'O KeAloha ko'u inoa
My name is KeAloha
Pronunciation kay - ah - loh - hah | Pronouns they/them/she/her
PHOTO BY SHELANNE JUSTICE PHOTOGRAPHY
"An interdisciplinary artist of music, dance, and percussion,
KeAloha’s expressive journey began when she learned the
traditional dances of her Hawaiian and Tahitian Ohana."
becoming
KeAloha { kay - ah - loh - hah | they/ she } is a mixed-Indigenous and chronically-ill artist based in so-called “Vancouver, BC". Their music carries essences of Alternative RnB, Latin-fusion, and Dream Pop mixed with sounds inspired by their Hawaiian, Tahitian and Lheidli T'enneh Indigeneity. "Dynamic, multi-pronged musical paradise. Grounded, Elevated, oceanic, bars, all of it" (Music Waste Festival 2022). ​KeAloha weaves soundscapes of Indigi-Pop wonder, fluidly owning the stage as a vocalist, drummer, and dancer.
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KeAloha’s young love for tap dance led her Mama to surprise her with drum lessons when she was 12. At 18 KeAloha moved to xÊ·mÉ™θkwÉ™yÌ“É™m (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and SÉ™lÌ“ílwÉ™taÊ” (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations in 2014 where she achieved a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Drums on full scholarship, while diving into performance and session work.​
This project was born out of necessity. “Living with chronic illness is like being a bird asked to learn a life on the ground. What I have cultivated is the power in shape-shifting, the beauty in unplanned paths, the relationships that bloom through deepened empathy, and the ancestral voices of resilience.” KeAloha’s music is a manifestation for the world we are weaving that centers disabled, queer, and Two-Spirit people, and liberation of all our relations. ​
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​KeAloha’s second single, was nominated to CBC Searchlight Top 100 in 2021. “Mama’s Hands celebrates my Mom, Nani, who raised me and my 2 older siblings… and celebrates our triumphs as a low income, brown, femme gang hailing from the North-West of Turtle Island” said KeAloha (Aesthetic Magazine). Their third single - Mahina - reached #13 in the Indigenous Music Countdown, “under a groove with rnb, soul and pop intonations, the singer mixes and interweaves the sounds in a percussive instrumentation and a tenderly beautiful song.“ (Iggy Magazine).​
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​The spring of 2021 to present has seen KeAloha across stages and circles in Turtle Island, including Banff Centre for the Arts, Oahu Indigenous Youth Workers gathering, Indigenous Day Live presented by APTN, Music Waste, Vines Festival, and Shipyards Festival.
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​KeAloha opens portals that traverse hope & lament, heartbreak & remedy. A Two-Spirit and Mahu person, a chronically ill time-bender and shapeshifter, music is part of KeAloha's commitment to collective liberation. Their upcoming debut album, “Pieces of Who I am” is a fierce & tender soundtrack for the revolution of our youth.
lineage
I am a Great-Great-Grandchild of Granny Seymour, “Matriarch of the North” of
Lheidli T’enneh Nation; medicine woman, trapper, crafter, and knowledge keeper.
I am the Great Grandchild of Captain Owen Browne, and Grandchild of Earl Browne,
who passed the traditions of Hawaiian and Tahitian dances
down to my Mom, Nani Browne, who in turn taught my siblings and I.
Our Mom's Mom was Lorraine Grove, descended from Irish-English farmer-settlers.
I am paternally descended from Chinese immigrants.
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Through music, dance, and storytelling; I amplify the wisdom of
disabled, queer, Indigenous, Two-Spirit, and Mahu identities.
lands
I grew up in the urban centre of so-called "Prince George, BC" in my native Lheidli T'enneh territory. When I was 18 I moved to the unsurrendered ancestral homelands of the xÊ·mÉ™θkwÉ™yÌ“É™m (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and SÉ™lÌ“ílwÉ™taɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations ("Vancouver, BC").