Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 25, Number 8, 1 August 2008 — ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi [ARTICLE]

ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi

Our kūpuna would be so proud to see that more and more students are learning our language. We are approaching the point when any Hawaiian high school student ean take Hawaiian through the many puhlie school, charter school, immersion, private school and online methods available. Now we need to further encourage students who are leaming and preserving our language so tied to our family genealogies. One step that could be taken would be for Hawaiian entities such as OHA, Kamehameha Schools and the Hawaiian Civic Clubs to reward students who speak or study Hawaiian by providing college scholarships. A number of Indian tribes already do something similar with their scholarship programs. For them it is an issue of asserting sovereignty through their languages. In many European countries, most high school graduates have studied their nahonal language for 12 years, Enghsh for six years and several years of a third language. We ean gradually move toward that model for Hawaiian children as well. It took vision for Hawaiian language pioneers like John Keola Lake of Saint Louis to get Hawaiian to be offered in high schools. Similar vision to integrate study of Hawaiian into scholarship

programs would further move the language forward. D. Kanoelani Kawai'ae'a Hilo, Hawai'i