Rosie Alegado named director of Sea Grant Center for Integrated Science, Knowledge and Culture

Dr. Rosie Alegado

Dr. Rosie ʻAnolani Alegado, assistant professor of oceanography in the Daniel K. Inouye Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education and a faculty member with the University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant College Program (Hawai‘i Sea Grant), has been named the new director of Hawai‘i Sea Grant’s Center for Integrated Science, Knowledge and Culture (CISKC).

Alegado takes over the helm from Dr. Puakea Nogelmeier, who served as the center’s inaugural director until his retirement from the Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language in May.

In 2017, Hawai‘i Sea Grant established CISKC to implement and perpetuate the cultural knowledge of Hawai‘i and the Pacific Islands to current science and research. Since its inception, CISKC has engaged the community in actively caring for the shoreline and marine environment through numerous projects.

For example, on Hawai‘i Island, the Nā Kilo ‘Āina project increases the awareness of natural cycles and place through ongoing monthly monitoring activities and training based on Pilinakai (conservation) and care of islands through relationships. On Kaua‘i, a community-based subsistence fishing area was designated in the Hā‘ena ahupua‘a to reaffirm and protect fishing practices traditionally exercised for native Hawaiian subsistence, culture and religion. Community-generated rules were approved by the state’s Board of Land and Natural Resources, making it the first of its kind in the state.

Among other collaborating projects supported by CISKC is the Institute for Hawaiian Language Research and Translation (IHLRT), a UH system-wide institute whose mission is to provide access to the Hawaiian language repository for all fields of study through research and translation of the extensive archive of Hawaiian language documents.

ILHRT enables more than a century of historical documentation about Hawaiian knowledge and experience to be made available to the public, and provides professional training and innovative learning experiences to Hawaiian language graduate students, the new generation of translation leaders and scholars. Dr. Kaiwipuni “Punihei” Lipe, a UH Mānoa Native Hawaiian affairs specialist, has assumed directorship of IHLRT.     

In February 2018, IHLRT hosted a seminal ʻaha, I Mōhāhā Ka ʻIke: Charting the Ways We Use the Hawaiian Language Repository. The ʻaha brought together many of the institutions and individuals who utilize the Hawaiian language repositories. The day-long ʻaha was followed by a collaborative celebration of progress in the field, A Hoʻolauleʻa of Knowledges, co-hosted by Hawai‘i Sea Grant, CIKSC and IHLRT.

Sir Tīmoti Kāretu, knighted for his championing of native language in Aotearoa, was the keynote speaker for both events.

During his over 30-year tenure with the university, Nogelmeier transformed the resource base for Hawaiian language and touched the lives of each and every staff, faculty member and graduate student he encountered. His mentorship lives on through many Hawaiian language professionals, including Hawaiian immersion school teachers who share his passion and teachings with their students. His reach extends far beyond the walls of the university as well, and through his work on high-profile projects, such as the translation of the Walt Disney Pictures movie Moana into ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i, and consulting on a new place-based adaptation of The Nutcracker, he ensures that people around the world have access to the Hawaiian language.

Nogelmeier remains the executive director of Awaiaulu, an educational non-profit organization that perpetuates and advances the Hawaiian language, trains Hawaiian language translators and editors, and generates Hawaiian language publications. In 2011, through this initiative, a worldwide effort was staged to digitize the entire collection of Hawaiian-language newspapers and make the repository searchable by Hawaiian keyword. Through this effort and funding by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, all the pages were completed by 2012.

Said Alegado, “Puakea’s scholarship and dedication to opening the Hawaiian language archives enables the voices of our kupuna to be heard broadly today. In helping to train the next generation of Hawaiian language scholars, he has assured that the wisdom of our ancestors can be recognized and stand with equivalent footing to contemporary research in Hawaiʻi.”

In her new position, Alegado seeks to help Hawaiʻi Sea Grant define its kuleana (roles and responsibilities) within a Hawaiian place of learning, a strategic goal of UH Mānoa. Together with the non-profit Kuaʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo and Hawai‘i Sea Grant, she is involved in developing kūlana noiʻi, a process wherein researchers build and sustain equitable partnerships with the community.

“Rosie brings the experience and vision that will expand and inspire the ongoing integration that this Center of Excellence was established for,” said Nogelmeier. “She co-founded this Center of Excellence and has been a driving force since its inception.”

Alegado is a member of Hawai‘i Sea Grant’s Coastal Resilience and Sustainability Team, a multi-disciplinary cohort comprised of seven tenure-track faculty in various departments throughout UH Mānoa.

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The University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant College Program is part of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s prestigious School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. It supports an innovative program of research, education and extension services directed to the improved understanding and stewardship of coastal and marine resources of the state, region and nation. Science serving Hawai‘i and the Pacific since 1968.

For more information, visit: http://seagrant.soest.hawaii.edu/