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Hawaiian language revival began on Kaua‘i
by Cynthia Matsuoka - Special to The Garden Island
An important chapter in the story of the revitalization of the Hawaiian language began with a group of concerned individuals seated around a table at a home in Kalaheo.
In January 1983, seven individuals gathered at the home of Byron Hokulani Cleeland to solve the problem of the imminent demise of the Hawaiian language. The language was dying as the nearly 2,000 remaining native Hawaiian speakers were dying.
“Even with people teaching (the Hawaiian language) in high schools and universities, we weren’t getting speakers,” Cleeland said.
They discussed the New Zealand Kohanga Reo system of placing native speakers with little kids in preschool. They decided to replicate that system in Hawai‘i and established ‘Aha Punana Leo as the parent organization.
They quickly faced a number of challenges, one being “the strictest preschool regulations in the whole country,” Cleeland said.
An 1896 law that established English as the “medium and basis of all instruction in public and private schools” was still in effect, even if Hawaiian and English were declared the two official languages in Hawai‘i in 1978. The law had to be changed in order for a Hawaiian immersion preschool to be recognized.
In September 1984 the first Hawaiian immersion preschool opened on ‘Elepaio Road in Kekaha. It was called Punana Leo O Kekaha. The teachers were from Ni‘ihau, the only place where Hawaiian was still the first language in the home.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough interest on the Westside and the school closed after two years, Cleeland said. Cleeland spent the next year looking for another site.
He found an old plantation house in Puhi, which he renovated with the help of volunteers and in the fall of 1987, the preschool re-opened as Punana Leo O Kaua‘i. It remains today at the same Puhi site.
In 1989, Cleeland said he helped look for a public school, which would provide an opportunity for the immersion preschoolers to continue to receive instruction in Hawaiian.
Cleeland said research was available to show that if children were taught well in their native language until fourth or fifth grade, the transition to the dominant language would be easy.
In addition, being bilingual expanded a child’s world. Children would understand that there was not just one way to look at the world, Cleeland said.
Cliff Bailey, principal at Kapa‘a Elementary School at that time, welcomed the idea and promised to find room for the immersion students.
While all of this was happening, Cleeland was teaching at Kaua‘i High School. He started teaching there in 1968.
His interest in native languages was instilled when he lived among the Tlingit (pronounced Klinkit) Indians in Alaska when he was three years to eight years of age.
When he moved to Maui at the start of his high school years, he heard Hawaiian spoken because his father helped with the Kaulamapueo Hawaiian church in Huelo. It piqued his interest, but he didn’t have an opportunity to take courses in the language — until the summer of 1972 when he heard on the radio that an adult education class in Hawaiian was being taught by Hi‘ilei Kanahele, a school teacher from Ni‘ihau. He enrolled in the class, then signed up for the first Hawaiian 101 class offered at Kaua‘i Community College that fall.
These were the early years of what was to become known as the “Hawaiian Renaissance,” Cleeland said.
Gabriel I taught the KCC class. After substituting for Gabriel I in the class several times, Cleeland was eventually asked to teach it in 1975. Cleeland said there was no one else available to teach the class, so he could be hired despite his meager background in Hawaiian.
He quickly picked up credits from the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa and Hilo. He continued to teach Hawaiian classes at KCC for 25 years.
Three years after starting to teach at KCC, Cleeland got approval from his principal at Kaua‘i High to offer a Hawaiian language class to high school students. Cleeland discovered that the Hawaiian language textbooks available were not suited for high school students, so he began to develop his own lessons. It bothered him, he said, that although students could translate the exercises, they couldn’t speak the language.
It wasn’t until the French language teacher retired and he took over the French language classes that he became familiar with a different teaching strategy. He discovered that there were no translation exercises in the French textbook. He began to develop lessons patterned after the new strategy.
“I didn’t realize that it would take me 450 pages ... about five years,” Cleeland said, “but it was motivating to see that, before, after two years students still would not try to speak (in Hawaiian). When I tried these other kinds of lessons, by Christmas they would come up to me and (try to speak in Hawaiian).”
With encouragement from others, Cleeland had his textbook, ‘Olelo ‘Oiwi, published in 1994 by ‘Aha Punana Leo, the non-profit organization that runs the Punana Leo schools throughout the state. He said it was reprinted twice. Copies are no longer available, since ‘Aha Punana Leo phased out its publication office.
Because of its good reputation and the demand for it, Kamehameha Schools is in the process of reprinting Cleeland’s textbook. Although written for teachers of high school students, Cleeland said his book is used from middle school through adults. He said it is written for people who hate grammar and can even be used independently.
In 1987, Hawaiian language professors from the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo asked Cleeland to join them in forming a lexicon committee, Komike Hua‘olelo. With the growth of immersion classes, new vocabulary had to be developed for math, science, technology and even sports. The language had been dying for nearly100 years, Cleeland said. New vocabulary had to be added for the language to grow.
