Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 6, 1 Iune 2011 — 2 cultures striving for COMMON GOALS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]
2 cultures striving for COMMON GOALS
īhe shared history of Mōori and Native I Hawaiians to revitalize language, culture I and native leadership I By Diane Leone I
1 A #hen Mawae Morton and Neil 1 /l ! Hannahs exchange the Poly- \ I \ Ē nesian greeting of pressing \l \ī noses together and exchangV V ing the breath of life, Morton, a Māori, calls it "hongi." Hannahs, a Native Hawaiian, calls it "honi." As with many words in the two Polynesian languages, the pronunciation may differ slightly, but the meaning behind them is the same - a heartfelt greeting at the spiritual level. Many Native Hawaiians and Māori have found numerous other parallels in their experiences - especially in the last three decades of cultural, language and leadership renaissance in Hawai'i and the nahon known both as Aotearoa and New Zealand. "We recognize that we eome from a eommon thread of Polynesian ancestry that makes us kin," Hannahs said. "Our spiritual world views and our understanding of relationships between Akua, 'āina and kānaka also grow from the same foundation." Sharing across the Paeihe has taken many fonns - personal relationships; business partnerships; cultural exchanges around dance, martial arts and i other traditional practices; leadership development 1 and ongoing work to revitalize indigenous languages. Some examples include: • Aotearoa's Māori language program for
preschool children, Kōhanga Reo (literaf language nests), was embraced by Hawaiia: and provided the model for the 'Aha Pūnai Leo program here in 1983. Both Hawa and Aotearoa have seen parallel grow in indigenous language education, wi primary and secondary grade immersi( schools and college degrees. • The First Nations' Futures Program - partnership between Kamehameha Schoc and Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, with suppc from the University of Hawai'i and Stanfo University - is one program furtherii the growth of emerging Māori and Natr Hawaiian leaders. • Various cultural exchanges and festivals Hawai'i and Aotearoa from the 1970s to tl present have provided venues for sharii cultures. The voyaging eanoe Hōkūle'a al was a key ambassador between the culturc A proposed Māoii marae at Kualoa Ran< on O'ahu could become a new pemiane loeahon for such exchange. In addition to a eommon Polynesian ancesū Māori and Native Hawaiians both find themselv a minority, population-wise and culturally, in th( own homelands, said Morton, who worked in tl Aotearoa government and with private consultii finns on behalf of Māori tribes regarding land ai eeonomie issues before moving to Hawai'i. Those identifying as Native Hawaiian mal
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y, up some 20 percent of Hawai'i's population, is wMle Māori comprise almost 15 percent of īa New Zealand's popuMon, according to census i'i figures. th Māori are "very concerned about the loss of lots th of things that are also a eoneem here in Hawai'i" >n - the loss of land and other resources, customary rights to harvest from oceans and forests, religious a beliefs and practices, societal and leadersMp ls stmctures, language and culture, said Morton, »rt who has worked for Kamehameha Schools and as rd a consultant in Hawai'i and is a founding Director ig of the First Nations' Futures Program for emerging /e Māori and Native Hawaiian leaders. Other problems facing Māori "are the in same sorts of issues that we're deahng with in īe Hawai'i," Morton said. As a group, Māori are ig "undereducated, less healthy, poorer, of lower >o socioeconomic status ... and more likely to be is. affected by gangs, crime, incarceration, drugs and ;h aleohol" than New Zealanders as a whole. nt In Aotearoa, the largest single - and ongoing - avenue for redress of historical wrongs has been y, the Waitangi Tribunal, wMeh has led to restoration es of land and money to some Māoii tribes injured ;ir by government actions dating back to 1840. Since īe the mid-1990s, the resulting settlements have ig transformed iwi (tribes) into major eeonomie and id poliīieal players in Aotearoa and empowered them to tackle these issues themselves, Morton said. ce In Hawai'i, the ultimate fate of fonner
Hawaiian crown and government lands awaits the outcome of ongoing attempts to reorganize a Native Hawaiian government to negotiate with the State of Hawai'i and United States. WMle Māori and Native Hawaiians travel unique paths, "their eonunon ancestry, world views, history, challenges and aspirations continue to provide fertile ground for mutually beneficial collaboration," Hannahs said. ĪHE LANGUAGES At a 1976 Pacific Festival in Aotearoa, Christina Hinera Rahitana-Te Amo Gardiner marveled at how she could understand people from Ni'ihau speaking Hawaiian and Easter Islanders speaking their language - just based on her own knowledge of Māori. Gardiner, 70, said that's when she understood that Polynesian people really did have eommon ancestors. Puakea Nogehneier, a Hawaiian language Professor at the University of Hawai'i-Mānoa, agreed that the kinship of the languages is impressive. He said he ean understand about 60 percent of the words in Māori. Gardiner, who comes from the Tūhoe tribe and married into the Arawa tribe, taught in a Māori preschool for years and "thoroughly enjoyed it."
