Once banned in schools, ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i now part of push to make Maui County government bilingual

When Maui County Council Member Keani Rawlins-Fernandez was in high school in the 1990s, she remembered hearing adults say Japanese was the best second language to learn in Hawai‘i for good jobs and earning money.

They felt that learning ‘Ōlelo Hawai’i, the native language of the islands, didn’t offer the same economic opportunities as the language of the millions of tourists who annually flocked to the state.

“In our own homeland, to place more value on a foreign language, like Japanese, than our own mother tongue, it’s heartbreaking,” said Rawlins-Fernandez, 41, who took two years of classes in ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i as well as Japanese at Moloka‘i High and Intermediate School. 

But that attitude was changing in the decades-long push to restore the language to public spaces. Renewed interest in ‘Ōlelo Hawai’i during the Hawaiian Renaissance of the 1960s and ’70s was followed by its designation as the official language of the state in 1978. But it wasn’t until 1986 that the state finally overturned a nearly century-long ban on teaching it in public schools and created Hawaiian language immersion programs the following year.

Today, the change in the importance of the native language is evident. Rawlins-Fernandez sits in her office under two degrees inscribed in ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i. On her desk is a copy of her council committee’s latest agenda printed in both ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i and English and a seven-page resolution translated fully in Hawaiian language.

And more change is to come. In 2022, Maui County voters passed a charter amendment that would make county operations bilingual in English and ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i, as well as create a Department of ‘Ōiwi Resources that would oversee management of cultural resources and improve planning in culturally sensitive areas. The department launched on July 1, and efforts are underway to move the county toward a bilingual government. 

Kapono‘ai Molitau, director of the new department, said the importance of including ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i in county affairs should not be why, “but a conversation of why hasn’t it been done long ago.”

BRINGING THE LANGUAGE BACK

Molitau’s hānai father, the revered kumu hula John Keola Lake, never forced his family to speak ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i if they didn’t want to — but he did try to teach them to love it. 

“He always mentioned that if you don’t love something, then you’re never going to really embrace the fact that this is important to you,” Molitau said. “He did push us when we did speak it. And then there was a lot of grace as well to make sure we could learn through all of that.”  

That’s what Molitau envisions for the county as a bilingual operation. He’s not pushing for everyone to be fluent. But he does want people to learn to embrace and appreciate ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i, even through something as simple as learning the names of the mountains, waterways and winds of the place they come from — and sharing those details when introducing themselves. 

Attorney Lance Collins, as 2021 chairman of the Charter Commission that gathers every 10 years to propose changes to Maui County’s governing document, proposed making the county into a bilingual operation because ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i has long been the language of the islands.

In 1840, ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i was the primary language of the public education system established by King Kamehameha III. But after the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893, Hawaiian language was banned as a medium of instruction in public schools in 1896. 

Over the decades, the number of native speakers dwindled to the point that ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i was on a list of endangered languages in the United States.

By 1983, nearly a century after the overthrow, the number of people who could speak ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi was down to an estimated 2,000 people, with only 50 under the age of 18. 

In 1978 it was designated as an official state language. But the ban wasn’t repealed until 1986, allowing ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i to be taught again in public schools and helping fluency in the language to rebound.

The 1980s saw the creation of the nonprofit ‘Aha Pūnana Leo (“Nest of Voices”), a statewide network of Hawaiian language preschools, and Hawaiian Language Immersion Programs in state Department of Education public schools.

According to a 2016 state report, an estimated 18,610 people spoke ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i at home, although that was only 5.7% of all people who reported speaking a language other than English at home.  

Collins believes creating a government proficient in ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i is only fair to Native Hawaiians who have had to assimilate to a foreign language on their own land. He envisions the county offering Hawaiian translations of all laws and providing language access by request, similar to what the state Judiciary does for people involved in the legal system.

“Having the government be bilingual or provide language services is one of the ways to remedy the consequences of … basically almost a hundred-year policy of banning the Hawaiian language,” Collins said.

Charter Commission Vice Chairman Keoni Kuoha proposed the creation of the Department of ‘Ōiwi Resources that was eventually paired with Collins’ proposal and sent to the 2022 ballot. 

‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i is one of the many customs, traditions and resources the new department aims to protect, Molitau said. Others include nā inoa wahi pono‘ī (place names), historical and archival materials, cultural sites, iwi kūpuna (ancestral bones) and burials, and natural resources used in cultural practices. 