The result of the meetings was the eventual publication of Mamaka Kaiao, a “compilation of Hawaiian words that have been created, collected and approved by the Hawaiian Lexicon Committee from 1987 through 2000.”
Cleeland said all the words are in a databank on his computer. They are looking to publish an updated edition with new words. Cleeland said he is still working on correcting errors in the current edition.
After 27 years of teaching at Kaua‘i High School, Cleeland was offered another challenge. In 1993, Ni‘ihau parents asked Kekaha Elementary School to teach Ni‘ihau children in their own language. A summer program that brought children from immersion schools on other islands to stay with Ni‘ihau families made the families realize that, unlike the visitors, more and more of their own children would communicate with them in English, Cleeland said.
When the Department of Education entered into an agreement with Kamehameha Schools and offered classes taught in Hawaiian for only kindergarten and grade one, many parents boycotted the school. The Ni‘ihau children returned to the school in 1994, however, when Kekaha Elementary was able to offer classes for children from kindergarten through grade 6 with funding from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs through ‘Aha Punana Leo for Ni‘ihau teachers. The DOE funded a certificated teacher.
Kamehameha Schools was no longer a partner, so the DOE looked within its ranks and found Cleeland to work alongside the Ni‘ihau teachers. Cleeland said people laughed when they heard he was going to teach kindergarten through sixth. He said the bet was he wouldn’t last two years. He proved them wrong.
Cleeland started in 1995. By 1998, enrollment had jumped to 40. Their one room was not adequate for 40 students and four teachers, so he and Billi Smith, the principal then, had begun eyeing the armory across the street.
After “big political football” involving the likes of Sen. Daniel Inouye and General Edward Richardson, Kekaha Elementary’s Ni‘ihau program moved into the partially renovated armory in the fall of 1998.
There were still problems, Cleeland said. As the students advanced in grade levels, they had to be registered with Waimea Canyon School and Waimea High School. The schools were legally responsible for them, but never saw them, as the students were attending classes in the armory.
After Act 62 was signed into law on May 27, 1999, creating New Century Public Charter Schools, Cleeland said they began talking about applying. On May 17, 2001, Ke Kula Ni‘ihau O Kekaha Learning Center was approved by the BOE as a public charter school.
“We’re doing what we can to perpetuate and strengthen the Ni‘ihau dialect among Ni‘ihau children living on Kaua‘i,” Cleeland said.
• Cynthia Matsuoka is a freelance writer for The Garden Island and former principal of Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School. She can be reached by e-mail at aharju@kauaipubco.com
In January 1983, seven individuals gathered at the home of Byron Hokulani Cleeland to solve the problem of the imminent demise of the Hawaiian language. The language was dying as the nearly 2,000 remaining native Hawaiian speakers were dying.
“Even with people teaching (the Hawaiian language) in high schools and universities, we weren’t getting speakers,” Cleeland said.
They discussed the New Zealand Kohanga Reo system of placing native speakers with little kids in preschool. They decided to replicate that system in Hawai‘i and established ‘Aha Punana Leo as the parent organization.
They quickly faced a number of challenges, one being “the strictest preschool regulations in the whole country,” Cleeland said.
An 1896 law that established English as the “medium and basis of all instruction in public and private schools” was still in effect, even if Hawaiian and English were declared the two official languages in Hawai‘i in 1978. The law had to be changed in order for a Hawaiian immersion preschool to be recognized.
In September 1984 the first Hawaiian immersion preschool opened on ‘Elepaio Road in Kekaha. It was called Punana Leo O Kekaha. The teachers were from Ni‘ihau, the only place where Hawaiian was still the first language in the home.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough interest on the Westside and the school closed after two years, Cleeland said. Cleeland spent the next year looking for another site.
He found an old plantation house in Puhi, which he renovated with the help of volunteers and in the fall of 1987, the preschool re-opened as Punana Leo O Kaua‘i. It remains today at the same Puhi site.
In 1989, Cleeland said he helped look for a public school, which would provide an opportunity for the immersion preschoolers to continue to receive instruction in Hawaiian.
Cleeland said research was available to show that if children were taught well in their native language until fourth or fifth grade, the transition to the dominant language would be easy.
In addition, being bilingual expanded a child’s world. Children would understand that there was not just one way to look at the world, Cleeland said.
Cliff Bailey, principal at Kapa‘a Elementary School at that time, welcomed the idea and promised to find room for the immersion students.
While all of this was happening, Cleeland was teaching at Kaua‘i High School. He started teaching there in 1968.
His interest in native languages was instilled when he lived among the Tlingit (pronounced Klinkit) Indians in Alaska when he was three years to eight years of age.
