I Kahiki ke Ola: In Kahiki there is Life, Ancestral Memories and Migrations in the New Pacific

<p>While exploring different topics and issues—examining everything from the importance of our Pacific genealogies, to the analysis of Hawaiian language literature, to the power of prophecies and predictions for the future, to the need to be reflexive in the creation of culture, and finally to the act of building a nation—each chapter of this thesis is connected by one shifting concept: Kahiki. Furthermore, they are joined by the idea that there is life to be found there. As an ʻōlelo noʻeau, or a Hawaiian proverb, states, “Aia ke ola i Kahiki,” “Life is in Kahiki”. This adage has served as the foundation of this research and each chapter has been written with the belief that there is life—in the form of reconstructed knowledge, new interpretations, and growing understandings—to be found in Kahiki. Encapsulated in this one term are our ancestral memories of migration. When islanders traveled to different parts of the Pacific region, they maintained knowledge of their homelands. Although the names of these homelands differ throughout the Pacific, the concept is the same: islanders knew that their life in a particular place, a particular group of islands, was dependent on other places and peoples that although out of sight were never completely out of memory. After generations, however, the specificity of these “homelands” was blurred, and one name came to represent the genealogical connection that people shared with other places in the Pacific. What was Pulotu for some, therefore, became Hawaiki for others, and eventually became Kahiki for my ancestors in Hawaiʻi. Thus, Kahiki became a general term for all lands in the region outside of Hawaiʻi, and more importantly, became a way for Hawaiians to explain their existence to themselves. In later generations, however, particularly when people from other parts of the world came to Hawaiʻi, Kahiki became a term used to refer to all lands beyond Hawaiʻi’s shores. This thesis, therefore, studies the life of this one concept through time: looking at it as part of our Pacific genealogies, as presented in oral traditions; examining it as a means of making nationalistic statements, and sometimes, even as a means of justifying colonialism in the nineteenth century; and then exploring contemporary articulations and engagements with Kahiki, particularly in the era following the Hawaiian renaissance, when a group of men on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi built a single-hulled canoe, brining tools, teachers, and knowledge from Kahiki to give new “life” to their people. Studying the way this one concept has shifted through time provides a means of understanding how people in each generation used one term to make sense of their experiences. Furthermore, it gives us the chance to examine our contemporary movements and to reengage with Kahiki in a way that will empower us to do and be more for our people, our region, and the world.</p>

I Kahiki ke Ola: In Kahiki there is Life, Ancestral Memories and Migrations in the New Pacific

<p>While exploring different topics and issues—examining everything from the importance of our Pacific genealogies, to the analysis of Hawaiian language literature, to the power of prophecies and predictions for the future, to the need to be reflexive in the creation of culture, and finally to the act of building a nation—each chapter of this thesis is connected by one shifting concept: Kahiki. Furthermore, they are joined by the idea that there is life to be found there. As an ʻōlelo noʻeau, or a Hawaiian proverb, states, “Aia ke ola i Kahiki,” “Life is in Kahiki”. This adage has served as the foundation of this research and each chapter has been written with the belief that there is life—in the form of reconstructed knowledge, new interpretations, and growing understandings—to be found in Kahiki. Encapsulated in this one term are our ancestral memories of migration. When islanders traveled to different parts of the Pacific region, they maintained knowledge of their homelands. Although the names of these homelands differ throughout the Pacific, the concept is the same: islanders knew that their life in a particular place, a particular group of islands, was dependent on other places and peoples that although out of sight were never completely out of memory. After generations, however, the specificity of these “homelands” was blurred, and one name came to represent the genealogical connection that people shared with other places in the Pacific. What was Pulotu for some, therefore, became Hawaiki for others, and eventually became Kahiki for my ancestors in Hawaiʻi. Thus, Kahiki became a general term for all lands in the region outside of Hawaiʻi, and more importantly, became a way for Hawaiians to explain their existence to themselves. In later generations, however, particularly when people from other parts of the world came to Hawaiʻi, Kahiki became a term used to refer to all lands beyond Hawaiʻi’s shores. This thesis, therefore, studies the life of this one concept through time: looking at it as part of our Pacific genealogies, as presented in oral traditions; examining it as a means of making nationalistic statements, and sometimes, even as a means of justifying colonialism in the nineteenth century; and then exploring contemporary articulations and engagements with Kahiki, particularly in the era following the Hawaiian renaissance, when a group of men on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi built a single-hulled canoe, brining tools, teachers, and knowledge from Kahiki to give new “life” to their people. Studying the way this one concept has shifted through time provides a means of understanding how people in each generation used one term to make sense of their experiences. Furthermore, it gives us the chance to examine our contemporary movements and to reengage with Kahiki in a way that will empower us to do and be more for our people, our region, and the world.</p>

Using the Cosmic Curriculum of Dr. Montessori Toward the Development of a Place-Based Indigenous Science Program

