On February 12, 2026, Hauʻolihiwahiwa Moniz, librarian at Leeward Community College, served as a guest speaker for the Indigenous Librarianship course at the University of Alberta’s School of Library and Information Studies. The session was hosted by Professors Lorisia and Kirk MacLeod, whose course examines Indigenous approaches to knowledge organization, stewardship, and library practice.
Moniz’s presentation explored the Nā Mea Kanu Series, a bimonthly library programming initiative she developed at the Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies’ Laka me Lono Resource Center. Nā Mea Kanu is grounded in an innovative Indigenous knowledge organization system designed by Moniz that centers Hawaiian religious and ecological frameworks. The system organizes library collections, programming, and related cultural activities through akua (Native Hawaiian gods), their kino lau (body and elemental forms), and associated ʻike (knowledge domains), offering an alternative to Western classification models.
Through this framework, patrons are able to engage library materials relationally, connecting texts, archival resources, plants, seasons, and cultural practices, rather than encountering collections as disconnected subjects. The Nā Mea Kanu Series extends this system into experiential programming, supporting deeper access, cultural literacy, and community engagement within the library.
The presentation also situated this work within broader Indigenous librarianship discourse. It complemented an international, Mellon Foundation–funded research project for which Moniz served as Principal Investigator. That project documented contemporary Indigenous librarianship practices and environments across 40 Indigenous communities globally, representing the first major primary-data study in the field that moved beyond single case studies.
Students have engaged with the global study over the course of the semester. To read this study please visit:
https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/items/2ef1a453-e0bc-406a-913e-f041c440e770
This invitation reflects the growing international interest in Indigenous librarianship practices that are place-based, relational, and rooted in Indigenous knowledge systems, and highlights the role of Hawaiian approaches in shaping conversations about the future of libraries worldwide.
