Johanna 
Kapōmaikaʻi Stone

Johanna Kapōmaikaʻi Stone, Kumu Pōmaʻi to her students and colleagues in the Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language, teaches with a profound sense of the intimacy of the Hawaiian language. “As an exchange student, I couldn’t imagine the transformative effect on my life from being a part of Kumu Pōmai’s class. Being able to see the power to connect to the ancestral lineage, to feel the gratitude for ancestral wisdom, the land, communities, all Earth’s inhabitants and elements.” The themes of each class provide solutions to problems through ancestral wisdom.

Highly articulate and serious, while infusing humor and hoʻomālō exercises which every student will remember for many years, as they are grounded in the philosophy that language and the body are inseparable, that each language ultimately a form of body language. Her colleagues recognize her as an instructor who consistently names the risky, challenging, and uncomfortable feelings that accompany authentic teaching and learning. Kumu Pōmai’s vast cultural-historical knowledge offers students ways to question “what is” and dream of “what could be.” “I will be forever grateful.”