He envisions the department focusing on three divisions. Kīpuka, which refers to a place where new growth emerges, would focus on “areas of the cultural landscape that the County of Maui has kuleana (responsibility) over,” including Moku‘ula, a former island in Lahaina that served as the home of high-ranking ali‘i in the mid-1800s. In August, the state turned over the area to Maui County for restoration.

Another division, Kumuwaiwaiola, would focus on creating cultural overlay mapping to show what Maui County used to look like and help planners avoid culturally sensitive areas like burial sites. Currently, such a map does not exist, Molitau said. 

A third division, Pai Ka Leo, which means lifting or supporting the voice, would focus on promoting ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i, whether that’s working with the University of Hawai‘i Maui College to offer courses in Hawaiian studies for county employees or providing workshops at the department’s own offices in Wailuku.

Molitau, the owner and founder of Native Intelligence in Wailuku and a longtime kumu hula of Nā Hanona Kūlike ʻO Piʻilani, hopes the department can create job opportunities for the growing pool of young people who are fluent in ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i, especially for those who believe the tourism industry is one of the few places they can showcase their knowledge of Hawaiian culture and traditions. 

“Now the students that are coming up, they’re native speakers. Their first language is ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i,” Molitau said. “And so when you look at that, and what we’ve done over the last 30, 40 years, is that generational push of bringing back the mother tongue and making sure that ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i is equal to the demands of ‘Ōlelo Pelekania (English) in this land.” 

THE START OF SOMETHING NEW

Already, the push toward a bilingual government is opening doors for young people who are passionate about ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i. In 2022, the county appointed Nālani Fujihara, a 2018 Kamehameha Schools Maui graduate, as a Hawaiian language communications specialist in the Office of Council Services. 

Fujihara is tasked with translating documents such as bills and agendas into ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i for the Efficiency Solutions and Circular Systems Committee, which is chaired by Rawlins-Fernandez and handles matters related to the Department of ‘Ōiwi Resources. She also checks the accuracy of transcriptions of people who testify in ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i, which she says is common when an issue sensitive to the Hawaiian community comes up. 

“I think many people question the importance of ‘Olelo Hawai‘i and if it’s necessary to include it in certain spaces since most people don’t speak or understand the language,” Fujihara said. “But for me, whether you’re Hawaiian or not, if you live in Hawai‘i, you have a kuleana to support the perpetuation of Hawaiian culture and language.”

Fujihara didn’t grow up speaking ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i, but a lifetime of dancing hula taught her to love the poetic messaging behind the mele (songs), and running for the title of Miss Aloha Hula at the Merrie Monarch Festival in 2022 pushed her in “trying to understand the way our kūpuna (elders or ancestors) think.” 

Fujihara said Native Hawaiians who didn’t grow up attending kula kaiapuni (Hawaiian immersion schools), feel the stigma of not measuring up, but majoring in Hawaiian studies at UH-Mānoa and gaining fluency in the language helped her “get over that barrier of ‘am I Hawaiian enough to pursue this?’”

“I think my sense of my responsibility was stronger than my fear,” she said. 

Now she’s on the ground floor of a historic effort for the language. 

Earlier this year, Rawlins-Fernandez introduced a bill that would create a chapter on bilingual operations in the Maui County Code — opening the door to discussions about what it would take. She said the effort is starting with her committee so it can gauge how long the work takes, the staffing and costs to expand translation services to other committees and branches of government.

The Department of ‘Ōiwi Resources was allocated just under $1.7 million in the current county budget, with about $467,000 for salaries and $1.2 million for operations.

Rawlins-Fernandez also didn’t grow up speaking ‘Ōlelo Hawai’i but learned vocabulary by reading her older cousins’ books as an elementary student and later taking classes in high school and college. She’s excited to give the next generation the incentive to learn. 

“This is a time when maybe more than ever we’re having more and more graduates who can speak the language and put that to good use in their communities,” Rawlins-Fernandez said. “We have to make space for the next generation.”

Even with the county’s effort to be more inclusive of Hawaiian culture, Fujihara said she understands the hesitance of some Native Hawaiians to participate in government.  

“Given the very painful history of what the Native Hawaiians had to go through, I understand why there’s so much distrust,” she said. “And it’s kind of hard because for Native Hawaiians, we’re kind of playing in a system that doesn’t really fit us. So, I think at the end of the day, it’s better to have a seat at the table than to not be there at all.”