Quote by Manulani Aluli Meyer: “Spirit is intelligence. The body knows what the mind has not yet learned.”

Western knowledge systems treat rational thought as the highest form of knowing. But Hawaiian epistemology holds that the body and spirit also carry wisdom — feelings, instincts, and deep sensations that reason often arrives at much later. Trusting these is not superstition; it is a different kind of knowing.

Meyer published Ho'oulu in 2003 as indigenous knowledge systems were gaining academic recognition through the growing field of indigenous studies. Globally, there was increasing interest in non-Western epistemologies as alternatives to Enlightenment rationalism. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was still in development during this period.

Native Hawaiian educator and scholar whose work centres on indigenous Hawaiian epistemology — the ways Hawaiian culture understands knowledge, spirituality, and intelligence. Her 2003 book Ho'oulu: Our Time of Becoming argues for a Hawaiian philosophy of education. She has taught at the University of Hawaiʻi and the University of Victoria.