{"id":173824,"date":"2023-03-07T17:15:42","date_gmt":"2023-03-08T03:15:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=173824"},"modified":"2023-03-07T17:15:42","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T03:15:42","slug":"native-american-language-educators-convene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2023\/03\/07\/native-american-language-educators-convene\/","title":{"rendered":"Native American language educators convene in Hilo"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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More than 50 representatives from the National Coalition of Native American Language Schools and Programs convened at Ka Haka ʻUla<\/span> o Keʻelikōlani,<\/span> UH<\/abbr> Hilo\u2019s Hawaiian language College, and the university\u2019s ʻImiloa<\/span> Astronomy Center<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More than 50 representatives from the National Coalition of Native American Language Schools and Programs (NCNALSP<\/abbr><\/a>) convened at Ka Haka ʻUla<\/span> o Keʻelikōlani<\/span><\/a>, the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Hilo\u2019s Hawaiian language college, and the university\u2019s ʻImiloa<\/span> Astronomy Center<\/a>—the world\u2019s only Indigenous bilingual science center—in February.<\/p>\n

The summit drew educators from 14 U.S. states and Guam (representing 25 languages) and federal officials from the Office of Indian Education<\/a> to discuss the achievements and challenges of Native American language medium programs as defined in the Native American Languages Act of 1990.<\/p>\n

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NCNALSP<\/abbr> representatives were greeted in a hoʻokipa<\/span> or formal welcome ceremony at Haleʻōlelo,<\/span> the home of Â鶹´«Ã½Hilo\u2019s Ka Haka ʻUla<\/span> o Keʻelikōlani<\/span> College of Hawaiian language.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The group was ceremonially welcomed through an exchange of Hawaiian language and Ojibwe speeches as well as traditional oli (chants) and mele (songs). They were given a tour of the college\u2019s facilities and programs before panel discussions and workshops during the multi-day meeting. The previous day they toured the college\u2019s preschool to grade 12 Hawaiian language medium demonstration laboratory school\u2014Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu<\/span>.<\/p>\n

“It’s imperative that we come together with other champions of Native American languages to share and analyze the various strategies we’re implementing in our home communities,” said Kaʻiu<\/span> Kimura<\/strong>, executive director of ʻImiloa<\/span>. “It’s through this kind of collaborative effort across languages and disciplines that we’re able to achieve our common mission of uplifting and giving voice to our Native American languages in every realm of our daily lives.”<\/p>\n

The NCNALSP<\/abbr>\u2019s mission is to advocate for the use of Native American languages as the medium of instruction in community-led schools and programs across the United States. They empower students, families, teachers and administrators by strengthening public policy.<\/p>\n

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NCNALSP<\/abbr> representatives, along with federal officials from the Office of Indian Education convened as a part of a summit meeting at ʻImiloa<\/span> Astronomy Center.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NCNALSP<\/abbr> President Leslie Harper said, “It\u2019s really important for us to come together to discuss the unique conditions and characteristics of Native American language medium education. It’s not the same as English medium\u2014we are charged with developing our programs from our peoples\u2019 distinctive world views.”<\/p>\n

The summit was held in partnership between the NCNALSP<\/abbr>, Ka Haka ʻUla<\/span> o Keʻelikōlani<\/span>, ʻAha<\/span> Pūnana Leo Hawaiian language medium preschools, Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu<\/span> School and ʻImiloa<\/span> Astronomy Center.<\/p>\n

The choice of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> as the site of the meeting also honored former U.S. Senators Daniel K. Inouye and Daniel Akaka. The two Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> senators played key roles in developing federal Native American language legislation that not only includes the Hawaiian language, but highlights the success of Hawaiian language revitalization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A summit drew Native American language educators, representing 25 languages, to UH<\/abbr> Hilo in February.<\/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":[292,14],"class_list":["post-173824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-imiloa-astronomy-center","tag-uh-hilo","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173824","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=173824"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173831,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173824\/revisions\/173831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}