When he moved to Maui at the start of his high school years, he heard Hawaiian spoken because his father helped with the Kaulamapueo Hawaiian church in Huelo. It piqued his interest, but he didn’t have an opportunity to take courses in the language — until the summer of 1972 when he heard on the radio that an adult education class in Hawaiian was being taught by Hi‘ilei Kanahele, a school teacher from Ni‘ihau. He enrolled in the class, then signed up for the first Hawaiian 101 class offered at Kaua‘i Community College that fall.
These were the early years of what was to become known as the “Hawaiian Renaissance,” Cleeland said.
Gabriel I taught the KCC class. After substituting for Gabriel I in the class several times, Cleeland was eventually asked to teach it in 1975. Cleeland said there was no one else available to teach the class, so he could be hired despite his meager background in Hawaiian.
He quickly picked up credits from the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa and Hilo. He continued to teach Hawaiian classes at KCC for 25 years.
Three years after starting to teach at KCC, Cleeland got approval from his principal at Kaua‘i High to offer a Hawaiian language class to high school students. Cleeland discovered that the Hawaiian language textbooks available were not suited for high school students, so he began to develop his own lessons. It bothered him, he said, that although students could translate the exercises, they couldn’t speak the language.
It wasn’t until the French language teacher retired and he took over the French language classes that he became familiar with a different teaching strategy. He discovered that there were no translation exercises in the French textbook. He began to develop lessons patterned after the new strategy.
“I didn’t realize that it would take me 450 pages ... about five years,” Cleeland said, “but it was motivating to see that, before, after two years students still would not try to speak (in Hawaiian). When I tried these other kinds of lessons, by Christmas they would come up to me and (try to speak in Hawaiian).”
With encouragement from others, Cleeland had his textbook, ‘Olelo ‘Oiwi, published in 1994 by ‘Aha Punana Leo, the non-profit organization that runs the Punana Leo schools throughout the state. He said it was reprinted twice. Copies are no longer available, since ‘Aha Punana Leo phased out its publication office.
Because of its good reputation and the demand for it, Kamehameha Schools is in the process of reprinting Cleeland’s textbook. Although written for teachers of high school students, Cleeland said his book is used from middle school through adults. He said it is written for people who hate grammar and can even be used independently.
In 1987, Hawaiian language professors from the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo asked Cleeland to join them in forming a lexicon committee, Komike Hua‘olelo. With the growth of immersion classes, new vocabulary had to be developed for math, science, technology and even sports. The language had been dying for nearly100 years, Cleeland said. New vocabulary had to be added for the language to grow.
The result of the meetings was the eventual publication of Mamaka Kaiao, a “compilation of Hawaiian words that have been created, collected and approved by the Hawaiian Lexicon Committee from 1987 through 2000.”
Cleeland said all the words are in a databank on his computer. They are looking to publish an updated edition with new words. Cleeland said he is still working on correcting errors in the current edition.
After 27 years of teaching at Kaua‘i High School, Cleeland was offered another challenge. In 1993, Ni‘ihau parents asked Kekaha Elementary School to teach Ni‘ihau children in their own language. A summer program that brought children from immersion schools on other islands to stay with Ni‘ihau families made the families realize that, unlike the visitors, more and more of their own children would communicate with them in English, Cleeland said.
When the Department of Education entered into an agreement with Kamehameha Schools and offered classes taught in Hawaiian for only kindergarten and grade one, many parents boycotted the school. The Ni‘ihau children returned to the school in 1994, however, when Kekaha Elementary was able to offer classes for children from kindergarten through grade 6 with funding from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs through ‘Aha Punana Leo for Ni‘ihau teachers. The DOE funded a certificated teacher.
Kamehameha Schools was no longer a partner, so the DOE looked within its ranks and found Cleeland to work alongside the Ni‘ihau teachers. Cleeland said people laughed when they heard he was going to teach kindergarten through sixth. He said the bet was he wouldn’t last two years. He proved them wrong.
Cleeland started in 1995. By 1998, enrollment had jumped to 40. Their one room was not adequate for 40 students and four teachers, so he and Billi Smith, the principal then, had begun eyeing the armory across the street.
After “big political football” involving the likes of Sen. Daniel Inouye and General Edward Richardson, Kekaha Elementary’s Ni‘ihau program moved into the partially renovated armory in the fall of 1998.
There were still problems, Cleeland said. As the students advanced in grade levels, they had to be registered with Waimea Canyon School and Waimea High School. The schools were legally responsible for them, but never saw them, as the students were attending classes in the armory.
After Act 62 was signed into law on May 27, 1999, creating New Century Public Charter Schools, Cleeland said they began talking about applying. On May 17, 2001, Ke Kula Ni‘ihau O Kekaha Learning Center was approved by the BOE as a public charter school.
“We’re doing what we can to perpetuate and strengthen the Ni‘ihau dialect among Ni‘ihau children living on Kaua‘i,” Cleeland said.
• Cynthia Matsuoka is a freelance writer for The Garden Island and former principal of Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School. She can be reached by e-mail at aharju@kauaipubco.com
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