“He pioneered a distinctively Native Hawaiian approach to health care in rural Hawaiian communities that he modeled for medical students who shadowed him. He believed that each patient’s health and well-being needed to be understood in the context of their ʻohana, their genealogy, their lifestyle, and their ʻāina. He shared the philosophy that ‘The health of the land is the health of the people, is the health of the nation.’ He leaves a big gap in health care for the island of Molokaʻi that can hopefully be filled from among those he mentored.” —The Aluli ʻOhana

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Noa Emmett Aluli shaped the Hawaiʻi we live in today. Before delving into his dedication to rural health, Aluli may be remembered most for helping to get the U.S. Navy to cease bombing Kahoʻolawe.

Aluli, one of five Native Hawaiians who were part of the first class of graduates from the four-year pilot program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa medical school (not yet named for John A. Burns.), died on November 30.

1975 was a pivotal year for Aluli. After graduating from the UH medical school, he worked with the ALOHA Organization (Aboriginal Lands of Hawaiian Ancestry), and decided to occupy Kahoʻolawe in December of that year.

According to Aluli’s life partner Davianna McGregor, in a Hawaiʻi Public Radio interview she and Aluli did in 2022, after an ALOHA-sponsored bill to recognize Native Hawaiians’ rights failed to get traction, the…