Hawai'i rising: Threatened native language makes a comeback (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Article published May 26, 2007

Hawai'i rising: Threatened native language makes a comeback
By Jaymes Song
The Associated Press
http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070526/LIFESTYLE22/705260301/1104

KE'EAU, Hawai'i — Portraits in the school's library are not of U.S.
presidents but Hawaiian royalty, from King Kamehameha to Princess
Ka'iulani. Near the classroom door rubber slippers are tidily lined up by
the students, who go barefoot. The calendar shows it's the month of
“Malaki.”

Hawaiian language and culture fill the hallways and playgrounds of Ke Kula
'O Nawahiokalani'opu'u Iki and define the mission of the school with the
sizable name — Nawahi for short. English is only allowed during the
one-hour English class.

A major effort is under way to revive and preserve Hawai'i's native tongue,
including so-called immersion schools, marking their 20th anniversary.
Courses from math to science are taught entirely in Hawaiian.

The language was nearly wiped out after being banned from schools across the
islands for nearly a century.

In 1983, when a small group of educators founded a key Hawaiian language
revival program, fewer than 50 children spoke the language. Today, the
rhythmic, fluid sounds of Hawaiian are used proficiently by more than 2,000
children.

“It's important because I'm the only one in my family who speaks Hawaiian,”
said Leiali'i Lee, a 10th grader at Nawahi, one of 23 immersion programs in
the state. “I can make a difference and I can revive my language.”

While fluency is still rare — just 1 percent of the state's 180,000 public
school students attend immersion programs — Hawaiian words are commonplace
around the islands, from vowel-filled town names such as Ka'a'awa and 'Aiea
to popular fish like mahimahi. There's a weekly radio news report in
Hawaiian. Tourists often are greeted in the language even before stepping
off the plane. Hawaiian is finding its way into more books and Web sites.
And it is taught as a foreign language at many island schools, public and
private.

The immersion schools carry this teaching further, of course.

Nawahi, which has nearly 200 students from preschool through 12th grade, was
founded in 1994 as a laboratory school affiliated with the University of
Hawai'i at Hilo. Students are taught Hawaiian traditions and culture, such
as growing sweet potatoes, building canoes and understanding the land.

The school has succeeded despite financial and political challenges, and
skepticism about educating in Hawaiian, the only indigenous language in the
United States that is an official state language.

Although about half the students are from low-income families, the school
boasts a perfect graduation rate, with 80 percent moving on to college,
well above the statewide average for public schools.

A visit to Nawahi reveals its formula for success: small classes, a
family-oriented environment and teachers dedicated to rescuing the Hawaiian
language.

“If you're not successful, I'm going to make you successful. That is my
responsibility,” said teacher Hiapo Perreira, who in 2002 became the first
person in the country to receive a master's degree in Hawaiian and who is
now in the University of Hawai'i at Hilo's new doctoral program.

“If my dream were to come true tomorrow..., every Hawaiian would know
Hawaiian,” Perreira said.

Student Akala Neves, a junior who hopes to attend Harvard or Stanford,
explained why that's important: “If you know who you are, you're confident
and you don't have to be afraid. ... This school teaches us we can compete
with everybody.”

In the tiny school library, besides the portraits of royalty, there are
dozens of framed pictures of the students' families. “We don't want to do
bad because our grandparents are watching,” said Lee, the 10th grader.

Books are in Hawaiian, including many originally in English. With very few
children's books available in Hawaiian, parents paste translations on top
of the English text. So, for example, Shel Silverstein's popular book, “The
Giving Tree,” becomes “O Kumula'au Aloha.”

Critics say students could be held back by learning a language that's not
“viable” in today's world. But school officials say Nawahi students have
exceeded peers in standardized English tests. Studies have also suggested
that highly bilingual students tend to have higher cognitive abilities.

“What people don't realize is that we speak English. Right after we leave
this campus, it's English,” Akala said. “When we go home, we speak English.
So we have so much English.”

