Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 1, Number 1, 1 February 1984 — Only Hawaiian Spoken at La Ho'oulu ʻOlelo Hawaiʻi [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Only Hawaiian Spoken at La Ho'oulu ʻOlelo Hawaiʻi

La Ho'oulu 'Olelo Hawai'i, a day to increase and preserve the Hawaiian language, attracted a bumper group of delegates to the fourth annual conference held Feb. 18 at the Kauai Community College Campus Center at Puhi. OHA Trustee Moses Keale, one of the original planners of the conference, expressed great pleasure over this year's attendance whieh was estimated at 175, topping last year's total of around 125. Representatives eame from Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, Niihau and Kauai. Keale, who also conducted the proceedings as master of ceremonies, expressed the hope that next year's conference will have representations from Lanai and Molokai. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs, along with such organizations as Ka 'lmi Na'auao o Hawaii Nei, Alu Like, and Kauai Community College and its Anthropology Club, are supporting agencies of the conference. Keale and Byron Cleeland, Hawaiian language instructor at Kauai High School and KCC, have been the conference planners since its inception in 1980. Purpose of the conference is to provide an opportunity for those who speak Hawaiian and those who are learning Hawaiian to get together for a time of fun and conversation. That's exactly what took plaee at the conference. Delegates were broken up into conversation groups and held rap sessions in different rooms of the center. Eaeh member of a group made introductions and gave a brief account of himself or herself — all in Hawaiian. In fact, the entire conference was conducted in Hawaiian. There were games for everyone (charades), reports of the Hawaiian language in the schools, door prizes and singing by the representative districts. The conference afforded students of

the Hawaiian language a ehanee to meet native speakers and experience Hawaiian as a living language in a variety of situations outside the classroom. In the game of charade, delegates pantomimed the meaning of words and another learner attempted to guess and reply in Hawaiian. The event was a very lively and successful one involving people of all ages from keikis to kupunas. People from every ethnic background from Hawaiians by birth to Hawaiians at heart had an enjoyable fun-filled day. There was also an interesting speech contest where students pulled the subject matter of their speech from a box and then gave the talk in Hawaiian. OHA's slide show on ceded lands was narrated in Hawaiian for the first time. Doing the honors was Loke Kaliloa, Keale's sister. The conference program was printed in the Hawaiian language and so were the name tags. It was interesting to watch and listen to Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese and haoles speaking fluent Hawaiian. One little Mt. View, Hawaii, haole housewife originally hailed from Germany just slightly over a decade ago. No English was spoken throughout the conference. This included luneh break and following the conference. There was a strong feeling of ohana and aloha throughout the day. Working with Keale and Cleeland on the planning committee were Roselle Bailey, Kalani Flores, Loke Kaliloa, Donna Nakahara, Susan Remoaldo and Paul Williams. The 1985 conference is again targeted for Kauai during the third weekend in February. The idea of such a conference eame about with the establishment of several Aha Olelo Hawaii chapters.

Relating experiences in the Hawaiian language and exchanging ideas.

It was a fun-filled day enjoyed by young and old.