Vicky Holt Takamine graduated from Kamehameha Schools and received her BA & MA in Dance Ethnology from the University of Hawaiʻi. She graduated as kumu hula (master teacher of Hawaiian dance) from Maiki Aiu Lake in 1975, and established her hālau hula (school of Hawaiian dance), Pua Aliʻi ʻIlima, two years later. In 1997 she co-founded ʻĪlioʻulaokalani Coalition, a coalition of Native Hawaiian artists and cultural practitioners to advocate and protect Native Hawaiian rights. She established PAʻI Foundation in 2001 to protect and preserve Native Hawaiian cultural traditions and the natural and cultural resources of Hawaiʻi for future generations and co-founded and served as president of KAHEA: The Hawaiian Environmental Alliance. As the co-founder and Executive Director of PAʻI foundation on Oʻahu, her group sponsors the annual Hapa Haole Hula Festival on Oʻahu and Las Vegas and is founder and show producer of MAMO: Maoli Arts Month’s annual Wearable Arts Show. She has also served as a judge at the Merrie Monarch Festival, the “Olympics of Hula” for many years. The kumu of our kumu, Aunty Vicky has been coming to share her manaʻo and talents at Days of Aloha events for 20 years and counting.