Revitalization

by Aleaokalani Kahele

“I ka 'Olelo ke ola; i ka 'Olelo ka make—"in language is life, in language is death.”

Ancient Hawaiian Proverb

Any native speaker knows that nothing makes the heart swell with pride more than speaking in one’s native tongue. However, in a world proliferated by the English language, many Indigenous languages are in danger of extinction. To combat the disappearance of Indigenous languages, language revitalization must occur. This essay is split into 5 sections; Hawaiian Language Background, Hawaiian Renaissance, Roots of Language Revitalization, Connection to Sovereignty, and Barriers to Revitalization.

Hawaiian Language Background

To understand Hawaiian language revitalization, we must examine the conditions that necessitated this process. Hawaiians have spoken ‘Ōlelo Hawai’i (the Hawaiian language) for nearly 2,000 years. However, the illegal overthrow and annexation of the Hawaiian Islands by the United States of America in the late 1800s severely threatened the Hawaiian language. In 1896, ‘Ōlelo Hawai’i was banned as a medium of teaching and learning, with Hawaiians being punished for speaking their language in school (Trask, 1999). In 1880, there were as many as 150 Hawaiian-medium schools (schools that taught in Hawaiian) in operation. After the ban was enacted in 1896, only one of those schools remained, and by 1902, there were no Hawaiian-medium schools left (Nakata, 2017). The powers of colonialism infiltrated personal lives, as “teachers would pay home visits to reprimand parents for speaking Hawaiian to their children in their own homes” (Nakata, 2017). Besides the legal banning, the decline in ‘Ōlelo Hawai’i was caused by large-scale foreign immigration and settlement that marginalized Hawaiians. As the number of foreigners increased and the number of Native Hawaiians decreased, Hawaiian language use dwindled. “By the late 1950s, language shift from Hawaiian to English was completed on all islands except Ni’ihau” (Brenzinger, 2013). ‘Ōlelo Hawai’i was on the brink of extinction.

Hawaiian Renaissance

Hawaiian language revitalization started with The Hawaiian Renaissance. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, The Hawaiian Renaissance was born, which was the revival of many Hawaiian cultural practices. Inspired by the Civil Rights movement, it originally focused on Hawaiian hula (dance) and mele (song), but soon came to include ‘Ōlelo Hawai’i (language). In 1963, The Merrie Monarch Festival was founded to honor Hawaiian culture and the sacred practice of hula. In the mid-1970s, Hawaiian language classes were requested with unprecedented interest at the University of Hawai’i (Brenzinger, 2013). This demonstrated a desire for Hawaiians to learn their language in a university setting. The teaching of ‘Ōlelo Hawai’i wasn’t the only educational focus during the Hawaiian Renaissance, there was also a return to the teaching of ancestral navigation methods. The Polynesian V oyaging Society (PVS) sponsored the revitalization of traditional Polynesian navigation. In 1976, they launched the canoe Hōkūle’a, which made a revolutionary voyage to Tahiti using only celestial signs and ocean currents as guides (Nakata, 2017). Hōkūle’a’s historic voyage put ancient Hawaiian navigational knowledge on an international scale, which bolstered Hawaiian pride and language revitalization.

Roots of Language Revitalization

The revitalization of the Hawaiian language was nurtured and facilitated by many people. I will briefly trace the trajectory of revitalization, acknowledging key figures, but this is not a comprehensive list. The revival movement was started primarily by Larry Kimura, who achieved proficiency by practicing with relatives and the few elderly remaining native speakers in the mid-1960s. He traveled to the homes of many of the last Native Hawaiian speakers to conduct recordings of the language. He became a Hawaiian teacher and “eventually spread an ideology that sought to fully re-establish the Hawaiian language among college students, and then eventually their children” (Brenzinger, 2013). Some of Kimura’s first students were Pila Wilson and Kauanoe Kamanā, who started a Hawaiian Studies degree program taught through the Hawaiian language at the University of Hawai’i in Hilo. At home, they spoke Hawaiian with the children, and when they reached school age, Wilson and Kamanā demanded they be educated in ‘Ōlelo Hawai’i. They started the State Hawaiian Language College’s most important immersion laboratory school. (Wong, 2020). This school, Ke Kula ‘O Nāwahīokalani‘ōpu‘, educates students from preschool through grade 12 in the Hawaiian language. The Hawaiian immersion schools were “the first official institutions with a Native American language as the medium of instruction in the United States” (Brenzinger, 2013). Ke Kula ‘O Nāwahīokalani‘ōpu‘, also known as Nāwahī, and other immersion schools across Hawai’i, have served as a model for other indigenous immersion schools globally. Today, the Hawaiian language revitalization is characterized by its learners and speakers being both Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian. “The 5000-7000 new speakers of Hawaiian are from multi-ethnic backgrounds,” which reflects the diverse nature of the state of Hawai’i (Brenzinger, 2013). This shows how ‘Ōlelo Hawai’i is valued by many people, not just those of direct Hawaiian ancestry.

