Miwa Tamanaha’s ancestors first came to Hawaiʻi from Okinawa in the late 1800s to work sugar plantations; she is the fifth generation of her family to call Hawaiʻi home. Miwa considers herself a “recovering economist” — holding undergraduate and graduate degrees in economics from the University of Southern California. Miwa has studied in facilitation with revered elder Aunty Puanani Burgess, and also draws from training in Facilitative Leadership. She also credits Eric Enos, Kamuela Enos, the late Uncle Henry Chang Wo, Jr., Aunty Kekuhi Kealiʻikanakaʻole and Halau ʻŌhiʻa, Aunty Lynette Paglinawan, Kealoha Pisciotta, Dr. Debbie Gowensmith, and Wally Ito (among many others) as important teachers. She is an experienced community organizer, network weaver, and organization builder.

Miwa is co-founder local non-profit Kua‘āina Ulu ‘Auamo (KUA) and continues to serve as an advisor, and member of KUA’s Limu Hui, a network of native seaweed practitioners which she helped to establish. Miwa also served as the Policy and Communications Director for the Santa Monica Bay Commission and Executive Director of KAHEA: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance, a grassroots advocacy non-profit committed to indigenous land rights and environmental protections. Miwa has worked in environmental policy and environmental justice advocacy in communities and ecologies from artisanal fisheries in Baja California to national park lands in Tanzania. She is a proud partner, māmā, friend, descendant, and aunty.

Miwa joins HIR as the first-ever impact resident, as we expand and deepen community-building in our core work.