Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu

Hinaleimoana Kwai Kong Wong-Kalu,[1] also known as Kumu Hina, is a Native Hawaiian māhū – a traditional third gender person who occupies "a place in the middle" between male and female,[2][3][4][5] as well as a modern transgender woman.[6] She is known for her work as a kumu hula ("hula teacher"), as a filmmaker, and as a community leader in the field of Kanaka Maoli language and cultural preservation. She teaches Kanaka Maoli philosophy and traditions and promotes cross-cultural alliances throughout the Pacific Islands.[7] Described as a "powerful performer with a clear, strong voice",[8] she has been hailed as "a cultural icon".[9]

Kumu Hula Hinaleimoana Kwai Kong Wong-Kalu at the 2016 Kamehameha Day Lei Draping

Wong-Kalu was born in the Nuʻuanu district of Oʻahu.[10] She attended Kamehameha School (1990) and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (1996–2004) where she began her activism.[11] She was a founder of the Kulia Na Mamo transgender health project, cultural director of a Hawaiian public charter school, and candidate for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, one of the first transgender candidates for statewide political office in the United States. She also served as the Chair of the Oʻahu Island Burial Council, which oversees the management of Native Hawaiian burial sites and ancestral remains. She is a recipient of the National Education Association Ellison Onizuka Human and Civil Rights Award,[12] Native Hawaiian Community Educator of the year,[13] and a White House Champion of Change.[14] USA Today named Wong-Kalu one of ten Women of the Century from Hawai'i[15]

Wong-Kalu was the subject of the feature documentary film Kumu Hina, directed by Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson.[16][17] Kumu Hina premiered as the closing night film in the Hawaii International Film Festival in 2014 and won several awards including best documentary at the Frameline Film Festival and the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary. It was nationally broadcast on PBS in 2015 where it won the Independent Lens Audience Award.[18] Wong-Kalu wrote an educational children's version of the film, A Place in the Middle,[5] which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival for Kids and is featured on PBS learning media.[19]

Wong-Kalu co-directed and produced the short film, Lady Eva[20] and feature documentary Leitis in Waiting about the struggle of the Indigenous transgender community in the South Pacific Kingdom of Tonga. The films screened and won awards at AFI Docs and the LA, Margaret Mead, FIFO and Commonwealth film festivals and were broadcast on PBS/Pacific Heartbeat, ARTE, Maori TV, TV France and NITV.

In 2020, Wong-Kalu directed, produced and narrated Kapaemahu,[21] an animated short film based on the Hawaiian story of four legendary mahu who brought the healing arts from Tahiti to Hawai'i and imbued their powers on giant boulders that still stand on Waikiki Beach. Narrated in the rare Niihau dialect of Hawaiian, the film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and qualified for the Oscars at Animayo.