Kamalani M. F. H. Johnson (he/him) is a Kanaka Maoli political theorist, writer, and educator whose work is grounded in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language) and two decades of linguistic training, from the Pūnana Leo immersion schools to his MA in Indigenous Language and Culture Education and PhD in Political Science. This linguistic mastery provides direct, critical access to the Hawaiian language newspaper archive (nūpepa), which he approaches as an insurgent philosophical archive.

     Currently a Postdoctoral Associate at Brown University, central to his scholarship is the concept of pūkuʻi—a foundational Kanaka Maoli philosophy of binding knowledge, sovereign refusal, and ecological care. This theory challenges colonial demands for transparency and extraction by demonstrating how thinkers like J. W. H. I. Kihe (1854–1930) encoded relational silences and ceremonial opacity to protect knowledge and maintain political autonomy.

      His research draws upon Hawaiian-language newspapers, mele, and moʻolelo to explore themes of intellectual sovereignty, climate memory, and political futures for Kānaka Maoli. His scholarly contributions appear in journals such as Hūlili and Journal of World Philosophies, and he is a contributing author to multiple edited volumes on Indigenous philosophy and literary studies. His work appears/will appear in Approaches to Hawaiʻi Philosophy, Foundations and Futures, and Moʻolelo: The Foundation of Hawaiian Knowledge.

     Kamalani has taught courses in Hawaiian language, literature, oratory, and Indigenous knowledge systems at the University of Hawaiʻi. He is an award-winning writer and a fellow with organizations such as Kamehameha Schools and the Pacific Islands Development Program. A committed community advocate, he serves on the board of Hoʻāla ʻĀina Kūpono and has contributed to over a dozen Hawaiian-language publications and translation projects.