Rosanna ‘Anolani Alegado
Rosanna ‘Anolani Alegado (rosie.alegado@hawaii.edu) is Associate Professor,
Department of Oceanography, Director, Hawai‘i Sea Grant Ulana ‘Ike
Center of Excellence, and Co-Director, SOEST Maile Mentoring Bridge Program,
University of Hawai‘i Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, USA.
I ola Kanaloa,1 i ola kākou: In the thriving of Kanaloa, we all will thrive. Social justice, equal-
ity, aloha ‘āina: these tenets are embedded in the fiber of my being. I was born and raised in
Hawai‘i at the heart of the largest and most ancient ocean on Earth. As a child of grassroots
community activists and scholars, I was ingrained with a clear and unique view of the social
issues faced by the ‘ōiwi (Native Hawaiian), local, and immigrant communities. I have car-
ried this upbringing into all stages of my life, as both a community member and a scientist.
Mai ke kai, mai ke ola: From the ocean comes life. I center a critical ‘ōiwi perspective on
research by training scholars to draw upon multiple knowledge systems to address key
problems and empower communities to understand and protect their resources. I direct
the ME*E Lab, which applies contemporary and ‘ōiwi methodologies within a One Health
framework to understand eco-evolutionary processes influencing the microbiomes of
Indigenous seascapes.
Kūlana Noi‘i: A kanaka ‘ōiwi-centered framework for ethical research with communities.
My research and service are rooted in meaningful academic collaborations and partner-
ships with Indigenous communities. Together with community partners, I was involved in
co-developing Kūlana Noi‘i, a process for building and sustaining equitable relationships
between researchers and communities. It has been very exciting to see the He‘eia National
Estuarine Research Reserve adopt and adapt Kūlana Noi‘i in guiding their research pro-
tocols with community partners. As part of supporting ethical research practices, I feel a
strong obligation to advocate for Indigenous data sovereignty for Native peoples to avoid
extraction of customary knowledge.
E noke mau: Be persistent. When the School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology
(SOEST) hired me 10 years ago, I was the first kanaka ‘ōiwi tenure-track faculty member in
its 35-year history. At the time, it was not always clear that my colleagues understood or val-
ued the work that I did. Nevertheless, I realized the significance of my work to the Native
Hawaiian community and to other young researchers in ocean sciences and persisted.
I have been privileged to have the strong support of my community, and this support has
driven me forward. I have also been fortunate to have the support of my family. The first five
years of my faculty position was rocky—my husband was still practicing law in California,
and I had to raise our four-year-old and a nine-month-old mostly on my own. Our fami-
lies helped care for our children, enabling me to establish and grow my research and lab.
Over the past 10 years, I’ve seen a tremendous improvement in the number of Native
Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders (NHPI) majoring in the geosciences, pursuing graduate
degrees, and attaining tenure-track faculty positions in SOEST. These new generations of
NHPI in SOEST have reinforced my determination to continue to work toward transform-
ing the geosciences and training scholar-practitioners.
1 Kanaloa is one of the four principal deities in Hawaiian culture and embodies natural cycles, processes, and organ-
isms related to the open ocean and aquifers. The island of Kaho‘olawe is also a sacred body form of Kanaloa.
Photo credit: Nick Neumann