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Kumu Hina      

Hawaiian Transgender Teacher & Community Leader

Kumu Hina is a Native Hawaiian teacher, cultural practitioner and filmmaker who uses digital media to protect and perpetuate indigenous languages and traditions. She began her film work as a protagonist and educational advisor for the award winning films "Kumu Hina" and "A Place in the Middle," and received a National Education Association Human Rights Award, Native Hawaiian Educator of the year and White House Champion of Change for the groundbreaking impact campaigns associated with those films.

Continuing her journey to the other side of the lens, Kumu Hina produced the award-winning short "Lady Eva" and PBS feature documentary "Leitis" in Waiting about her transgender sisters in the Kingdom of Tonga. Kapaemahu is her first film in Olelo Niihau, in which she is fluent. Hina is also a transgender health advocate, burial council chair, candidate for the Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and composer of “Ku Haaheo E Kuu Hawaii,” the internationally known anthem for the protection of Mauna Kea. Hina is a community advocate on a range of issues including Aina-based education, Malama Iwi Kupuna and Mahu/LGBTQI subject areas was born and raised on the island of O’ahu.

She is fluent in Hawaiian language and can communicate in several other Polynesian dialects and has formally studied Tongan, Samoan and Tahitian languages. She is a graduate of the Kamehameha Schools Kapalama Class of 1990 and a twice graduate of the University of Hawaii at Manoa in Hawaiian Studies and Education.

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