No Mākou ka Mana (hardcover)

Winner – 2015 Samuel M. Kamakau Award for Hawai‘i Book of the Year

Winner – 2015 Ka Palapala Po‘okela Award of Excellence in Hawaiian Language, Culture and History

"No Mākou ka Mana: Liberating the Nation" asserts that the founders of the Hawaiian Kingdom exercised their own agency and were not just acted upon by foreign powers. The ruling aliʻi selectively appropriated tools and ideas from the West—including laws, religion, educational models, protocols, weapons, printing and map-making technologies, seafaring vessels, clothing, names, and international alliances. The result? A hybrid system based on an enduring tradition of Hawaiian governance and intended to preserve, strengthen, and maintain the lāhui. Using rare primary documents and “Ōiwi optics,” Kamanamaikalani Beamer offers a new point of reference for understanding the motivations, methods, and accomplishments of Hawai‘i’s great leaders.

About the Author

Dr. Kamanamaikalani Beamer is an associate professor at the Center for Hawaiian Studies in the Hui ‘Āina Momona Program at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa with a joint appointment in the Richardson School of Law and the Hawai‘inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge.  Previous to this role Dr. Beamer was the president and chief executive officer of The Kohala Center.  Beamer’s research on governance, land tenure, and Hawaiian resource management, as well as his prior work as the director of ‘Āina-Based Education at Kamehameha Schools, prepared him for his continuing service as a director of Stanford University’s First Nations Futures Institute, a resource management development program for indigenous leaders developed by Stanford, Kamehameha Schools, and Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu in New Zealand.

Beamer has revitalized and maintained lo‘i kalo (taro ponds), providing him and his children opportunities to mālama ‘āina, deepen connections with cultural traditions, and derive leadership lessons from the land. In 2013 he was nominated and confirmed to a four-year appointment on Hawai‘i’s Commission of Water Resource Management and was reconfirmed in 2017 for an additional four-year term.