Dr. Peter Hanohano

Master Class 1 Facilitator

Peter is Native Hawaiian and grew up on his family kuleana land in Punaluu on the windward side of Oahu, Hawaii.  He is the eldest of 7 children, is married to Maui native, Lynn Puanani Costa Miyahira, and they are the proud parents of 6 children (4 daughters and 2 sons), and have 13 grandchildren (10 grandsons and 3 granddaughters).  He currently resides in Kula, Maui, in the Waiohuli Hawaiian Homestead community. He enjoys working in the garden, where they have planted vegetables and fruit trees in an effort to be more self-sustainable, including traditional Hawaiian crops such as kalo, sweet potato, coconut, banana, guava, kukui nut, and herbs.

Peter is a 1967 graduate of Kamehameha Schools, and went on to pursue his undergraduate degree at BYU-Hawaii, and graduate degrees at BYU in Provo, Utah, and his Ph.D. in First Nations/Indigenous Peoples Education from the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.  His dissertation title was: Restoring the Sacred Circle - Education for Culturally Responsive Native Families that described culturally resilient factors that Indigenous families could incorporate in creating enriched learning environments at home. 

He considers himself blessed, in that he was raised in a good home, was supported by a loving family, and received a good education.  His mother was once asked why Peter had such a keen interest for learning.  She attributed his curiosity for learning to a time when he was still in diapers, and his grandfather would sit him on the kitchen counter to thumb through his medical encyclopedia looking at transparencies of the human skeletal structure, and the blood and muscular systems.  He was fascinated by these images, and that prompted his desire to read and to learn.

As a result of his educational background and employment, Peter has travelled widely and has been involved in Indigenous and Hawaiian educational initiatives around the world, including visits to New Zealand, Australia, Norway, Canada, Peru, Taiwan and many parts of the U.S.  He has a keen interest in tribal/Indigenous colleges and universities, and along with a small group of like-minded individuals in Hawaii, helped to establish the World Indigenous Nations University Hawaii Pasifika (WINU HP), serving the educational needs of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in Hawaii and the Pacific.