Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 37, Number 2, 1 February 2020 — Aloha mai kākou, [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Aloha mai kākou,

|remember my mother and grandparents speaking Hawaiian, especially when they didn't want me to know what they were saying. It is a fond yet sad memory as I reflect now how precious their conversations were and how I could not participate. When I overhear Hawaiian spoken in ordinary places today - in the grocery store, while standing in line at the bank, or at a baby lū'au - 1 am encouraged and reassured that our 'ōlelo makuahine lives. During the first half of the 20th century, 'ōlelo Hawai'i was nearly lost. The 1893 overthrow and subsequent ban of Hawaiian language education had a chilling effect. Children were routinely punished for speaking Hawaiian in school and, eventually, most Hawaiian parents stopped teaching their keiki the language at all. Learning proper English was viewed as the way to advance and be successful in the post-monarchical Territory of Hawai'i. By the 1970s only a handful of Hawaiian language speakers, mostly elderly, remained.

The decision to re-establish Hawaiian as an official language of the State of Hawai'i at the 1978 Constitutional Convention was pivotal. Within six years the first Pūnana Leo Hawaiian language preschool

opened and in 1987, the first two DOE Hawaiian Language Immersion Programs opened. Today there are 24 Hawaiian Immersion schools across the pae 'āina, and about 20,000 people now speak Hawaiian fluently. In this issue of Ka Wai Ola we celebrate Mahina 'Ōlelo J Hawai'i. By revitalizing our language, we perpetuate our 1 mo'omeheu; our language contains the worldview of our kūpuna. In learning our language we better understand who we are as 'ohana, as a lāhui, and as keiki o kēia 'āina nei. The power of language cannot be underestimated. Our kūpuna knew that "I ka 'ōlelo no ke ola; i ka 'ōlelo no ka make - Words ean heal; words ean destroy." E ola mau ka 'ōlelo Hawai 'i.H

Sylvia M. Hussey, Ed.D. Ka Pouhana/Chief Executive 0fficer