Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 8, Number 7, 1 Iulai 1991 — Our Readers Write. [ARTICLE]

Our Readers Write.

To the Editor: I recently read with great interest "OHA: The Beginning — Part One," and I wanted to write and thank you for a genuinely moving article. In condensing the last 20 years of the Hawaiian movement, you managed to touch an emotional chord in this Hawaiian, especially when you made 1 reference to my late father, James Kaohu Bacon. I remember his political vision always held a firm conviction that Hawaiians would need to work with the system, and stand up for their rights as the system was not going to give it to us readily or easily. I remember the 1968 Con-Con, and my dad's involvement with Ka Poe, the Congress of the Hawaiian people. I distinctly remember the advent of Alu Like, ine., and my dad telling me how ? he had sat with Winona Rubin and the others to write the Charter for something that would enable the Hawaiian people to finally get their rightful pieee of the U.S. government pie. Today, I work for a Hawaiian governor, and the notion of Hawaiian sovereignty, and the dream of self-determination doesn't seem so far-fetched anymore. Although my father's untimely demise by heart attack in 1984 dampened a lot of my enthusiasm, I still hold his visions close to my heart, and I will always support the means toward those ends that he held so dear. Thank you for putting it in perspective for me. Yours truly, Paul Robert Kahele'opua Bacon To the Editor: j Did you know that the Hawaiian language was legally recognized as the national language of | Hawai'i and was used in our legislature until 1910? ! Did you know that the Hawaiian language continued to be printed on our election ballots ; until the 1950s? And that in 1978 the Hawaiian language was voted as the official language of Hawaii by the Hawaii State Legislature? ; Why leam the Hawaiian language? Why leam any language ? The language of any people is the primary means of experiencing and preserving its ? culture. The Hawaiian language is the key to ī understanding our past — our traditions, our values, our unique heritage — so that it ean be passed on to our children, and to their children. ; My own roots go back to the not too distant past here on the Big Island of Hawaii, living entirely within the eommunal life and culture in Puna, where the Hawaiian language was spoken every day. You might say we were completely "immersed" in the system. And now I am in the most fortunate position of being able to help perpetuate the Hawaiian language in my own small j way. Emma K. Kauhi Native Hawaiian language speaker and lecturer at University of Hawaii at Hilo.