When most people picture Hawai’i, they think of an 80-degree, 10-level UV, beachy, vacation destination. Only a very small crowd thinks of the culturally rich and history-filled indigenous land that it truly is. Much of Hawai’i’s culture and history lies in its language. February is Mahina ‘Ōlelo Hawai’i (Hawaiian Language Month), and to celebrate, I would like to share a little about the language and culture of my people.
Hawaiian was originally an oral language that descended from other Polynesian languages, and is most closely related to the Tahitian language. This means that originally, there was no written Hawaiian material. Mo’olelo (stories) were passed down orally or through hula (dance), and mo’okū’auhau (genealogy/ancestry) was taught and recited from tens of generations back.
It wasn’t until the arrival of Christian missionaries in the 1820s that Hawaiian became a written language. In an attempt to share the word of God with the Hawaiian people, the Protestant missionaries that came to the islands transcribed the Baibala (Bible) from English to Hawaiian. With this, the missionaries also taught Hawaiians to read and write. Literacy rates in Hawai’i skyrocketed to over 90%, bypassing the literacy rates of both the U.S. and the U.K. and making the Kingdom of Hawai’i possibly the most literate independent nation in the world.
However, the arrival of foreigners eventually proved to be detrimental to the Hawaiian language; in 1896, three years after the overthrow of Queen Lili’uokalani, Hawaiian language was banned in schools. Students were taught only in English and punished for using their native tongue. This caused ‘ōlelo Hawai’i to fall out of practice, and the number of speakers dwindled with each generation. The Hawaiian culture was nearly extinct.
Fortunately, the 1970s brought a wave of cultural pride and Native Hawaiians started movements to revive their once-lost culture, dance and language. Over the following 50 years, Native Hawaiians rediscovered their culture. Hawaiian immersion schools, such as ‘Aha Pūnana Leo, were founded to help young Hawaiians discover their native language. Hula festivals, like the iconic Merrie Monarch, celebrated traditional Hawaiian dance. The Polynesian Voyaging Society paid tribute to ancient wayfinding wisdom by voyaging first to Tahiti, and then around the world on a wa’a kaulua (double-hulled canoe) without the help of modern navigation tools.
In today’s day and age, the Hawaiian language is beginning to thrive again. With the help of the digital world, Hawaiian knowledge has become increasingly accessible. Online Hawaiian dictionaries, like wehewehe.org, Hawaiian culture podcasts, such as The Kū Project, and even Hawaiian AI chatbots, like KumuBot, have all made Hawaiian language and culture available to natives and non-natives around the world.
Despite being over five thousand miles away from home this Mahina ‘Ōlelo Hawai’i, I plan to celebrate by continuing to practice ‘Ōlelo Hawai’i through conversations with friends and on Duolingo. I hope to share this language with those around me, and bring awareness to the beauty that lies within my Hawaiian culture.
E ola mau ka ‘ōlelo Hawai’i! (Long live the Hawaiian language!)
The above piece was fact-checked by Dr. Umi Perkins.