Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 13, Number 1, 1 Ianuali 1996 — OHA recognizes outstanding educators [ARTICLE]

OHA recognizes outstanding educators

^ ^ r | 1 he center of our survival is our children and the center of our culture is our language," OHA Chairman Clayton Hee said in his opening addrcss at last month's Ke Kukui Mālamalama Awards. I ' ' ,-w : ' Educating young Hawaiians in their mother tongue and about their culture is critical to the future of the people and the culture. Recognizing this, OHA began its Ke Kukui Mālamalama Awards four years ago to honor outstanding effort in Hawaiian education by individuals and groups in the Hawaiian community. Past recipients of the award have included Dr. David Sing, director of Nā Pua No'eau, Myron "Pinky" Thompson, Chairman of the Board of Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate, and University of Hawai'i at Mānoa professor Abraham Pi'anāi'a.

This year, over 100 educators and education supporters attended the awards held December 6 at the Dole Cannery in Kalihi. Four were chosen from a list of ten nominees. The nominees were an eclectic group that eame from a range of Hawaiian communities: from Kekaha on westem Kaua'i to the Waipi'o Valley on the Big Island. Some taught in the public schools, others in universities and some in the lo'i. The four winners were Jonah Hau'oli Akaka, a teacher of Hawaiian languagc and Polynesian music at Kailua High School; Tranquilino "Kia" Fronda, project director at the Cultural Leaming Center in Waipi'o Valley and a Hawaiian studies resource instmctor for the Department of Education (DOE); Elama Kanahele, a kumu at Kula Ni'ihau o Kekaha; and Ke Kula Kaiapuni o Pā'ia, the students and staff at Pā'ia School. !

"These individuals represent the successes that have been bome out of working together with one eommon goal," OHA deputy administrator Sesnita Moepono said at the ceremony, "and that is preserving our Hawaiian culture through education and helping the Hawaiian eommuni>y." A special recognition award was given to Dr. Joyce Tsunoda, University of Hawai'i senior vice president and chancellor for community colleges, for her educational leadership and promotion of Hawaiian education. As a program director of the OHA Education Foundation, she has been instrumental in proposing Hawaiian students to the UH Board of Regents scholar program.