Though the children in her school didn't eome in speaking Māori, she recalled, "I told stories of my people (in Māori) and they seemed to intuitively understand." Like many others, Gardiner believes speaking Māori is a gateway to the Māori view of the world. For Hōkūlani Cleeland, leaming Hawaiian as an adult gave him a new perspective as well. "From my personal experience, the most important carrier of the culture is the language because it involves a different way of viewing the world," said Cleeland, a founding member of 'Aha Pūnana Leo, whieh opened its first Hawaiian language preschool in Kekaha, Kaua'i, in 1984. Many Hawaiian language scholars say Māori leadership in language revitalization has been helpful to Hawaiians and other indigenous peoples. "Māori have led the world in immersionlanguage teaching," said Lilikalā Kame'eleihiwa, fomier Director of UH's Kamakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies. "They started thinking about language revitalization about 30 years before we did." Though there are similar-sized populations of Māori and Native Hawaiians worldwide (estimated at about 400,000 eaeh) "only 3 pereent of ourpeople speakourlanguage," Kame'eleihiwa said. "Māori are mnning about 35 pereent flueney and 75 pereent who understand it."
Māori language expert Tīmoti Kāretu said he is "very full of admiration" for the resurgenee of the Hawaiian language, despite more fonnidable odds than Māoris faeed. Native Hawaiians started with a mueh smaller base of perhaps 500 fluent speakers in the 1970s eompared to as many as 75,000 fluent Māori speakers at that time. With the notable exeeption of Ni'ihau, native speakers in Hawai'i were seattered tMoughout the state, whereas there were a number of vibrant Māori-speaking eommunities in Aotearoa. Native Hawaiians also have not had anything near the government funding for language programs that Māori have, Kāretu said. Cleeland reealled how "30 years ago, you hardly heard Hawaiian spoken anywhere." But now the language ean be heard beyond the borders of edueational institutions. "Carrying on eonversations in Hawaiian in pubhe plaees sueh as groeery stores, the airport or anywhere else - not only with fomier students and friends but also with eomplete strangers, is beeoming more and more eommon." "To me it's a good sign," said Cleeland, who is now a teaeher and Assistant Administrator at Ke Kula Ni'ihau O Kekaha eharter sehool on Kaua'i. "I feel very good about the future of the language, when you see the huge strides that have happened SEE 2 CULTURES ON PAGE 24
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in the last 30 years." Nogelmeier estimates as many as 20,000 people today have some working knowledge of Hawaiian. There may only be a core of 1,000 "strongly fluent" speakers, but many of those are teachers or resource people who are committed to expanding the language, he said. Today, 1 1 Pūnana Leo preschools operate in Hawai'i, with about 500 students. There are 19 Kula Kaiapuni schools administered by the state Department of Education for grades kindergarten to 12, serving about 2,000 students. UH offers undergraduate and master's degrees in Hawaiian language and Hawaiian studies at both Mānoa and Hilo. By comparison, Aotearoa has 480 Māori preschools, 89 secondary Māori immersion schools and three universities that teach in the Māori language. The country also has: Te Ipukarea (National Māori Language Institute), Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust for preserving language and culture, and government support for Māori language
television and radio broadcasts. The Hawaiian language has been saved from extinction, and "went from the red zone into the orange, but it's certainly not in the green," Nogelmeier said. Those who love the language need to keep working to preserve it, he said. 'ŌIWI LEADERSHIP n 2000, Kamehameha Schools set a goal to manage its lands in a culturally appropriate manner to generate a halanee of cultural, eeonomie, educational, environmental and community benefits. As part of that vision, the school launched the First Nations' Futures Program, a postgraduate fellowship program for Native Hawaiian and Māori emerging leaders. Now going into its sixth year, the partnership between Kamehameha Schools and Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu of Aotearoa also receives academic support from the University of Hawai'i and Stanford University. Eaeh year, five or six Native Hawaiians and three to eight Māori participants attend a two-week intensive seminar at Stanford, plus case studies and additional work in their respective homeland.
