Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 11, 1 November 2011 — Hawaiʻi and APEC economies share native language ties [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hawaiʻi and APEC economies share native language ties

By Janice Bueltmann This month, Hawai'i is honored to weleome the member eeonomies of the Asia-Paeifie Eeonomie Cooperation. As thousands of APEC delegates arrive on our shores, the Hawaiian language will weleome them, the Hawaiian language on street signs will guide them and the Hawaiian language will inspire them to remember the indigenous languages that are a part of their own nahonal heritage. Less than three deeades ago, this normalization of the Hawaiian language was only a dream. After nearly a eentury of legislation that made its use as a medium of edueation illegal, the language was nearly extinct. Today, the Hawaiian language, and nearly 6,000 other indigenous languages, are highly endangered. Yet because of the efforts of visionary Hawaiian medium educators, thousands of families statewide who participate in the Hawaiian-medium education system, and the significant role

that OHA has played in providing resources to Hawaiian language initiatives, Hawai'i is recognized as a world leader in the international movement of indigenous peoples to reclaim their languages through education. Ku'ikahi 'Ōlelo Hawai'i, the Hawaiian Language Consortium, consists of 'Aha Pūnana Leo nonprofit preschools, Nāwahlokalani'ōpu'u Hawaiianmedium K-12 school, Ka Haka 'Ula O Ke'elikōlani, the state Hawaiian Language College at UH-Hilo, and 'Imiloa, the bilingual science museum in Hilo. The consortium has been especially prominent in providing technical assistance to indigenous educators worldwide. Indigenous educators from more than half of the APEC economies have visited consortium sites to study the preschool-through-doctorate level Hawaiian-medium education system in an effort to replicate its success. Since its ineephon 13 years ago,

Nāwahl school has produced a 100 percent high school graduation and an 80 percent college attendance rate. These academic results are recapturing the standard of excellence and international educational leadership that Hawai'iprovidedduring the 1800s. Hawaiian-medium education is also producing a new generation of Hawaiian speakers. With a student body of almost 300, more than onethird of children enrolled at Nāwahī school have spoken Hawaiian since birth. These numbers are especially encouraging to visiting tribes who have only a handful of native speakers remaining. In 2009, the World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium, or WINHEC, awarded Ka Haka 'Ula o Ke'elikōlani and its consortium partners the world's first P-20, or preschool to college, indigenous education accreditation. In August 2011, WINHEC met in Peru, an APEC member, and appointed representatives of Ka Haka 'Ula o Ke'elikōlani and

'Aha Pūnana Leo to the governing board and to leadership roles in the accreditation of indigenous preschools and the development of language programs for indigenous populations. In August, WINHEC members also elected Verlie-Ann Leimomi Wright, retired Vice Principal of Ānuenue Hawaiian-immersion school as the new Executive Chairperson, and accepted applications seeking WINHEC accreditation from Hawai'inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge at UH-Mānoa, Hālau Wānana Indigenous Center for Higher Learning, Hawai'i Technology Institute and the King Kalākaua Science and Oeean Center. Hawai'i may also receive special attention during the APEC forum

as the only state in the U.S. that has met the provisions for use of indigenous languages in education as set forth in the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, endorsed by the United States in 2010. Native Hawaiians and our state government have an important role in determining pathways to academic excellence while also retaining the distinctiveness of indigenous peoples in our globalized world. ■ Janice Bueltmann represents Ku'ikahi 'Ōlelo Hawai'i, the P-20 consortium of Nāwalnokalani'ōpu'u, the Pūnana Leo anel Ka Haka 'UIa O Ke'elikōlani, Hawaiian Language CoIIege.

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Kauanoe Kamana, Principal of Ke Kula '0 Nāwahīokalani'ōpu'u, right, and others welcomed visitors from Peru, a member of APEC, to Hilo's Nāwahīokalani'ōpu'u Hawaiian-medium school in October. - Photo: Courtesy of Kauanoe Kamanā