Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 23, Number 5, 1 May 2007 — OHA grantee profile: The Rev. Joel Hulu Māhoe Resource Center [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OHA grantee profile: The Rev. Joel Hulu Māhoe Resource Center

Editor's note: This is part of a series profiling past recipients ofOHA eonununity grants. OHA's Grants Program will be accepting grant applications through June 30 for the conūng fiscal year. For more information, eall 594-1972 or visit www.OHA.org. In 2000, a young man, Analū Josephides, attended an OHA grant workshop. At the time, all he had was a passion to fulfill the legacy of his grandmother's great-grandfather, the Rev. Joel Hulu Māhoe, and a belief that if we do not know where we eome from, we do not know who we are or where we are going. So it was that in 2003, Josephides and several Māhoe elders formed a nonprofit organization, the Reverend Joel Hulu Māhoe Resource Center, to help others learn how to find their ancestors, protect their rights to ancestral lands and reconnect to their culture and family. Today, the resource center is one of the state's most lauded genealogical literacy programs, offering education on how to access information on land and family history from government repositories. Many Hawaiians, including approximately 20 percent of Department of Hawaiian Home Lands applicants, have complex genealogy that is difficult to research and verify. Josephides teaches such individuals how and where to look

for information specific to their ancestors. "I am here to ease the search and to introduce the tools of access and retrieval," he said. With the establishment of a new Native Hawaiian government on the horizon, native ancestry will likely need to be documented for people who want to participate. "How will our nation move forward?" Josephides said. "Many people don't know how to incorporate their traditional Hawaiian culture with this contemporary approach. We are trying to incorporate the two." Participants in the center's free workshops are introduced to the land and genealogy resources located in many different repositories in the state. The rich collection consists of indexes; books; birth, marriage and death certificates; microfiche, computer databases; and more. Besides vital statistics, other helpful records include land titles, tax maps, deeds, Land Commission awards, court transcripts, wills, adoption records and census documents. Josephides and his staff and friends have provided assistance in researching these documents to hundreds of Hawaiians and, with the backing of OHA and other funders, continue to expand their ability to serve more clients. For more information, eall 677-5513 or email reverendj oelhulumahoe @ y ahoo. eom.

HO 'ONA'AUAO • EDUCAĪION —

Analū Josephides utilizes 'lolani Palace's grounds as an outdoor classroom for his haumāna mo'okū'auhau (genealogy students). Pholo: Catol McDonald