Jonathan Kay Kamakawiwoʻole Osorio has worn many pāpale (hats)—historian, award-winning musician, advocate, kumu (teacher) and dean. After nearly a decade guiding the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, he is stepping away from administration and back into the classroom, where his career began more than 30 years ago.
“I consider the last eight years maybe the most blessed time of my life. The things I learned, about how a university operates, how to work with people around me that didn’t see eye to eye with what we were trying to do, how to be persuasive, all of those things were really amazing to me,” said Osorio.
The kānaka ʻōiwi (Native Hawaiian) scholar became dean in 2017 at age 68, following years of service as a professor and director of the Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies. During his tenure, Hawaiʻinuiākea strengthened its reputation as the nation’s only college of Indigenous knowledge at a Research I university.
In 2024, the school earned a 10-year renewal of accreditation from the World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium, a testament to its role in preserving and revitalizing Hawaiian language, culture and values.
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- UH haumāna explore Kalākaua and Hawaiian Kingdom’s legacy in Japan, May 27, 2025
Full circle return
While proud of these milestones, Osorio expressed his heart has always been in teaching.
“It’s time to go back to teaching and let a younger, more vigorous and eager person take this job on. And I know it will be a blessing to that person whoever it is.”
Osorio, born and raised in Hilo, Hawaiʻi, began teaching in 1991 as an instructor at Kapiʻolani Community College. He joined UH Mānoa in 1994 and advanced from assistant to full professor of Hawaiian studies. His scholarship has shaped the field of 19th-century Hawaiian political and social history, while his music, recognized with a lifetime achievement award from the Hawaiʻi Academy of Recording Arts in 2019, remains beloved across the islands.
A search committee has been formed to find Osorio’s successor, and the position is expected to be filled by August 2026. The committee will be chaired by Kapā Oliveira, UH Mānoa interim vice provost for Student Success, and a former Hawaiian language professor at Hawaiʻinuiākea
