About me
D. Kuʻualohanui Kauliʻa was born in ʻEwa, Oʻahu, and raised on Hawaiian Homestead lands in Nānākuli as the muli loa (youngest) of ten children. His father was born in Kakaʻako and raised in Kaʻū, Hawaiʻi, while his mother’s ʻohana is from Hāna, Maui. From an early age, Kuʻu spoke Hawaiian, learning from his father, family elders, and kūpuna within the Waiʻanae community, and later developed fluency in the Niʻihau dialect. Surrounded by a family of Hawaiian entertainers and recording artists spanning the 1930s through the 1970s, he grew up immersed in traditional Hawaiian music.
His hula journey began in February 1980 with Kumu Hula (Loea) Leialoha Lim Amina. He later trained with C. Hoku Rasmussen, Moon, and Lydia Kauakahi, Darrell Lupenui, John Kaʻimikaua, George Holokaʻi, and Kimo Alama-Keaulana, under whom he completed ʻūniki rites in hula ʻōlapa, hula ʻalaʻapapa, and hula pahu. In the early 1990s, he also studied traditional hula and oli with Kumu Hula Kalani Akana.
Kuʻu taught in the Department of Education Hawaiian Immersion Program from 1987 to 1997, later teaching at ʻIlima Intermediate School and Kamehameha Schools Maui. Since the mid-1990s, his instruction has reached communities across Hawaiʻi, the continental United States, and Japan. For more than two decades, he served the Queen Liliʻuokalani Children’s Center and Kamehameha Schools.
In 2000, he was trained as a Haku Hoʻoponopono by Aunty Malia Craver and later assisted in mentoring Kamehameha Schools staff in the practice. Before retiring from Kamehameha Schools in December 2022, he ʻūniki-graduated six haumāna to continue the hula lineage of Loea Hula Joseph Ilalaole of Kaʻū and Puna—a legacy he holds especially dear, inspired by his mentor Kimo Alama-Keaulana.
E ola, e ola, e ola loa i ke aloha!
