Kamanamaikalani Beamer

Kamanamaikalani Beamer, PhD, is a full professor in the Hui ʻĀina Momona Program at the University of Hawaiʻi-Mānoa. He serves a dual appointment in the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge and in the William S. Richardson School of Law as part of Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law. Dr. Beamer’s research interests and publications focus on indigenous agency, governance, Native Hawaiian land tenure, Hawaiian resource management, and land and resource law of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Dr. Beamer has an ongoing international collaboration in the study of the Circular Economy (CE) in partnership with colleagues from the University of Augsburg. This international knowledge exchange has guided recent work exploring how aloha ʻāina as an indigenous philosophy, and the CE as a modern economic approach, can inform each other in enacting systemic economic change and transitioning to a more sustainable and equitable society.

Dr. Beamer is one of the fourteen co-founders of ʻĀina Aloha Economic Futures (AAEF), an initiative with the goal of uplifting Hawaiian values to guide economic recovery efforts. By prioritizing community-centered engagement, AAEF has advised economic development strategies centered around aloha ʻāina since April 2020. In June 2021, he concluded two consecutive terms as a Commissioner on the Hawaiʻi State Water Resource Management Commission. After eight years of service, accomplishments include the restoration of water for forty-five streams across Hawaiʻi. In August 2021, Dr. Beamer began serving a five-year appointment as the inaugural Dana Naone Hall Endowed Chair in Hawaiian Studies, Literature, and the Environment. In this position, he will continue to advance aloha ʻāina locally–and at an international level–through research, policy, and community partnerships that address food systems and waste, water resources, and Circular Economies.

He has previously served as president and chief executive officer of The Kohala Center, director of ‘Āina-Based Education at Kamehameha Schools, and director of Stanford University’s First Nations Futures Institute. In addition to numerous academic publications, in 2014 Beamer published No Mākou ka Mana: Liberating the Nation, which received multiple awards including the Samuel M. Kamakau Book of the Year Award from the Hawai‘i Book Publishing Association.  His second book, an edited volume in collaboration with Dr. Peter Vitousek of Stanford University, and Dr. Te Maire Tau of the University of Canterbury is in production with Yale University Press.  

Book Publications

• K. Beamer, P. Vitousek, T. Tau. Islands and Cultures: How Pacific Islands Can Influence How We Understand The World, Yale Press (In Press).
• K. Beamer,  Waiwai—Water and the Future of Hawai‘i, (Under Contract University of Hawaiʻi Press
• K. Beamer, No Mākou Ka Mana—Liberating the Nation, Kamehameha Publishing, (2014).

International and National Peer Reviewed Journals

• K.Beamer, Axel Tuma, Kawena Elkington, et. al. Reflections on Sustainability Concepts: Aloha ʻĀina and the Circular Economy. Sustainability. (2021) 
• K. Beamer, Kawika Winter, Et. Al Engaging Indigenous Agency Through Collaborative Management to Achieve Effective Conservation in Hawaiʻi.  Pacific Conservation Biology. (2021) 
• K. Beamer, Kawika Winter, Et. Al.  The Moku System: Managing biocultural resources for abundance within social-ecological regions.  Sustainability, Sustainable Use of the Environment and Resources, Special Issue on Biocultural Restoration in Hawaiʻi. (2018). 
• K. Beamer, J. Osorio, Sullying the Scholar’s Craft: An Essay and Criticism of Judge James S. Burns’ Crown Lands Trust Article, University of Hawai‘i Law Review, vol. 39 No.2 (2017).
• K. Beamer, W. Tong, The Mahele Did What? Hulili Multidisciplinary Research on Native Hawaiian Well Being, vol. 10 (2016). 
• K. Beamer, L. Gonschor, Toward an inventory of ahupua‘a in the Hawaiian Kingdom: A survey of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century cartographic and archival records of the island of Hawai‘i, The Hawaiian Journal of History, vol. 48 (2014)
• K. Beamer, Ke ao naʻauao maoli, Aboriginal Education World, No. 47. (2012).
• K. Beamer, Ali‘i Selective Appropriation of Modernity—Examining Colonial Assumptions In Hawai‘i Prior to 1893, AlterNative An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples (5) pp. 138-155. (2009).
• B.K. Beamer, T.K. Duarte, I palapala no ia aina—Documenting the Hawaiian Kingdom, A Colonial Venture? The Journal of Historical Geography (35) pp. 66-86. (2009).
• K. Beamer, Kawika Winter, Et. Al. The Moku System: Managing biocultural resources for abundance within social-ecological regions.  Sustainability, Sustainable Use of the Environment and Resources, Special Issue on Biocultural Restoration in Hawaiʻi (2018). ScholarSpace
• K. Beamer, J Osorio, Sullying the Scholar's Craft: An Essay and Criticism of Judge James Burns' Crown Lands Trust Article, University of Hawaiʻi Law Review, vol. 39 No. 2  (2017). HeinOnline | ScholarSpace
• K. Beamer, W. Tong, The Mahele Did What? Hulili Multidisciplinary Research on Native Hawaiian Well Being, vol. 10 (2016). ScholarSpace
• K. Beamer, L. Gonschor, Toward an inventory of ahupua‘a in the Hawaiian Kingdom: A survey of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century cartographic and archival records of the island of Hawai‘i, The Hawaiian Journal of History, vol. 48 (2014). ScholarSpace
• K. Beamer, Ke ao naʻauao maoli, Aboriginal Education World, No. 47. (2012). 
• K. Beamer, Ali‘i Selective Appropriation of Modernity—Examining Colonial Assumptions In Hawai‘i Prior to 1893, AlterNative An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples (5) pp. 138-155. (2009). ScholarSpace
• B.K. Beamer, T.K. Duarte, I palapala no ia aina—Documenting the Hawaiian Kingdom, A Colonial Venture? The Journal of Historical Geography (35) pp. 66-86. (2009). ScholarSpace
• K. Beamer & T.K Duarte, Mapping the Hawaiian Kingdom: A Colonial Venture, 2 Haw. J.L. & Pol. 34 (2006). HeinOnline | ScholarSpace

