Kanaka Maoli

[ˈkɑːnəkə ˈmɒlɪ]

noun

Native Hawaiians of Polynesian descent.

OriginHawaiian Kānaka Maoli →
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Meanings

nounKanaka Maoli pl (plural only)
  1. pluralplural onlyNative Hawaiians of Polynesian descent.

    Joseph Nawahi leaves an important legacy for following generations about the nature and purpose of Kanaka Maoli and indigenous art.

    2011, Jonathan Harris, Globalization and Contemporary Art, →ISBN
    2 more examples

    Many contemporary Hawaiians reject both the English name and concept to assert instead that Kanaka Maoli should be identified as a people with a particular relationship to specific places and people.

    1999, Houston Wood, Displacing Natives: The Rhetorical Production of Hawaiʻi, →ISBN, page 13

    Kanaka Maoli quickly noticed the power of this technology and called to the chiefs to allow the maoli knowledge to come through alongside the missionaries' words of enlightenment, the guise for colonization.

    2015, Farzana Gounder, Narrative and Identity Construction in the Pacific Islands, →ISBN, page 132

Origin

  1. HawaiianKānaka Maoli
  2. EnglishKanaka Maoli

Borrowed from Hawaiian Kānaka Maoli; from kānaka "people" maoli "indigenous".

More words from Hawaiian

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Kanaka Maoli. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Kanaka%20Maoli

MLA

“Kanaka Maoli.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Kanaka%20Maoli. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Kanaka Maoli,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Kanaka%20Maoli.

Source: Kanaka Maoli on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.