Brandy Nālani McDougall (Kanaka ʻŌiwi), from the ahupuaʻa of Aʻapueo, Maui, is the author of two poetry collections, The Salt-Wind, Ka Makani Paʻakai and Āina Hānau, Birth Land, and a critical monograph, Finding Meaning: Kaona and Contemporary Hawaiian Literature. She is a professor of American Studies specializing in Indigenous Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and the Hawaiʻi Poet Laureate for 2023–2025. She lives with her ʻohana in Kalaepōhaku in the ahupuaʻa of Waikīkī on Oʻahu.