| Noenoe Silva | |
| Birth Date: | October 19, 1954 |
| Birth Place: | O'ahu, Hawai'i |
| Website: | https://politicalscience.manoa.hawaii.edu/noenoe-silva/ |
| Alma Mater: | University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa |
| Main Interests: | Kanaka Maoli history, Hawaiian language texts, Kanaka Maoli theory |
| Notable Works: | Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism |
Noenoe K. Silva (born October 19, 1954)[1] is a Hawaiian author and scholar. A professor of political science at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa,[2] her work has appeared in Biography, American Studies,[3] and The Contemporary Pacific.[4]
Silva was born on Oʻahu and is of Kanaka Maoli[5] descent. She returned to Hawaii in 1985 after growing up in California. In 1991, she earned a bachelor's in Hawaiian language. In 1993, she completed a Master's degree in Library and Information Studies, and in 1999 earned a PhD in political science.
While still a doctoral candidate, Silva was instrumental in rediscovering the Kūʻē Petitions, which had been presented to the United States government in 1897 in an attempt to halt American annexation of Hawaii.[6] The petitions formed part of the basis for her book Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism, an examination of Hawaiian language accounts of the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.[7]
In 2006, Silva received a Katrin H. Lamon Fellowship from the School for Advanced Research to continue her research along similar lines through building a database of Hawaiian authors.[8]
Silva also contributed to A Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language, an updated reprint of the first Hawaiian-English dictionary prepared by Lorrin Andrews in 1865, which was published by Island Heritage in 2003.[9]
Aloha Betrayed received the Kenneth W. Baldridge Prize from Brigham Young University–Hawaii.[10]