Figure 3.
Haumāna Alyssa Grace
(left) and Jocelyn Ferrara
(middle) present kumu
Kamalani Johnson
with a photo of the
Maunakea observatories
signed by several class
participants.
Credit: Alison Peck
(Gemini)
extremely varied personal and professional
interests, one would expect that holding
the attention of everyone in the class for 12
weeks would be a challenge. But Kamalani
handled it with ease, dividing the class time
between stories (legends, place names, tra-
ditions, hula) and grammar, vocabulary, and
sentence structure.
Participants in the class said they looked for-
ward to Friday lunchtime every week, and
were quite sad when the course ended. We
at Gemini Observatory are extremely grate-
ful for kumu Kamalani Johnson and to Ka‘iu
Kimura for their eagerness to lead this ini-
tiative, and especially for their willingness
to work with the observatories on plans to
continue providing these courses for obser-
vatory staff who are so grateful to have the
opportunity to pursue their careers while
also becoming more knowledgeable about
the history and culture that shape the com-
munities in which they are privileged to live
and work.
Alison Peck is an Instrument Program Scientist at
Gemini North. She can be reached at:
[email protected] .
26
GeminiFocus
October 2019