Connection to Sovereignty

It would be a disservice to talk about Hawaiian language revitalization without discussing the political implications of the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, and the modern sovereignty movement. Language revitalization is a direct response to colonization. Haunani Kay-Trask, a prominent Native Hawaiian activist, writes “The cultural revitalization that Hawaiians are now experiencing and transmitting to their children is as much a repudiation of colonization by so-called Western civilization in its American form as it is a reclamation of our own past and our own ways of life” (1999). As stated earlier in this paper (Hawaiian Language Background), for revitalization to occur, there must be a colonial power that displaces an Indigenous group. In response to this colonial power, many Indigenous activists think “revitalization” should be replaced with “decolonization”. Trask believes the term “revitalization” is a mistake, writing “Hawaiians, too, are participating in the same decolonizing process, often mistakenly referring to it as a “cultural revitalization.” Foreign anthropologists and politicians readily use the term “revitalization” because it has no political context: the primary emphasis is on quaint trivializing practices that do not threaten the colonial system. However, revitalization is a decolonizing process that functions to unscrew the power of a colonizing force by creating new consciousnesses critical of foreign terms, definitions, and solutions. Many foreign investors and companies have attempted to profit from Hawaiian language revitalization, to combat the sovereignty movement that language revitalization directly supports. Whether they sell T-shirts made in China that say “Aloha” or encourage non-Hawaiian visitors to purchase merchandise with their “Hawaiian” name, the language revitalization movement is constantly threatened by colonial corruption. Hawaiian language revitalization is not just a practice to continue an ancient “trivial” culture but is an act of resistance. Language revitalization strengthens modern Native Hawaiian’s mana (power) and supports the belief that Hawai’i has adistinct cultural separation from America.

Barriers to Revitalization

Since Hawaiian language revitalization is a decolonizing process, many fights have been fought to protect the right to practice the language. Colonization relies on the suppression of Indigenous peoples and their languages, histories, beliefs, bodies, and identities. Therefore, for many centuries, the attempted erasure of traditions that differed from the new dominant group was hailed as “progress” (Brenzingher, 2013). Colonists believed that converting Hawaiians from ‘Ōlelo Hawai’i to English would force them to transition from uneducated “savages” to “civilized” people. This mindset continued in the 1900s, with the generation of the last Native Hawaiian speakers, born before the revitalization movement. These Hawaiians, who spoke English and Hawaiian, “were raised to think of their mother tongue as inferior to English” (Wong, 2020). Even today, this racist belief is still held by many.

The modern language education debate “is whose language and knowledge (i.e., that of the colonizer or the Indigenous people) is valued and will prevail” (De Costa, 2021). This struggle between the colonizer's language and the language of the Indigenous people can show up in schools with “Indigenous language learners being constructed as inferior to their peers who elect to study “modern” languages” (De Costa, 2021). This is because Hawaiian doesn’t have the same marketing value as a massive international language like Spanish or Mandarin. Hawaiian is typically used in immersion schools, cultural events, and the home sphere, not in corporate business meetings or capitalist market spaces (Wong, 2020).

Hawaiian was first excluded from the government sphere with the Organic Act of 1900, enacted two years after annexation, which mandated that all government business be conducted in English only (Nakata, 2017). There have been attempts to transition the Hawaiian language out of the home/school and into the “real” world, but these have been met with pushback from the U.S. government. Sixteen years after ‘Ōlelo Hawai’i was designated an official language in the state constitution, the right to use the Hawaiian language in a courtroom was challenged (Nakata, 2017). In Tagupa v. Odo, a bilingual attorney contested a court order requiring him to give his oral deposition in English for an employment discrimination lawsuit. He argued that he had the right to recite his oral deposition in Hawaiian. He used Article XV , Section 4 of the state constitution (recognizing Hawaiian as an official language) and NALA, which recognizes the right of Native Americans to express themselves through the use of Native American language in public proceedings (Nakata, 2017). However, the court ruled against him, claiming that there was “little guidance” on whether Article XV , Section 4 held that there existed a right to give a deposition in Hawaiian. Additionally, the court argued NALA was a statute that dealt primarily with education, not judicial proceedings in federal courts. The result of Tagupa v. Odo reaffirms the belief that language revitalization efforts end in schools and homes, and have no place in the government and the courts. This implies that the Hawaiian language is inferior to English. This result is even more disappointing when compared to other legal cases where Indigenous languages were granted the right to be used in court. These include Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands v. Guerrero (2003), which made speaking Chamorro and Carolinian legal in court, and The Māori Language Act of 1987, which established the right to speak Te Reo Māori in legal proceedings, regardless of the speaker’s English proficiency (Nakata, 2017).

