#native hawaiians

[n8v-woodland-wolf]

Love is in the air 🖤🗡💀

[kingrosalani]

The MMNHWG has released its first official report over one year of collecting data on missing/murdered Native Hawaiians.

43% of sex trafficking happens in Waikiki, O’ahu. 37% of assault are from active on duty military men. 57% native Hawaiian females have reported having been sex trafficked at one point in their life.

84.3% of indigenous women experience violence in their life. We must spread awareness and put an end to this. Read more on this report on Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Protect our kānaka maoli. Protect our girls. Protect our wahine. Protect our keiki. PROTECT US.

[sepdet]

Native Hawaiians teach about Madame Pele, their understanding of her volcanoes, and what we can learn from the eruption.

[peopleofwiki]

Indigenous Hawaiians performing a Hula, Hawai'i. From Native Hawaiians.

[macmanx]

“Billionaires coming to Maui, buying up large swaths of land as their, I don’t know, seventh vacation home, it’s painful for our community,” Maui County Councilmember Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, who grew up on the island of Molokai that’s part of Maui County, tells The Verge. “It underscores the stark disparity between indigenous people who want to mālama ‘āina, care for our land, and those who see Hawaii as a vacation destination.”

“It’s almost like a second wave of colonization, which is these ultra-rich individuals, a lot of tech giants, are buying property and creating their own colonies,” says Davis Price, who is Native Hawaiian from Oʻahu and Hawaiian regional director for the Indigenous-led nonprofit NDN Collective. “When you have ultra-wealthy folks purchasing large swaths of land, not only does it often displace people, but it gives them a lot of influence in terms of how things are done in their communities, and it becomes a threat and a change to the way of life.”

[hleavesk]

beautiful tradition

(source: assoicated press | 2 dec 2022)

[reasonsforhope]

Interior Department Announces New Guidance to Honor and Elevate Hawaiian Language

"In commemoration of Mahina ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, or Hawaiian Language Month, and in recognition of its unique relationship with the Native Hawaiian Community, the Department of the Interior today announced new guidance on the use of the Hawaiian language.  

A comprehensive new Departmental Manual chapter underscores the Department’s commitment to further integrating Indigenous Knowledge and cultural practices into conservation stewardship.  

“Prioritizing the preservation of the Hawaiian language and culture and elevating Indigenous Knowledge is central to the Biden-Harris administration's work to meet the unique needs of the Native Hawaiian Community,” said Secretary Deb Haaland. “As we deploy historic resources to Hawaiʻi from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, the Interior Department is committed to ensuring our internal policies and communications use accurate language and data."  

Department bureaus and offices that engage in communication with the Native Hawaiian Community or produce documentation addressing places, resources, actions or interests in Hawaiʻi will use the new guidance on ‘ōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language) for various identifications and references, including flora and fauna, cultural sites, geographic place names, and government units within the state.  The guidance recognizes the evolving nature of ‘ōlelo Hawaiʻi and acknowledges the absence of a single authoritative source. While the Hawaiian Dictionary (Pukui & Elbert 2003) is designated as the baseline standard for non-geographic words and place names, Department bureaus and offices are encouraged to consult other standard works, as well as the Board on Geographic Names database.  

Developed collaboratively and informed by ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi practitioners, instructors and advocates, the new guidance emerged from virtual consultation sessions and public comment in 2023 with the Native Hawaiian Community. 

The new guidance aligns with the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to strengthening relationships with the Native Hawaiian Community through efforts such as the Kapapahuliau Climate Resilience Program and Hawaiian Forest Bird Keystone Initiative. During her trip to Hawaiʻi in June, Secretary Haaland emphasized recognizing and including Indigenous Knowledge, promoting co-stewardship, protecting sacred sites, and recommitting to meaningful and robust consultation with the Native Hawaiian Community."

-via US Department of the Interior press release, February 1, 2024

--

Note: I'm an editor so I have no idea whether this comes off like as big a deal as it potentially is. But it is potentially going to establish and massively accelerate the adoption of correctly written Native Hawaiian language, as determined by Native Hawaiians.

Basically US government communications, documentations, and "style guides" (sets of rules to follow about how to write/format/publish something, etc.) can be incredibly influential, especially for topics where there isn't much other official guidance. This rule means that all government documents that mention Hawai'i, places in Hawai'i, Hawaiian plants and animals, etc. will have to be written the way Native Hawaiians say it should be written, and the correct way of writing Hawaiian conveys a lot more information about how the words are pronounced, too, which could spread correct pronunciations more widely.

It also means that, as far as the US government is concerned, this is The Correct Way to Write the Hawaiian Language. Which, as an editor who just read the guidance document, is super important. That's because you need the 'okina (' in words) and kahakō in order to tell apart sizeable sets of different words, because Hawaiian uses so many fewer consonants, they need more of other types of different sounds.

And the US government official policy on how to write Hawaiian is exactly what editors, publishers, newspapers, and magazines are going to look at, sooner or later, because it's what style guides are looking at. Style guides are the official various sets of rules that books/publications follow; they're also incredibly detailed - the one used for almost all book publishing, for example, the Chicago Manual of Style (CMoS), is over a thousand pages long.

One of the things that CMoS does is tell you the basic rules of and what specialist further sources they think you should use for writing different languages. They have a whole chapter dedicated to this. It's not that impressive on non-European languages yet, but we're due for a new edition (the 18th) of CMoS in the next oh two to four years, probably? Actually numbering wise they'd be due for one this year, except presumably they would've announced it by now if that was the case.

I'm expecting one of the biggest revisions to the 18th edition to add much more comprehensive guidance on non-Western languages. Considering how far we've come since 2017, when the last one was released, I'll be judging the shit out of them if they do otherwise. (And CMoS actually keep with the times decently enough.)

Which means, as long as there's at least a year or two for these new rules/spellings/orthographies to establish themselves before the next edition comes out, it's likely that just about every (legit) publisher will start using the new rules/spellings/orthographies.

And of course, it would expand much further from there.

[lilybug-02]

My trip to Kaua'i, Hawai'i

Yellow Hibiscus: The state flower of Hawai'i. Called the “pua mao hau hele” or “Ma’o hau hele” in the Hawaiian Language (ʻŌlelo).

Nēnē (Hawaiian Goose): The rarest waterfowl in the world. Nearly brought to extinction in 1990 with 50 wild individuals. Captive-breeding programs and reintroduction efforts have given the native nēnē a chance with now over 3,862 birds statewide. I was lucky enough to see wild nēnē goslings. Very special.

Honu (Green Sea Turtle): An endangered species most commonly found near the Hawaiian Island Chain. Typically reaching sexual maturity around 20 years of age, Green sea turtles nest on the same beach where they hatched. This is a photo I took of a female rising up from the shore to lay her eggs.

Landscape photos I took on my trip in Kaua'i.

Kaua'i is one of many islands comprising the Hawaiian Volcanic Island Archipelago. I bought a Kaua'i Geologic History Book to learn more about the island and I am very excited to read it.

[hellsites-an-understatement]

imagine being me and scrolling through the kanaka maoli tag when-

bro no the fuck you aren't!!!!

[zukkaart]

I just want to say that as someone who is Native Hawaiian on my moms side and Inuk/Italian on my dads Sokka, Katara, and both of the water tribes meant so much to me as a child and even now

If there are native characters in media (ESPECIALLY INUK) usually they’re marked as token characters and not given a whole lot of depth, much less made a main character

It’s gotta be one of the largest reasons I will watch A:tLA and LoK for the rest of my life, the cultural accuracy (for the most part) and representation is unmatched in any other media

[nativelyours]