Renee Pualani Louis

Renee Pualani Louis is Kanaka ʻŌiwi from the Island of Hawaiʻi. She is passionate about storied place names and their role in Hawaiʻi cartographic expressions, increasing awareness of Indigenous perspectives of science, and promoting Indigenous research sovereignty. She has been working in these areas since receiving her degree from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Geography Department in 2008. Renee completed her book, Kanaka Hawaiʻi Cartography: Hula, Navigation, and Oratory, in 2017. She is Co-Chair of the Indigenous Peoples Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers, and is employed by the Institute for Policy and Social Research at the University of Kansas while living in Hilo, Hawai‘i.