State Sen. Clayton Hee, a longtime supporter of Hawaiian language programs,
was encouraged to speak only English while growing up, like many other
Hawaiians. “The assumption, ‘To be educated, you must speak English,' is a
fallacy,” said Hee, a former educator and state Office of Hawaiian Affairs
chairman.

He finally learned Hawaiian in college and now uses it proudly and often.

“It gave me a sense of identity. It gave me a sense of pride,” he said.

Kapa'anaokalaokeola Oliveira, an assistant professor of Hawaiian at the
University of Hawai'i, also expressed encouragement about the
once-forbidden language. “Today, I think there's a revitalization. People
are encouraging their children to speak Hawaiian,” she said.

Still, Hawaiian is far from being saved.

“It's still very close to being dead,” said William “Pila” Wilson, one of
the founders of 'Aha Punana Leo language program and chairman of the
Hawaiian program at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo. “A language is dead
when children are no longer speaking it. Once children stopped speaking
Hawaiian, especially to each other, we knew it was going to end.”

In 1896, three years after the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, a law was
implemented, stating: “The English language shall be the medium and basis of
instruction in all public and private schools.”

“That was a real death knell,” said Albert J. Schutz, author of “The Voices
of Eden: A History of Hawaiian Language Studies.”

“That meant the younger people weren't using it anymore and it was only the
older people that spoke the language.”

As the Hawaiian elders died, so did the language.

A 1917 editorial in the Hawaiian-language newspaper Ka Puuhonua discussed
how the ban was already having a major impact in just two decades.

“We now find that our mother tongue is being spoken in a broken manner.
There are no children under the age of 15 who can speak the mother tongue
in this land properly. ... And in a very short period, we will find that
the language is gone,” the editorial said.

A rare exception was the island of Ni'ihau, where because it was privately
owned and isolated from the state's rules, Hawaiian thrived through the
years. Ni'ihau currently has about 160 residents, all of whom speak
Hawaiian.

With extinction looming elsewhere, a resuscitation movement began in the
1970s. In 1978, Hawaiian was re-established as an official language of the
state. In 1990, the federal government adopted a policy of recognizing the
right to preserve, use, and support indigenous languages.

Today, as hula and Hawaiian music spread beyond the islands, even
non-Hawaiians are picking up the language. About a fifth of the students at
Nawahi have no Hawaiian blood, such as blonde, freckle-faced freshman Kemele
Lyon.

“The reason I love to speak Hawaiian,” she said, “is because I think it's
the most beautiful language I have ever heard, and every sentence is like
poetry.”

Before moving here from Southern California five years ago, all she knew in
Hawaiian were the words “aloha” and “mahalo” (thank you). Her Hawaiian is
now as graceful as the waterfalls outside Hilo.

Lyon also knows how to use traditional plants as medicine, play ancient
games and pound the taro plant into poi.

“Everything in America is about you. In Hawaiian, it's about your kupuna
(elders), grandparents, parents and your family,” she said. “I feel their
way is my way. I would never claim to be Hawaiian, but in my mana'o
(thoughts), I feel Hawaiian.”

Almost all the students at Nawahi started out speaking English, but Kalehua
Ontai, a bashful 11-year-old girl whose personality comes to life when she
plays the ‘ukulele, only started learning English last year.

“The Hawaiian language is my first language. The Hawaiian language is the
language of my ancestors and it's the language of my land,” she said. One
of the few students outside Ni'ihau who learned Hawaiian at home, she is an
example of the progress made in the revival of the language.

At Nawahi, the school day begins at 7:45 a.m. with the haunting moan of the
conch shell, which serves as a school bell and calls everyone to gather in
the open-air courtyard. Through chant, the students ask the teachers for
permission to enter.

Throughout the day, students use chants, some resounding and forceful,
others playful and light.

They end the day with song or prayer — echoing the cadences of their
ancestors, which nearly went silent.