He ʻŌlelo Ola, also known as the "Hilo Field Study" of the International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation (ICLDC) has been held biannually since 2009 in association with ICLDC. ICLDC is traditionally held on the campus of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa on Oʻahu Island, while He ʻŌlelo Ola is held in a consortium of programs coordinated through the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo on Hawaiʻi Island. In 2021 during the COVID 19 pandemic, He ʻŌlelo Ola and ICLDC were held virtually as one program. The 2021 He ʻŌlelo Ola Hilo Field Study was conducted virtually over two days of the larger ICLDC conference schedule. Although participants were not able to physically visit Hawaiian language revitalization sites in Hilo, a series of presentations and panel discussions were conducted in tandem with video presentation overviews for some of the chosen Hawaiian language revitalization topics in this year's field study.
Recognizing Relationships was the theme for this year's ICLDC and aligned perfectly with the He ʻŌlelo Ola Hilo Field Study, as building and maintaining strong relationships throughout Hawaiʻi and with other indigenous communities across the globe has been a critical component of success for the nearly 40 years of Hawaiian language revitalization movement. During the He ʻŌlelo Ola Hilo Field Study 2021 program, presenters and panelists continued to identify key connections and relationships between individuals and entities that have led to some of the remarkable work coming out of the aukahi, the Hawaiian language revitalization movement.
Creating Language Nests and Change Agents
The first day of the He ʻŌlelo Ola Field Study included intimate panel discussions surrounding the history and current experiences at both the ʻAha Pūnana Leo, the Hawaiian “language nest” early child education preschools, as well as Hawaiʻi’s flagship Hawaiian medium education K-12 school, Ke Kula ʻo Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu. Below are a few new resources available from this first day agenda.
"Pūnana Leo - Reviving Our Hawaiian Language in the Home"
"Pūnana Leo - Reviving Our Hawaiian Language in the Home"
ʻAha Pūnana Leo has always strived to ensure that the Hawaiian language lives. Rooted in their mission to drive and inspire change to ensure a living Hawaiian language in Hawaiʻi and beyond, the ʻAha Pūnana Leo spans across 12 different locations throughout the Hawaiian islands serving an average of 330 ʻohana, or families per school year. In the He ʻŌlelo Ola 2021 "Pūnana Leo - Reviving Our Hawaiian Language in the Home" special panel discussion, three different families that represent a variety of ʻohana that joined the aukahi, the Hawaiian language movement, join in a discussion on why they decided to invest in their keiki, their child’s Hawaiian language early childhood education. Audiences will be able to hear first-hand experiences and lessons learned from Pūnana Leo parents who are newcomers to the language, partners of Hawaiian language speakers, and veteran language advocates who decided to raise their kids in home and at school through the Hawaiian language.
"Ke Kula ʻo Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu - Hawaiian Medium Education Experiences"
Ke Kula ʻo Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu (Nāwahī) is a Hawaiian Medium education K-12 school that was founded in 1994 and is located in Keaʻau, Puna on Hawaiʻi island. Nāwahī is where Hawaiian language and culture thrive in a living community of families united in fostering the quality of life for the Hawaiian people and all who choose Hawai’i as their home. Nāwahī is committed to securing a school community built upon culturally rooted principles of the Kumu Honua Mauli Ola that reflect the importance of spirituality, family, language, knowledge, community, land, and people. Students of Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu are educated upon a Hawaiian cultural foundation. This foundation is the basis upon which students are motivated to bring honor to ancestors, seek and attain knowledge to sustain family, contribute to the well-being and flourishing of the Hawaiian language and culture; and contribute to the quality of life in Hawai’i. In the He ʻŌlelo Ola 2021 "Ke Kula ʻo Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu - Hawaiian Medium Education Experiences" special panel discussion, current High School students of Ke Kula ʻo Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu share their own personal experiences of going to school in a Hawaiian medium education setting. Listen in as these students walk us through a normal day in school, share academic and career goals, and any challenges and success stories they’ve experienced as young Hawaiian language learners and advocates.
