Zachary Lum
Name Zachary Lum
Age 29
Town/Moku Haʻikū, Heʻeia, Koʻolaupoko, Oʻahu
Island Oʻahu
Social Media Handle @kahulileolea, @zacharyalakailum
Nominated by Cody Pueo Pata Max Mukai
Leadership Category Culture
Share with us a little about yourself and what you do.
Zachary Alakaʻi Lum of Haʻikū, Heʻeia, Koʻolaupoko, Oʻahu, is a lifetime student, educator, and practitioner of mele Hawaiʻi. A graduate of Kamehameha Schools Kapālama and a current Ph.D. student in Political Science at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Zachary is the executive director of Kāhuli Leo Leʻa, a Hawaiʻi 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to catalyzing aloha ʻāina through mele and other cultural practices. He is the former director of choral music at the Kamehameha Schools Kapālama campus, where he promoted the value of mele in education and as a powerful tool for self-efficacy. He is a Grammy-nominated, 20-time Nā Hōkū Hanohano award winning producer, musician, and mele practitioner. In addition to his work with the group Keauhou, he has produced albums – including Kūhaʻo Maunakea (2019), Lei Nāhonoapiʻilani: Nā Mele Hou (2020), Huliāmahi, Vol. 1 (2020), Kāwili (2021), Mele Hoʻopulapula Vol. 1 (2021) – as well as live and virtual events aimed at education through mele, including Hawaiian Airlines May Day and Mele Huliāmahi. He belongs to Hālau Nā Kamalei o Līlīlehua, a hula school under the direction of Kumu Hula Robert Uluwehionāpuaikawēkiuokalani Cazimero. Zachary is driven by his passion to promote mele and aloha ʻāina as a means of composing lāhui.
Why is the work that you do important to you? The community?
It may be easy to relegate “Hawaiian music” as a one-dimensional means of entertainment. However, the thriving Hawaiian music scene is actually built upon the oldest and most continuous, Hawaiian cultural practice: mele. Mele – the cultural practice of knowledge proliferation through Hawaiian language song – is a specific worldview built upon encoded relationality and decoded experience. Encoded relationality means that the Haku Mele (the composer of mele) utilizes a specific set of language-based skills to tell a story at various levels of priviness. Decoded experince means that mele practitioners and those who engage in the performative space of mele compose knowledge-generating experience. Together, these two attributes of mele create an opportunity for its participants to recognize themselves, each other, our environment, and thus, the Lāhui we compose. Kāhuli Leo Leʻa is a non-profit organization that produces creative media as opportunities for composing Lāhui by catalyzing aloha ʻāina – a worldview that locates the individual in a larger community of other Kānaka and ʻāina. Mele is means and our method.
Share with us the qualities of leadership you admire and how you express those in your life.
Admirable leadership is rooted in empathy. Much like the empathy that comes from aloha ʻāina, in which one’s connection with environment informs one’s decisions, empathetic leadership means maintaining connection. In this way, leadership is a two-way street. One cannot expect to lead without following. Leadership is the empathetic understanding of the experience of following. And yet, perhaps effective leadership strives to transcend such a binary of leader versus follower. Leadership is about facilitating relationships so that a collective body can achieve collective goals. I strive to actuate these qualities by prioritizing the healthy relationships by which we achieve and thrive.
Who has inspired you to do the work that you are doing?
I have many kumu, all of which have played a role in guiding me down important paths. They are not only my teachers or professors, but also my family, friends, and colleagues.
What is one word that describes something you are excited about for the lāhui?
Recognition
What is one word that describes a pressing issue that is facing our lāhui?
Recognition