{"id":140711,"date":"2021-05-04T15:06:40","date_gmt":"2021-05-05T01:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=140711"},"modified":"2021-05-05T13:35:25","modified_gmt":"2021-05-05T23:35:25","slug":"hawaiian-language-speakers-translate-news-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/05\/04\/hawaiian-language-speakers-translate-news-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"M\u0101noa Hawaiian language speakers translate headline news stories"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

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Mainstream media in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> are helping to propel the state\u2019s mother tongue by incorporating the once-banned language into Â鶹´«Ã½\u2019s<\/span> news. Award-winning investigative news website, Honolulu Civil Beat<\/em><\/a>, has announced ʻōlelo<\/span> Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> (Hawaiian language) speakers from the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Mānoa Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language<\/a> will translate stories published by its reporters. The special project, Ka Ulana Pilina, is privately funded and will first feature the translation of a small collection of past Civil Beat<\/em> stories into Hawaiian. After that, at least one news story a week will be translated into ʻōlelo<\/span> Â鶹´«Ã½.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We have been really encouraged by the enthusiasm readers have shown for this project, underscoring the need to renormalize ʻōlelo<\/span> Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>,” said Nathan Eagle, a deputy editor at Civil Beat<\/em>. “We\u2019ve had teachers reach out who want to incorporate Ka Ulana Pilina in their classrooms…We ultimately hope this project helps us better connect with Indigenous readers, identify underreported stories and improve our engagement with the community.”<\/p>\n

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N. Haʻalilio<\/span> Solomon<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n
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Ākea Kahikina<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n

UH<\/abbr> Mānoa Hawaiian language instructor N. Haʻalilio<\/span> Solomon<\/strong> and Ākea Kahikina<\/strong>, a graduate teaching assistant at UH<\/abbr> Mānoa will be translating for the watchdog journalism site. Kahikina calls the project “monumental” and applauds the news outlet for opening opportunities to expand the use of Â鶹´«Ã½\u2019s<\/span> native language.<\/p>\n

“Ma o ka hoʻohui<\/span> ʻia<\/span> ʻana<\/span> o ka ʻōlelo<\/span> Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> ma ke ʻano<\/span> he koho e hoʻolohe<\/span> ʻia<\/span> ai ka leo o nei ʻāina,<\/span> e huli ana ʻo<\/span> Civil Beat<\/em> i kona mau lima i lalo i ka lepo e kākoʻo<\/span> a hoʻokamaʻāina<\/span> hou i ka ʻāina<\/span> a lākou e kū nei a e kūkala nūhou nei, a ʻo<\/span> ia kekahi hana a kākou e aʻo<\/span> mai ai ma o ke kākoʻo<\/span> ʻana<\/span> i nei papahana.”<\/p>\n

(“By including ʻōlelo<\/span> Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> as an option in hearing the voices of this ʻāina,<\/span> Civil Beat<\/em> is turning its hands down into the soil of our islands to support and re-familiarize itself with the land on which it stands and investigates, something many of us can also learn to do by supporting this project,”) Kahikina said.<\/p>\n

Prior to the overthrow of the Kingdom of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> in 1893, nūpepa (newspapers) were widely published in ʻōlelo<\/span> Â鶹´«Ã½.<\/span> In 1896, the language was banned from being taught in schools which resulted in many Hawaiians not knowing how to speak their native language throughout the span of four generations. In the 1970\u2019s, massive efforts to revitalize the language of the land started to take shape. Solomon explained this project Civil Beat<\/em> has launched is a victory for the ʻōlelo<\/span> Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> movement.<\/p>\n

“Ma kahi o ke kākau ʻana<\/span> ma ka ʻōlelo<\/span> Pelekane i mau moʻolelo<\/span> nūpepa e pili ana no nā hihia e hekau nei ma luna o ka ʻōlelo<\/span> Â鶹´«Ã½,<\/span> ke hoʻolole<\/span> ʻia<\/span> aʻe<\/span> nei kēia pilikia ʻāpiki<\/span> me ka hoʻohuli<\/span> ʻia<\/span> o ia mea hilu loa ma o ka hoʻolaha<\/span> ʻana<\/span> aʻe<\/span> i nūhou i kākau ʻia<\/span> ma ia ʻōlelo<\/span> ponoʻī.<\/span> He ʻoi<\/span> loa aʻe<\/span> nō ia no ke kaulike o ke kānāwai. (Instead of writing in English about the issues facing the survival of ʻōlelo<\/span> Â鶹´«Ã½,<\/span> they are subverting that inherent irony, shifting the paradigm, and putting money to mouth by publishing content in the actual language.That is some next-level social justice),” Solomon said.<\/p>\n

Solomon and Kahikina are working to incorporate ʻōlelo<\/span> Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> into other non-traditional realms, as well. Currently, Solomon contributes articles in both Hawaiian and English to local culture and arts magazine FLUX Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span><\/em>. Kahikina, a budding playwright at UH<\/abbr> Mānoa, is on a mission to publish more plays in the Hawaiian language. <\/p>\n

Civil Beat<\/em> hopes to expand and feature columnists that can write about current events in ʻōlelo<\/span> Â鶹´«Ã½,<\/span> to be translated into English.<\/p>\n

This work is an example of UH<\/abbr> Mānoa\u2019s goal of Becoming a Native Hawaiian Place of Learning<\/a> (PDF<\/abbr><\/span>), one of four goals identified in the 2015–25 Â鶹´«Ã½<\/a> (PDF<\/abbr><\/span>), updated in December 2020.<\/p>\n

\"Hawaiian
Clip from a Hawaiian language newspaper in the 1800’s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two hawaiian language instructors will translate news stories into Hawaiian for Honolulu Civil Beat<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1057,411,1465,9],"class_list":["post-140711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-hawaiian-language","tag-kawaihuelani-center-for-hawaiian-language","tag-manoa-native-hawaiian-place-of-learning","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140711"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140797,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140711\/revisions\/140797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}