Indigenous educators desire to use culturally restorative and decolonized pedagogies reflective of their own cultural values and beliefs in their science programs but have lacked models for how to start. They also often lack confidence in their ability to teach the sciences. This three-year qualitative case study used grounded theory methodology to discover (a) how Hawaiian language immersion (HLC) K–6 educators used Maria Montessori’s Cosmic Curriculum for the creation of a science program based on Hawaiian epistemology and cultural values and (b) why the Cosmic Curriculum appealed to the HLC educators. Five key themes emerged: (a) the notion of creation as interconnected and relational, (b) an epistemological similarity regarding how people learn, (c) using timelines as organizing cognitive structures, (d) a focus on the natural sciences, and (e) the use of storytelling and key lessons to engage students. Participants stated that they felt successful in creating science curriculum and teaching the sciences as they adapted the above aspects of Dr. Montessori’s Cosmic Curriculum. Future research should be conducted to discover if her Cosmic Curriculum can be adapted for use in other types of non-Montessori program and whether this kind of science program could encourage students to choose the sciences as a career choice.

Cultural Validity as Foundational to Assessment Development: An Indigenous Example

The state of Hawai‘i has a linguistically and culturally diverse population that recognizes Hawaiian and English as official languages. Working with the community, the state established the Hawaiian Language Immersion Program, Ka Papahana Kaiapuni Hawai‘i (Kaiapuni), to support and promote the study of Hawaiian language, culture, and history. Kaiapuni students are historically marginalized test-takers and had been assessed using instruments that were culturally and linguistically insensitive, contained construct irrelevant variance, or had inadequate psychometric properties (U. S. Department of Education, 2006; Kaawaloa, 2014). In response, the Hawai‘i State Department of Education and the University of Hawai‘i developed the Kaiapuni Assessment of Educational Outcomes (KĀʻEO), which engages Kaiapuni students in technically rigorous, Native language assessments. This article details the theoretical framework of the KĀʻEO program, which includes traditional validity studies to build content and construct validity that support the assessment’s use for accountability. However, the KĀʻEO team recognized that additional evidence was needed because the KĀʻEO theory of action is grounded in principles of community use of assessment scores to advance cultural and language revitalization. The article provides an example of one of the validity studies that the team conducted to build evidence in support of cultural and content validity.

A Discourse Analytic Approach to Practices of Hawaiian Language Revitalization in the Mass Media

Scholars of language policy and planning (LPP) have recently started using ethnographic and discourse-analytic methods. Examining the collaborative sense-making activity of language users can shed light on how they construct their version or versions of reality by using semiotic resources, creating intertextual links, and referring to language ideologies. This study investigates an under-researched area in LPP: spoken discourse in media talk, specifically in media involved in indigenous language revitalization in Hawaiʻi. Using audio recordings of Ka Leo Hawaiʻi (The Hawaiian Voice) broadcast from the 1970s for over 25 years, the study explores the multilingual practices of the hosts, the guests, and the call-in listeners of the translingual contact zone of this Hawaiian language radio show by analyzing these participants' metapragmatic comments on the use of English and their bivalent utterances.

Reclaiming Native Hawaiian Knowledge Represented in Bird Taxonomies

This paper examines three examples of native bird classification systems historically used by the aboriginal peoples of the Hawaiian Islands. The goal is to better understand Indigenous linguistic hierarchies in the taxonomic structure and nomenclature systems that were formerly utilized by these colonized peoples. Three specific manuscripts from two native historians and a foreign naturalist are analyzed to better ascertain how these systems may have worked, despite the dearth of data on the comprehensive knowledge of bird hunters and ritual specialists. The utilitarian basis of these systems is shown to have potential practical application for the ongoing cultural and linguistic revitalization of the native Hawaiian people. The perspectives and reasoning behind these systems could be used as a tool for reviving traditional relationships with the unique ecosystems of Hawaiʻi. Further research in the large but diffuse archives of Hawaiian language manuscripts may eventually expand our understanding of Hawaiian folk systematics.

Pūpūkahi i Holomua: A Story of Hawaiian Education and a Theory of Change

The Hawaiian kingdom, prior to the illegal overthrow of its monarchy (1893) and the subsequent English-only Law (1896), had boasted a 91-95% literacy rate. Within that learning environment learners had a clear sense of purpose because Hawaiians had a firm grasp of who they were, where they were, and what they had to contribute. Since the English-only Law and US annexation of Hawai‘i (1898), however, the settler colonialschool system has maintained levels of cultural dissonance that have manifested as inequitable student outcomes for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (NHPI) across multiple academic and disciplinary student indicators (i.e., proficiency, suspension rates, etc). While western law and US compulsory education severed traditional sources of knowledge production that had provided a sustainable model of a‘o (teaching and learning), the ancestors of the Native Hawaiian community were diligent about preserving the keys to their genealogical legacies within more than 120,000 pages of Hawaiian-language newspapers. This collective repository is a resource that helps the Office of Hawaian Education (OHE) rethread Hawaiian education into the tapestry of traditional sources of knowledge production to improve sustainability (cultural, intellectual, environmental, political, etc.) for all learners. OHE uses a theory of change that engages primary and secondary sources, quantitative and qualitative data, in action research that informs Why contemporary circumstances exist, What those contemporary circumstances are, Where we want Hawaiian education to go, and How we are going to get there.