Building Hawaiian language Capacity and New Domains
The second day of the 2021 He ʻŌlelo Ola Hilo Field Study included presentations and panel discussions from programs and initiatives undertaken at Ka Haka ʻUla o Keʻelikōlani College of Hawaiian Language, Kahuawaiola Indigenous Teacher Education Graduate Program, Hale Kuamoʻo, and ʻImiloa Astronomy Center at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. Hawaiʻi alumni from Ka Haka ʻUla o Keʻelikōlani’s undergraduate program sat a panel to discuss ways in which these graduates are taking on the charge to not only use Hawaiian, but to inspire others to learn and be open to the use of ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi in contemporary work environments. Ka Haka ʻUla o Keʻelikōlani PhD candidates and graduates also joined in from around the globe to share their ideas and research on the many issues in revitalizing their respective indigenous languages. Below are a few new resources available from this second day agenda.
Special Panel 2.1 "Graduates Building Language Capacity and Expanding into New Domains"
In the He ʻŌlelo Ola "Graduates Building Language Capacity and Expanding into New Domains" special panel, Hawaiʻi-based Ka Haka ʻUla o Keʻelikōlani graduates share how they are effectuating change in their respective fields of study and career pathways as young Hawaiian leaders who can and do conduct research and work through the Hawaiian language and perspective. Audiences will hear strategies in which these graduates are becoming language advocates in their work and social communities while facing unique challenges and opportunities as young Hawaiian speakers.
New Hawaiian Language Resources
Two new resources were also presented at the 2021 He ʻŌlelo Ola HIlo Field Study, one is an online digital access portal to Native Hawaiian speech and transcripts through a bilingual digital library interface. Another is a monograph with articles written by, for, and within the programs that are working tirelessly in language and culture revitalization throughout Hawaiʻi.
"Kaniʻāina, Voices of the Land"
At the turn of the 19th century, Hawaiian was the predominant language in Hawai‘i. By 1985, less than a hundred years later, the number of minor age Native speakers of Hawaiian was less than 50 children. The Hawaiian language education movement of the 1970s and 80s were guided by kūpuna mānaleo, native speaking elders, who gave generously with passion and aloha towards the revitalization of the Hawaiian language. Nearly all of those treasured elders have long since passed but their gifts expressed through the language are a rich and valuable resource of Hawaiian knowledge, language, culture, history, place, arts and science. Kaniʻāina, “Voices of the Land,” is an educational resource focusing on Native Hawaiian speech aimed at documentation and preservation of Hawaiian and seeks to encourage and enhance the learning and use of Hawaiian.
Hale Kuamoʻo Hawaiian Language Center: “Ke Kūlia E Kāmau Ai”
Established in 1989 by Hawaiʻi State Legislature to develop educational materials and services in Hawaiian, the Hale Kuamoʻo Hawaiian Language Center is a Hawaiian language support, research, and resource development division of Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke‘elikōlani College of Hawaiian Language. The Center encourages and supports the expansion of the Hawaiian language as a medium of communication in education, business, government, and other contexts of social life in the public and private sectors of Hawai‘i and beyond. One of the newer resources made available through Hale Kuamoʻo is the compilation of “Ke Kūlia E Kāmau Ai”, a comprehensive documentation of the Hawaiian language revitalization movement as well as background timeline details of critical Hawaiian language action and impacts that have shaped the current Hawaiʻi language today.
The 2021 He ʻŌlelo Ola Hilo Field Study presentations and panel discussion were recorded and are available now on mokuolahonua.com/resources/. Contents of the recording represent the aukahi, the consortium of entities working together in Hawaiian language revitalization as of March 2021. The aukahi is continually growing with new research and initiatives which may be reflected in future He ʻŌlelo Ola and affiliated consortium programs.