Join Kumu Māhealani Uchiyama for a presentation where she will share her research on Pōpoloheno - Songs of Resilience & Joy. Pōpoloheno is an unprecedented musical initiative celebrating the often-overlooked contributions of African-descended individuals in post-contact Hawaiian history. This transformative project, sponsored by the Gerbode Foundation, and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, has resulted in an album of original music released in June 2025 and will culminate with concert performances in San Francisco and on Oʻahu in August, 2025.

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‍Pōpoloheno highlights the historical bonds between Hawaiian and African cultures, recognizing shared values, struggles, and resilience. This project seeks to challenge misrepresentations, deepen cultural understanding, and create a lasting musical tribute to Black history in Hawai’i.

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Kumu Māhealani will dive deeply into her research and the creation of the song and hula celebrating Betsey Stockton, the very first woman of African descent in Hawaiʻi. The event will culminate in a short performance.

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Kumu Hula Māhealani Uchiyama is an award-winning dancer, musician, composer, choreographer, recording artist, author and teacher. She studied hula primarily under Kumu Hula Joseph Kamohaʻi Kahāʻulelio. She is the founder and director of the Māhea Uchiyama Center for International Dance (MUCID) of Berkeley, California (a non-profit organization) and is Kumu Hula (hula teacher) of Hālau Ka Ua Tuahine. She is the creator and director of the Kāpili Polynesian Dance & Music Workshops.

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‍She has led performance tours to Tahiti, New Zealand and the islands of Hawai’i, and has taught workshops throughout the United States and Mexico. She has taught Hawaiian Language at Stanford University and authored the Haumāna Hula Handbook for Students of Hawaiian Dance, and The Mbira, An African Musical Tradition (both published by North Atlantic Books / Penguin Random House).

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She has released numerous collections of Hawaiian and Tahitian music. Her CDs “Tatau” and “Pasifika” are widely used by Polynesian dance organizations worldwide. She has two recordings of mbira, the spiritual music of the Shona people of Zimbabwe, “Ndoro dze Madzinza” and “The Sky That Covers Us All”. Her CD “A Walk by the Sea” was awarded a Hawai’i Music Award for Best World Music Album.

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She is currently using her unique perspective as a lineally recognized Kumu Hula and one of (possibly the only) Kumu Hula of African descent to inform her next recording project, Pōpoloheno: Songs of Resilience and Joy – The Untold Stories of Africans in Post-Contact Hawaiian History, supported by grants from the Gerbode Foundation and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation.

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