Meet The Team

Keani Kaleimamahu

President

Nick Kālāmakani Francisco

Vice President

Kanoe Suganuma Wilson

Treasurer

Shelley Kalei Muneoka

Secretary

Keani Kaleimamahu

President

Our Team

Aloha, eia no ma ka aina o Puna paia ala i ka hala, o ia kahi au e noho nei, me kuu wahine, o Leialoha, a me kuu kaikamahine, o Leipuna ka inoa. Ua hoomaka ka huakai lua au i ka makahihi 1990 me Pakuialua ma Oahu aku. I ka makahiki 2002 au i nee mai ai i Keawe, ka moku. E ola i ka oihana lua o ka poe maoli, o ia kau pahu hope. Mahalo i ka poe i ko me ke kua mai iau i ka holomua ana aku i keia ala haiki i uka.

Worked as a commercial fisherman and diver for many years on various commercial boats. Had a fishing and diving business in the late 1980s. Career as a Heavy Equipment Operator for Operating Engineers Local 3 for 17 years. He was a Job foreman for Pacific Landscape Corporation for 6 plus years. Attended HCC and the University of Hawai‘i with a degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences. Currently employed by KS Hawai‘i, as a grounds keeper. Studied and trained in lua under ʻŌlohe lua Likeke Paglinawan, and Moses Kalauokalani as well as Sensei Libert OʻSulliven for almost 30 years. Enjoys holoholo in the ocean, hiking, and diving. Loves to do wood work, mahi ʻai all types of vegetables, from kalo, fruit trees and vanilla. I enjoy training and teaching lua and would like to learn other forms of fighting arts from various Pacific Islanders.

Nick Kālāmakani Francisco

Vice-president

Nick Kālāmakani Francisco is a lifelong learner. Graduating from KSK ʻ00 and Loyola Marymount University, CA. receiving a BA in Classical Civilizations with a Minor in Music in ʻ04 as well as his Masters in General Education with a focus on Elementary in ʻ05.

Kālāmakani is also a continually learning haumana of Hāloa and has been blessed to have learned from many kūpuna from across the pae 'āina about the world of kalo. He is a practitioner of the mahi 'ai practices of Puna, Hawai'i as taught to him by his mentor 'Anakala Jerry Konanui and others of the Konanui and Puna 'ohana. Kālāmakani has a small māla 'ai at his home in Keaʻau, Puna where he spends his time practicing all that he has learned and working toward food security for his ʻohana. He spends his free time working in the Puna community serving his kuleana to freely share the kuʻi kalo and mahiʻai practices that were freely shared with him. His personal goal is to re-establish the agricultural independence of our past for our Lāhui today.

From 2009 until this past ʻ21-ʻ22 school year, he has worked as a Literacy Resource Teacher, HCBE Curriculum Creator, Instructional Coach, and provided Teacher Professional Development Trainings on Hawai'i. This service in his community was a part of the former community outreach programs of the Kamehameha Schools Literacy Instruction & Support Division and later known as Kealapono. Kālāmakani has taught and designed curriculum for Kindergarten through 6th grade classes.

Kālāmakani is passionate about learning and sharing the knowledge of our kūpuna.

Kanoe Suganuma Wilson

Treasurer

He kama wau o ka ‘āina ho‘opulapula ‘o Keaukaha, ‘o ia ku‘u one hānau a me ko ka‘u ‘ohana kekahi. He mamo wau o na ‘ohana ‘o Kawahinekoa, Ka‘anā‘anā, Kekūhaupi‘o, a me Keawekekahiali‘iokamoku.
Aia ko‘u piko ma ka piko o Wakea, ‘o ia nō ‘o Mauna a Wakea. Aia ko‘u ‘iewe ma ka wai ola o Kane, ‘o ia nō ʻo Wailoa. He ‘oiwi wau ma kēia ‘āina nei.
‘O wau ka hiapo o ko‘u ‘ohana. ‘O Kamakana lāua ‘o Kapulani ko‘u mau makua. He wahine wau a male wau i ka‘u lei aloha ‘o Charlies Kaimiola Wilson no iwakalua makahiki. ‘Ekolu a maua keiki i hānai ‘ia, ‘o Kalaninui he kaikamahine (19), ‘O Lono he keikikane (18), a me Palikapu ka muliloa (14).

Kanoe has been a member of Kuʻialuaopuna since its inception. Kanoe was a part of the first papa of ʻŌlohe Keani when he started his pā on Hawaiʻi island and has been his haumāna ever since. Kanoe has dedicated over twenty years to supporting the pā and she looks forward to hoʻomau for generations to come! E pūpūkahi i holomua kākou.

Kanoe Wilson brings a wealth of experience in Native Hawaiian education, ʻāina-based education, and cultural knowledge to Ku'ialuaopuna . She is Hawai‘i island born and raised. She grew up in Keaukaha Homestead and currently lives in Waikahekahenui, Puna, Hawai'i. She is a 1991 graduate of Kamehameha Schools Kapālama. She has a B.A. and an M.A. in Hawaiian Studies from the University of Hawai‘i, as well as a Master’s in Education (M.Ed.) from Chaminade University. She is a doctoral candidate in UH-Mānoa College of Education She is currently employed as a Senior Project Manager for Kealaiwikuamoʻo at Kamehameha Schools where she works closely with the Kanaeokana Kula Hawai‘i Network, The Department of Education, University of Hawai‘i System,and national professional organizations throughout the US and abroad. Previously, she was the Land Legacy Education Specialist with the ʻĀina Ulu Program with Kamehameha Schools where she was responsible for the development and management of ʻĀina-based educational programs and collaborations for KS agriculture and conservation efforts on a portfolio of over 360,000 acres across the state.

Shelley Kalei Muneoka

Director of Development/Secretary

Aloha mai kākou, ʻo wau ʻo Shelley Kalei Muneoka, no Heʻeia Uli mai au, i ka malu o nā pali Koʻolau. Kalei graduated from Kamehameha Kapālama in 2003 and went on to earn a Bachelorʻs degree in Sociology with a minor in Japanese language from the University of Evansville in southern Indiana. She returned home to complete a Masterʻs degree in Social Work. Sheʻs worked at various non-profits and educational institutions over the years, always with the healing and uplifting of the broader lāhui in mind. Today, she works at the Unviersty of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa on a research project that focuses on different aspects of later life for Native Hawaiian kūpuna.

Much of Kalei’s lifeʻs work focuses on the care of elders, past, present and future, both human and more-than-human. She is involved in a number of different advocacy efforts for ancestral places and practices that make Hawaiʻi unique. Kalei has had the privilege of connecting with and caring for kūpuna over the years and believes in the power of learning and passing on their stories.

Kalei met and began training with ‘Ōlohe Keani in 2014 and has been enriched by the many facets of lua.