Real-life topics explored by participants in Hawai'i have included food self-sufficiency, geothermal energy, cultural heritage tourism and ahupua'arestoration, said Hannahs, KS's Land Division Director and a co-Director of the First Nations' Futures Program. Participants are active in a variety of careers, including resource management, conservation, education, business, law and media. They have ranged in age from 25 to 55. "We select people who want to give back, and we foster the notion that by connecting ourselves to the land as caretakers and by extending that value to families and communities, we ean build a more productive and thriving society," said Hannahs. "We're nurturing consciousness and confidence" among the fellows, Hannahs said. "Sometimes people think that leadership is somebody else's job. For instance, I'm not sure that many of us feel that we have the standing to convene a meeting with energy company representatives, cultural leaders, scientists, business owners and people from the community to discuss the perils of peak oil (the peak of global oil production) and the issues surrounding geothermal energy. But our fellows have done just that and discovered that people not only responded, but were
appreciative of the fellows' initiative." Ka'iulani Murphy, a fellow in this year's program, wrote this about what she has learned about 'ōiwi leadership: "Get educated and then share; understand people and then help them to succeed; be strong and kind; have a generous heart and take care of eaeh other." First Nations' Futures applications for the 2011-2012 program are being accepted until June 17 (postmark date). Visit fnfp.org/web/ guest/home. A MARAE IN HAWAI'I Amarae is the sacred space fronting a whare runanga, or meeting house, that play s a role of importance in traditional Māori life. The open space and its affiliated buildings are the site for welcoming visitors, as well as birthdays, weddings, funerals, graduations, intertribal deliberations or any activities central to community life. Native Hawaiians historically may have had a similar traditional gathering plaee, but it hasn't survived intact. Native Hawaiian O'ahu resident Dr. Mitchell Eli and Māori Aotearoa resident
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Denis Hansen hope that a planned marae at Kualoa Ranch on O'ahu will heeome a cultural exchange center for Hawaiians, Māori and other indigenous cultures. Eli and Hansen have been friends for three decades, ever since Eli, a chiropractor, and a group of other Native Hawaiian professionals went to New Zealand in search of eeonomie opportunities. "Dr. Eh had been coming here since 1980, first because of business opportunity," Hansen said. "But it heeame more about cultural awareness and participation." Eli, who heeame a student and teacher of lua, the ancient Hawaiian martial art, spent mueh of his time in Aotearoa leaming about the Māori fighting arts of mamau (wrestling) and taiaha (fighting with weapons). "We were wanting to look at how we could enjoy eaeh other's culture," Hansen said. Possible marae sites were considered all over O'ahu, but the location at Kualoa eame together
because ranch owner lohn Morgan, who has Māori ancestry, wanted to be involved. Eli's lua school, Pa Ku'i a Holo, and the Kualoa Ranch will share caretaking duties of the marae. A blessing of the ground for the complex was held in fall. The key purpose of the marae that Eh, Hansen and others are building at Kualoa is to provide a location for cultural exchanges between indigenous people. With a meeting house, eating house and sleeping house, it would provide a site for retreat and learning. "We don't have a plaee in Hawai'i where scholars and kāhuna ean break bread and share away from the city lights," Eli said. Aplaee "for a teaching center, respite center, plaee for healing conferences, a university so to speak. That's my dream."H Diana Leone, a veteran journaīist, runs thefreelance writing and editing business Leone Creative Communication, on Kaua 'i.