Ka Wai Hāpai
Co-Creating Controlled Vocabularies for Social Justice
Literally translated as “the carried waters,” the phrase Ka Wai Hāpai invokes images of the network of systems that care for our knowledge. This 2-year, IMLS-supported initiative seeks to increase equity for, and improve the well-being of, Indigenous communities within libraries and library services, with a specific focus on Native Hawaiian communities. The project plans to increase and improve intellectual access to Hawaiian collections and materials using Native Hawaiian epistemes to formulate and facilitate their retrieval.
Meet the TeAM

Principal Investigator / Project Director
Librarian, UH Maui College shavonn@hawaii.edu

Co-Investigator / Project Team Lead – Hawaiian Language Hawaiʻi-Pacific Resources Librarian, Leeward Community College
aapaikai@hawaii.edu

Co-Investigator / Magic Spinner
Librarian, Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, Hawai’inuiākea, UH Mānoa
keahiahi@hawaii.edu

Metadata Specialist Librarian, Hamilton Library, UH Mānoa mjoyce4@hawaii.edu

Communications Liaison & Evaluator Librarian, Hamilton Library, UH Mānoa ekleiber@hawaii.edu

Data Visualization Specialist Librarian, Hamilton Library, UH Mānoa dmgustav@hawaii.edu

Graduate Research Assistant M.A. Candidate, Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, UH Mānoa hmoniz@hawaii.edu