Conclusion

In 2007, the United Nations published a controversial document titled “The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).” Article 13 of this declaration details that Indigenous peoples have the right to revitalize their languages and retain their own names for communities, places, and persons. Section 2 of Article 13 states that “States shall take effective measures to ensure this right is protected and also to ensure that Indigenous peoples can understand and be understood in political, legal, and administrative proceedings.” Although this document is an encouraging start, it lacks any political power. This essay ends with this document to show that currently, the future of Hawaiian language revitalization is flourishing in schools and homes, but is barred in legal settings. For every effort to revitalize Indigenous languages, there is another effort to stifle it, as exemplified by UNDRIP being legally non-binding. The colonial system of the United States prevents ‘Ōlelo Hawai’i from being reclaimed to its fullest potential, and highlights the language disparities that still exist today. The United States of America is a colonial power that is still actively working against Indigenous people, such as Hawaiians, Native Americans, and Native Alaskans. However, the Hawaiian language is resilient and has survived centuries of attempted erasure, banning, and exclusion. As long as Hawaiians exist, we will never stop fighting for our land, our rights, and our language.

“E Ola Ka ‘Ōlelo Hawai’i”

Long Live the Hawaiian Language

Personal Note

I would be remiss if I did not share my connection to ‘Ōlelo Hawai’i, and why the research and writing of this essay is so important to me. As a Native Hawaiian woman, I feel passionately about the Hawaiian language revitalization movement as a method for us to reclaim our culture. My two younger sisters have both attended Ke Kula ‘O Nāwahīokalani‘ōpu‘, a prominent Hawaiian immersion school, since they were babies and are bilingual in Hawaiian and English. My upbringing was vastly different from my sisters, as I grew up in Utah and did not have the opportunity to learn ‘Ōlelo Hawai’i as a child. However, I believe this background has made my connection with my culture resilient. I understand what it is like to not grow up immersed in your native language, and constantly be trying to strengthen your connection with your culture. I was not afforded the luxury of being surrounded by my Hawaiian culture, and I actively work to connect with it daily. I believe because I was not raised in my birthplace, I have a unique perspective of knowing if I want to immerse myself in Hawaiian culture, I must make an effort to do so. It is not something that comes naturally to me, since this is a community I was isolated from most of the year during my childhood (except on my visits to Hawai’i in the summer and during school breaks). Now that I am in college, I see an amazing opportunity I have to truly ground myself in my Hawaiian culture. The highlight of my first year of school was learning hula and dancing in lū’au, I was taught by Hawaiian friends who treated me with aloha and patience. Choosing revitalization as the keyword for my final paper is part of this new chapter of the life-long journey I am on to embrace my Hawaiian identity. This word is so important to me because I, just like the Hawaiian language, am undergoing my own cultural revitalization. I will always be inspired by the important Hawaiian figures in my life, my dad and stepmom, my Dartmouth Hawaiian ‘ohana (the first Hawaiian friends I “chose”/didn’t meet through my family), and my little sisters.

Sources

Trask, Haunani-Kay. (1999). From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawaii (Revised Edition), Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. 113-146, Chapter 3. (https://doi-org.dartmouth.idm.oclc.org/10.1515/9780824847029

Brenzinger, M., & Heinrich, P . (2013). The return of Hawaiian: language networks of the revival movement. Current Issues in Language Planning, 14(2), 300–316. https://doi.org/10.1080/14664208.2013.812943

Nakata, S, PhD. (2017). Language Suppression, Revitalization, and Native Hawaiian Identity. Fowler School of Law, Chapman University, Diversity & Social Justice Forum Publication. 14-27.https://www.chapman.edu/law/_files/publications/2017-dsj/nakata.pdf

Wong, A. (2020). The Inspiring Quest to Revive the Hawaiian Language. SmithsonianMagazine.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/one-family-quest-revive-hawaiian-language-180976225/United Nations. (2007). United Nations Declaration On The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples.

De Costa, P . I. (2021). Indigenous Language Revitalization: How Education Can Help Reclaim “Sleeping” Languages. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 20(5), 355–361. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2021.1957684