Niihau: Alive and Well

Aloha mai,

Mahalo to all of you who joined Ka Punana. This week's lesson covers the proper pronunciation of the word aloha. It is a word many use and many think they know how to say, but I have learned otherwise as a kumu. Please take time to record your pronunciation, compare it to mine, and make adjustments.

This week I want to talk about a Hawaiian from Niihau. Last week I featured my good friend Ekolu Kelley, a native of Niihau. Our families got together a few times during our trip to Kauai last month and we made a video about how to pronounce Kauai. He explains how it is often mispronounced and more importantly teaches that Niihau Hawaiians say Tauai while Hawaiians on other islands say Kauai. Check it out if you haven't already.

Why This Matters

In 1896, three years after the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, olelo Hawaii was removed as the medium of instruction in our schools and olelo haole replaced it. The message sent to Hawaiians was clear. If your children are to live and succeed in Hawaii and abroad, English is the way.

That ban persisted until 1978. That’s 82 years of systematic language suppression. Hawaiian school children of the 1890s were told by their families to speak Hawaiian at home and English at school. That home culture is the only reason olelo did not die. It was native speakers who refused to stop speaking their language with their families.

The 1970s has been called the Hawaiian Renaissance, a time when young Hawaiians awoke to a growing divide between themselves and older generations. The young spoke English, the old spoke Hawaiian. You could learn Hawaiian in school but not at home. The speakers of daily life had passed on or refused to teach. That disconnect created a school Hawaiian that native speakers have always criticized.

Niihau Families

None of what I just described affected Hawaiians born and raised on Niihau. When the 1896 ban came, they kept olelo at home and at school. They never lost the language and that continues today. They do not go to school to learn their language. They are raised in a family and community where olelo kanaka is simply the language of life.

My friend Ekolu can speak with his grandparents, parents, cousins, nieces, and nephews in Hawaiian. That is not common among Hawaiian speakers outside of Niihau families. No exaggeration, they are our very last multi-generational community of native speakers. There are still some kupuna native speakers outside of Niihau, but very few, and in all cases they are the only ones left in their family. The community they spoke olelo with has passed on.

Native Speakers vs New Speakers

Ekolu would never boast of himself, but I will do that for him. When Niihau people say a word or express a thought, it is not something they read in a book or learned from a teacher whose language lineage stems from the 1970s. For a native speaker like Ekolu, what he shares is rooted in the oral tradition of Hawaiian people, going far past the 1800s.

So when he speaks, you listen. He may be in his 30s, but his knowledge of the language and culture is generations old. His pronunciation, intonation, accent, and worldview have been shaped by generations of living in olelo. All of that makes him very different from new speakers of the last 50 years.

Follow Our Kupuna

In Hawaiian culture, we follow the lead of our kupuna, those who are skilled, knowledgeable, and have been around longer. That applies to language as well. For students of olelo, if you never get to sit, listen, and converse with a native speaker you are at a disadvantage and disconnected from Hawaiian tradition. This is why I constantly push listening resources on my students. If you become conversational without listening to native speakers throughout that process, you sound alien to a native speaker. That is not my opinion. That is what you will hear from them or a blank stare as they try to figure out what language you’re speaking.

Please go follow Ekolu—@leo_kuahiwi on Instagram and watch every video he makes. There are literally a handful of Niihau native speakers who ever make content, so this is a rarity.

Ua loihi loa keia leka. Mahalo no ka heluhelu ana me ka hoomanawanui.

Ke aloha no, 

Maluhia