprocity, and accountability. Together, we conduct place-based research and long-term monitoring to understand how marine populations and ecosystems change across space and time, including the environmental drivers of productivity, growth, reproduction, and population size. By listening to and learning from ʻāina, this research seeks to understand how we can adapt our actions to support the regeneration and abundance of marine ecosystems and the subsistence fisheries that feed our communities. Building from almost two decades of working alongside ʻŌiwi communities on research in intertidal ecosystems through Nā Maka Onaona’s ʻĀina Momona framework, I am interested in expanding research and monitoring across loko iʻa (Hawaiian fishponds), kahawai (streams), muliwai (estuaries), and Papahānaumokuākea.
My broader research interests examine how we can transform the systems surrounding fisheries science, management, education, and decision making. I am particularly interested in Indigenous Data Sovereignty, community-based monitoring and research of coastal ecosystems, strengthening ʻŌiwi engagement in the research, stewardship, and management of Papahānaumokuākea, and developing ʻāina-based field schools where students learn directly from place, communities, kiaʻi, and practitioners. I see these field schools as spaces to bring research, teaching, and community priorities together while preparing students to understand the responsibilities that come with conducting research and working in Hawaiʻi.
Working with community and agency partners, I am interested in how we can de-center institutional Western science, strengthen the agency of ʻŌiwi communities and the authority of ʻŌiwi knowledge systems, and rethink how research, management, education, and policy work together through an ʻĀina Momona framework. This includes expanding how we define and measure success by asking whose knowledge is valued, who participates, who makes decisions, and whether our institutions are creating meaningful pathways for ʻŌiwi, Pacific Islander, and local students to enter fisheries and ocean sciences, advance professionally, and move into leadership and decision-making positions across community, government, nonprofit, academic, and other sectors. Ultimately, this work is about supporting the regeneration of ʻāina while growing the next generation of kiaʻi and aloha ʻāina who have the knowledge, relationships, opportunities, and authority to shape the future of fisheries in Hawaiʻi and the Pacific.
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