Book Chapters

• Kamanamaikalani Beamer, “He Aliʻi Ka ʻĀina, E mau kona Ea,” in Routledge Handbook of Critical Indigenous Studies, Edited by Brendan Hokowhiti, Aileen Morton-Robinson, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Steve Larkin, and Chris Anderson.  Routledge Press (2020) 

• Kamanamaikalani Beamer, “An Aloha ʻĀina Economy, Give, Take, Regenerate” in, The Value of Hawai'i 3 :Hulihia the Turning. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu: (Goodyear-Kaʻopua et.al. eds., 2020).

• Kamanamaikalani Beamer, “The Kingdom of Hawaiʻi,” in Voting and Political Representation in America:  Issues and Trends, Edited by Mark P. Jones.  Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO (2020)

• Kamanamaikalani  Beamer, “Only 20 Ahupuaʻa Away,” In Detours: A Decolonial Guide to Hawaiʻi Aikau, Hokulani K. and Vernadette V. Gonzalez, editors. (Duke University Press, 2019)

• Kamanamaikalani  Beamer, “Tūtū’s aloha ʻāina grace” in, The Value of Hawai'i 2: Ancestral Roots, Oceanic Visions. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu: (Goodyear-Kaʻopua &Yamashiro eds., 2014).
• Kamanamaikalani Beamer, “ʻŌiwi Leadership and ʻĀina” in, I Ulu I Ka ʻĀina: The Hawaiʻinuiākea Monograph Series Vol II, University of Hawaiʻi Press & HSHK, Honolulu: (Osorio, Andrews, & Benham eds., December 2013).
• Kamanamaikalani  Beamer and Peter Vitousek, “Traditional Ecological Values, Knowledge, and Practices in Twenty-First Century Hawaiʻi”in, Linking Ecology and Ethics for a Changing World, Cary Conference Proceedings, Springer Press, New York: (Rozzi, Pickett, & Palmer eds., December 2013) 
• Kamanamaikalani Beamer, “The Kingdom of Hawaiʻi,” in Voting and Political Representation in America: Issues and Trends, Edited by Mark P. Jones.  (ABC-CLIO, 2020).
• Kamanamaikalani  Beamer, “Only 20 Ahupuaʻa Away,” In Detours: A Decolonial Guide to Hawaiʻi Aikau, Hokulani K. and Vernadette V. Gonzalez, editors. (Duke University Press, 2019).
• Kamanamaikalani  Beamer, “Tūtū’s aloha ʻāina grace” in, The Value of Hawai'i 2: Ancestral Roots, Oceanic Visions. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu: (Goodyear-Kaʻopua &Yamashiro eds., 2014). ScholarSpace
• Kamanamaikalani B. Beamer, “ʻŌiwi Leadership and ʻĀina” in, I Ulu I Ka ʻĀina: The Hawaiʻinuiākea Monograph Series Vol II, University of Hawaiʻi Press & HSHK, Honolulu: (Osorio, Andrews, & Benham eds., December 2013). 
• Kamanamaikalani B. Beamer and Peter Vitousek, “Traditional Ecological Values, Knowledge, and Practices in Twenty-First Century Hawaiʻi” in, Linking Ecology and Ethics for a Changing World, Cary Conference Proceedings, Springer Press, New York: (Rozzi, Pickett, & Palmer eds., December 2013).

K. Beamer, No Mākou Ka Mana—Liberating the Nation, Kamehameha Publishing, (2014).