Staff
Collections Specialist / Producer, Heather Giugni - Oversees and curates the cultural collection development and in-house original programming of ‘Ulu‘ulu.
Assistant Archivist for Research and Outreach Archivist, Tisha Aragaki - Earned her master's degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and worked at the Hawaiʻi State Library as the Children's Services head before joining ʻUluʻulu. A background in anthropology has been a constant source of love of cultural and historical preservation. As the Assistant Archivist for Reference and Outreach she looks forward to helping people connect with ʻUluʻulu's collections.
Assistant Archivist for Processing, Hōkū Kaʻahaʻāina - While earning her Master's degree in UH Mānoa's Library and Information Science (LIS) Program, Hōkū began working as a part-time project assistant at 'Ulu'ulu. Through handling materials and watching footage first-hand, she has come to appreciate the importance of capturing Hawaiʻi's history and culture on film, and the value that it holds for the future. After graduating with her LIS degree in 2018, she joined the ʻUluʻulu staff as the Assistant Archivist for Processing where she is responsible for the organization of incoming and existing collections.
Cataloger / Assistant Archivist, Koa Luke - Koa Luke’s birth sands are in Waiawa in Keawalauopuʻuloa (original name of Pearl Harbor, meaning “the many channels of the long hills”). His background is political science with an emphasis on Hawaiian politics. Seeing how important archival research and repositories are to the Hawaiian community, he became an archivist to better serve his community. Koa earned his master’s degree from the Library and Information Science Program at UH Mānoa in 2014. As Cataloger, Koa is responsible for all cataloging activities and is implementing Hawaiian culture and practice into his work. Koa’s interests are Pacific Archives, Indigenous and Pacific Science Fiction, Hawaiian ‘ike (knowledge) and culture, and cataloging in a way that better reflects Indigenous knowledge systems.
Digital Media Specialist, Robert Omura - A graduate from the Academy for Creative Media (ACM) at UH Mānoa, is responsible for the digitizing activities of the archive.
Head Archivist, Janel Quirante - Oversees the daily operations of the archive. Janel earned her master’s degree in Library and Information Science from UH Mānoa and worked as a videotape preservation technician at the Bay Area Video Coalition in San Francisco and as the Visual Materials Archivist at the Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford University before joining ‘Ulu‘ulu.
ACM System Founder and Director, Chris Lee - Holds a BA in Political Science from Yale University and is the Principal Investigator for ‘Ulu‘ulu, having developed the program from inception. Mr. Lee is in charge of the strategic direction, funding, budgets, capital improvements and staff hires. He is thrilled and grateful for the tremendous community support that made ‘Ulu‘ulu possible, beginning with the essential vision and unending contributions of Henry Ku‘ualoha Giugni’s daughter, filmmaker Heather Giugni.
The Archives’ staff are members of the following professional organizations: Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA); Society of American Archivists (SAA); Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums (ATALM); and the Association of Hawai‘i Archivists (AHA). Our work is guided by the standards of collection management, preservation, cataloging, and access as set by these professional groups.