Hi'ilani Shibata She/Her

A lifelong learner, Hiʻilani Shibata has spent the last 25 years in the field of education, both formal and informal. Born and raised in Hilo, Hawaiʻi, she moved to the island of Oʻahu to attend the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. While finishing her last year in college she was also teaching ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi at Kailua

Intermediate school part time and realized that formal education was not her calling. She then joined the education department of the Bishop Museum where she blossomed in informal education in which sharing the Hawaiian culture through the kūpuna was the mission and she was able to travel all over Hawaiʻi and the United States to share the aloha of our kanaka ʻoiwi.

Hiʻilani dedicated 12 years of her life as the Education Operations Manager at the Bishop Museum and ended that chapter of her life to start a family. Today she still does contract work as a Hawaiian Culture trainer and consultant, she is a full time kumu at a Hawaiian focused charter school, Ka Waihona o ka Na'auao, and with her small ʻohana, mālama ʻāina in multiple spaces on O'ahu. She is the co-founder of Ka Mahina Project where people connect with the Hawaiian Lunar phases and the mahina to find and maintain health spiritually, emotionally, and physically.