kumu

Kumu is a Hawaiian word meaning teacher, source, or origin. In traditional and contemporary usage, a kumu is a person who passes on knowledge, often through apprenticeship. The concept is central to Hawaiian education and culture, with kumu hula serving as instructors of dance and chant, and kumu in other disciplines acting as knowledge keepers within communities. The term is used as a title of respect for educators and mentors and can denote both a specific teacher and the broader source of knowledge in a given field.

In modern contexts, kumu remains part of everyday Hawaiian language and is used in schools, language programs, and cultural initiatives to designate instructors and mentors. It appears in phrases such as kumu hula, underscoring the enduring link between education and cultural practice.

Kumu is also the name of a software platform for mapping networks and knowledge. The Kumu platform provides a visual workspace for building interconnected diagrams, with nodes representing concepts, people, or organizations and edges representing relationships. It is used for ecosystem mapping, stakeholder analysis, project planning, and strategic learning in sectors such as non-profit, government, and business. The tool emphasizes collaboration, data integration, and dynamic exploration of complex systems.

As a proper noun, Kumu is used as a brand or product name in various contexts, reflecting the word’s meaning as a source of knowledge.