Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 15, Number 7, 1 July 1998 — Kameʻeleihiwa takes the helm [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Kameʻeleihiwa takes the helm

| The new dirpctor of the CenterforHawaiian | Studies says she wants a Hawaiian profes- ! sor in every department at the University. By Paula Durbln LILIKALĀ KAME'ELEIHIWA succeeds Haunani-Kay Trask as director of the Center for Hawaiian Studies of the University of Hawai'i- Mānoa. She is hardly brand new to the position having filled in for Trask. This time though, the change of command is formal, allowi ing Trask to work full-time under a research grant. "We : decided as a team on this transition," Kame'eleihiwa i explained the consensus involving Assistant Professors Kanalu Young and Jon Osorio as well as Trask and herself. The Center's only tenured faculty, Kame'eleihiwa and i Trask are also its matriarchs. Their partnership goes back to i Ka'ū Task Force convened in 1985 to advise UH's president i on educational opportunities for Native Hawaiians. Cur- | rently, the two women have taken opposite sides in the debate on how mueh Hawaiian Ianguage the Center should | require. But they built the center together and fought for the magnificent new complex that houses it. Based on their ; recommendations to the task force, the number of Hawaii ians on campus has increased and the Hawaiian studies cur- ; neulum is flourishing. "We service 400 students, 135 of i them Hawaiian studies majors. With more and more

Hawaiian students, we will probably pump up to 150," said Kame'eleihiwa.

What is the appeal? "We have dynamic teachers, all high A

profile in the community, j so the students see us on tele- , vision or hear ] by word of I mouth. And it's intellectu- I ally exciting, especially for •■§ Hawaiian kids, to learn * about things Hawaiian. From the B.A. in Hawaiian studies we see them go off into many

fields," she explained, adding, "I want a Hawaiian professor in

every department at the University. If you start now, in 20 years you'll have it. I love teaching and I believe we ean change the world, the Hawaiian world in particular, through education." As the first college graduate in her family, Kame'eleihiwa empathizes with students from working class backgrounds who are often under pressure to get a job rather than enroll at the university. 'They need to know there's a spot for them here, money if they need it, and a support system," she insisted. "This is their plaee. We are all dedicated to making this building the home of Hawaiians on campus, even working overtime so it's available." In fact, Kame'eleihiwa welcomes all Hawaiians to the Center. "We would like to erase the line between university Hawaiians and community Hawaiians," she emphasized, and she means it. The public is invited to meet with her in the Center's Papa-Wākea room from 6-8 p.m. on the first Monday of eaeh month to discuss what should be taught. Her gracious demeanor doesn't diminish Kame'eleihiwa's stature as a scholar. An expert on the Māhele, she also lists on her resumē more than ten years in teaching, research and consultancies; several acclaimed books; and service on the Hawai'iloa's crew. "The eanoe changed my life," she commented, and nothing makes her prouder than the twosemester course she wrote on Hawaiian navigation, now taught in the community colleges and in institutions in Tahiti, Samoa and Aotearoa. One of her goals as Center director is to integrate Nainoa Thompson's eoneepī of mālama 'āina, harmony with the land, into the eunieulum. "I would also like us to understand who we are as Hawaiians vis a vis our Polynesian cousins. so this summer I'm taking a group to Rapa Nui," she said, listing her other objectives. "I want a master's program to get otf the ground and I would love to see the university make a commitment to all Hawaiians for tuition waivers. It's part of the reconciliation process President Clinton called for in 1993." Kame'eleihiwa will give the center's popular guest speaker series a Pacific focus. As a historian, she'll stress the Hawaiian language and cultural past. 'This vear, the theme for our Center will be 'kū kākou ī ka le'ale'a o nā kūpuna.' or. 'we survive through the celebration of our ancestors," she satd. "Hawaiians eome to the university to find out more about our ancestors. The idea of following in their footsteps was. in traditional times, empowering, and it still is today." ■

(Above) Center for Hawaiian Studies director Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa outside her Kāne'ohe home. (Top right) Nā'ālehu Anthony with his mother, Dr. Kame'eleihiwa.

"D 1 2 0 w O z rn m o < m > Z