D. Kuʻualohanui Kauliʻa was born in ʻEwa-Oʻahu but raised on Hawaiian Homestead Land in Nānākuli. He comes from a family of 10 children, in which he is the muli loa (youngest). His father was born in Kakaʻako but raised in Kaʻū until his teenage years. His motherʻs ʻohana comes from Hāna, Maui.

From a very early age, Kuʻu was able to speak Hawaiian with the help of his father, family elders, and kūpuna from the Hawaiian community of Waiʻanae. He later learned and grasped the Niʻihau dialect of the Hawaiian language. Growing up in a family of Hawaiian entertainers and recording artists from the 1930s, 1960s, and 1970s, he was often surrounded by traditional Hawaiian music as far back as he can remember.

His journey in hula began in February 1980, initially with Kumu Hula (Loea) Leialoha Lim Amina. He further learned hula from C. Hoku Rasmussen, Moon and Lydia Kauakahi, Darrell Lupenui, John Kaʻimikaua, George Holokaʻi, and Kimo Alama-Keaulana, with whom he was trained and completed his ʻūniki rites in hula ʻōlapa, hula ʻalaʻapapa, and hula pahu. In the early 1990s, he also learned various hula and traditional oli under the tutelage of Kumu Hula Kalani Akana. Kuʻu taught in the Department of Education Hawaiian Immersion Program from 1987 to 1997, then taught middle school students at ʻIlima Intermediate School and also at the Kamehameha Schools Maui Campus.

His teachings extended to other islands, the Continental U.S., and Japan since the mid to late 1990s. Kuʻu’s most recent past two and a half decades were dedicated to the legacy work at the Queen Liliʻuokalani Childrenʻs Center and the Kamehameha Schools. In February 2000, he was trained as a Haku Hoʻoponopono under his mentor, Aunty Malia Craver.

In 2007, Aunty Malia asked Kuʻu to be one of her kākoʻo to help mentor-train 24 Kamehameha School staffers who completed the course. Kuʻu recently retired from the Kamehameha Schools on December 31, 2022. Prior to his retirement, Kuʻu also mentored and completed a hula training class, graduating six haumāna (ʻūniki hula) to carry on the hula legacy of Loea Hula Joseph Ilalaole, who hailed from Kaʻū and Puna, Hawaiʻi. This hula lineage is one that Kuʻu holds dearest to his heart. This ongoing love for hula, Kuʻu says, was inspired by his mentor, Kimo Alama-Keaulana.

E ola, e ola, e ola loa i ke aloha!