ᎦᎵᎡᎵ ᏥᏕᎾᎸ, O Johnette Makamaeakahaio'kaho'oponoponookapunahelekupuo'kaaina Martin ko'u inoa. No Makawao koʻu ahupuaʻa a o Hāmākuapoko, Maui mai au. Noho wau i Kololako (Colorado). As an ᏣᎳᎩ and Kanaka Maoli, cis-gendered, heterosexual woman and musicologist, Johnette’s research interests range from film music to gender, sexuality, and identity in Indigenous music cultures, particularly of the Americas and Polynesia. Born and raised in Hawai’i Nei, she grew up immersed in the traditional Native Hawaiian practices once denied to her ancestors, including mea’ai, aloha ‘āina, spirituality, and mele (mele hula and mele oli). Johnette started her collegiate music education with the goal of returning to her community and giving back in the form of teaching academic art music. This sense of kuleana or responsibility continues to inspire her drive to include her Native Hawaiian and Cherokee cultures into the conversation of American Musicology. Her goals of inclusivity stretch from ethnic identity to gender, sexuality, and spiritual identity.
At the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Johnette successfully earned a BA in Music Education: Secondary Instrumental and an MA in Musicology, respectively. In her master’s program, she completed and defended her thesis with respect to feminism and film musicology, “Musical Aesthetics in Alex North’s Score for The Bad Seed.” She also volunteered with Nā Pua No’eau and Kamehameha Schools to aid in the cultural education of Native Hawaiian children. More recently, she worked as a teacher of Native Hawaiian culture at Mid-Pacific Institute, a private college preparatory K-12 school in Mānoa, Hawai’i. Johnette is currently in the PhD Musicology program at the University of Colorado – Boulder and works as a graduate assistant to Jessie Dela Cruz in the Norlin Library / American Music Research Center music archives and a graduate assistant to Dr. Susan Thomas.
ᏙᏓᏓᎪᎲᎢ. No ka lāhui.