Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 5, 1 May 2011 — Honoring excellence in Hawaiian education [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Honoring excellence in Hawaiian education

By Lisa Asato Four Hawaiian leaders were honored recently for their extraordinary commitment and excellence in Native Hawaiian education. Haunani Apoliona, Kū Kahakalau, Naomi Noelanioko'olau Clarke Losch and Alan Murakami are the recipients of this year's I Ulu I Ke Kumu Award, presented March 19 at the University of Hawai'i Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies in Mānoa. Eaeh recipient was honored with a tribute, such as a song or hula, at the second annual ceremony and awards dinner, whieh generates scholarship funds for students of Hawai'inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge. The award reflects the Hawaiian proverb, "I ulu no ka lālā i ke kumu - the branches grow because of the trunk," whieh recognizes the power of mentorship. Here is a recap of eaeh presentation. Haunani Apoliona Haunani Apoliona, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs' longest-serving Chairperson in its 30-year history, was honored with a song of praise by Hau'oli Akaka, OHA's Chief Knowledge Officer. Nominated for the award by fellow OHA Trustee Oswald Stender, Stender described her as "meticulous, precise, focused and disciplined" and said the fact that she eame from "quite a poor beginning" gave her a better understanding of the needs of the poor and downtrodden. That empathy reflected in her career as a social worker at Alu Like ine., where she rose to President and CEO, through her work on the Queen Lili'uokalani Children's Center Advisory Board and as an OHA Tmstee, he said. Stender said Apoliona's work at OHA brought "stability and purpose" to the work it has done and continues to do in the interest of Hawaiians.

Apoliona, who writes and speaks Hawaiian, is also a composer of Hawaiian mele and has won several Nā Hōkū Hanohano awards, prompting Stender to share a memory of Apoliona's late father: "He would say three things that he wanted his children to achieve: help our Hawaiian people, speak Hawaiian and play Hawaiian music - Haunani does all of that." Apoliona told the crowd that growing up on nearby Frank Street, she knew well the area that surrounded that evening's awards gathering, calling it her "aloha 'āina," where she played as a child, explored the lo'i "onee overgrown with Califomia grass," and fed and rode horses bareback. Eaming her bachelor's and master's degrees at UH-Mānoa was a "wise ehoiee that flourished opportunities to work with ]ike-minded and likevalued patriots who are now impacting Hawai'i," she said. The support of family and loved ones "nurtured, inspired and anchored me in the work I have and will continue to do for, with and in the Hawaiian community and the community of Hawai'i for at least another two decades," she said. "My music and my mission will continue to guide my work. Fami]ies, colleagues, mentors and emerging leaders will continue to give it purpose. Nineteen years at Alu Like ine. and 16 years in OHA have etched indelible lessons." Naomi Losch In the end, Naomi Losch would become what her mother encouraged her to be: a teacher. Initially fighting the idea as a girl growing up in Kahuku, Losch would marry education with her love of Hawaiian culture, whieh, she said, was something her parents and others of their generation didn't know mueh about. "When my mother heard chanting, she said, 'Ooh, that gives me the heebie-jeebies. So I told my students, you are so privileged. This is a good time to be Hawaiian because our people weren't always proud to be

Hawaiian," she said. Losch, who retired as an Associate Professor of Hawaiian at UH-Mānoa in 2010 after four decades in a career revitalizing the Hawaiian language, including serving as a delegate to a 1978 language convention that established Hawaiian spelling today, such as the use of Hawaiian diacriticals, the kahakō and 'okina. Early in her career, Losch worked in the anthropology department at Bishop Museum, where she was first introduced to its work as a sophomore at Kamehameha School for Girls. Losch taught at Leeward Community College for 24 years and started the Hawaiian program at Windward Community College before moving to UH-Mānoa in 1994. "It has been a wonderful experience," she said, as her three grown children sat in the crowd. You didn't used to hear people speaking the language, she said, adding that she cried when she heard the first class of keiki at 'Aha Pūnana Leo speak 'ōlelo Hawai'i. "It touched me because I never heard a child speaking Hawaiian."

Puakea Nogehneier, a student of Losch's who would later join her as a colleague at UH, said, "I have plenty of my teachers in the house, but I really eall (Losch) responsible

for mueh of it. She never crushed my spirit. She always said, Can. Go. You SEE EDUCATI0N ON PAGE 16

-■ iff * I ' ' JTr - f Kū Kahakalau, Haunani Apoliona, Alan Murakami and Naomi Losch are the recipients of this vear's I Ulu I Ke Kumu Award. - Photo: UsaAsato

EDUCATION

Continued from page 9 go, lad." As a tribute, Nogelmeier and Kawehi Lucas perfonned hula to a song Nogehneier had written for Losch's retirement. Alan Murakami Litigation Director and Attorney Alan Murakami has led the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. - the only nonprofit puhhe interest law firm concentrating on Native Hawaiian rights law - in the defense and enforcement of Hawaiian family land title, Hawaiian water rights, access to kuleana and other subsistence and cultural gathering areas, cultural rights to protect and preserve iwi kūpuna, ceded land trust rights and Hawaiian Homes Conunission Act rights, among others. Fonner NHLC Executive Director Mahealani Wendt described Murakami as "our unsung hero" and an "excellent role model for all of

us, our staff attomeys as well as the many young legal intems that strive for tmth. . . . Some of them have gone on to become not only outstanding members of the bar but are serving on the bench as well." lon Matsuoka of the UH School of Social Work said he got a eall from Murakami some two decades ago asking him to serve as an expert witness in a contested case involving a proposed development project that threatened the lifestyle of Ka'ū and the traditional fishing village of Miloli'i. "What I saw at that time was how hard Alan . . . and the other attomeys from NHLC worked. They were consumed by incredible passion and commitment to protect those areas ... and they worked tirelessly in support of the preservation of those communities. In the end, the Land Use Commission voted to approve the petition, but they laid down 25 stipulations, whieh basically killed the project. 'Throughout the years, I've asked the question, What would Hawai 'i look like without Native Hawaiian Legal

Corp. and Alan Murakami? The work that they do in tenns of protecting the iwi, burial sites and the rights to those on the (state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands) waiting list and the life ways and hfestyle of Native Hawaiians - particularly those in rural areas - is just so critical to the sustenance and sustainability of cultures." Murakami said the NHLC "gave me the opportunity to do exactly what I wanted to do with this career," calling it "the best job in town." "People have to make choices in life as everybody on the corporation has done - everyone from the attomeys to the secretaries to the support staff. They've all made a ehoiee of what kind of work they want to do, and the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. really stands out as a stellar example of serving people who might not otherwise be heard." Kū Kahakalau Kū Kahakalau is the Founder and Director of Kanu O Ka 'Āina, the first public charter school in Waimea on Hawai'i Island, whieh promotes a

womb-to-tomb model incorporating community, culture and family in its offerings, including a bilingual preschool program, higher education and adult education. Kamehameha Schools CEO Dee I ay Mailer described Kahakalau as "an educational leader and a visionary" whose work has transfonned education. She praised Kahakalau's strength, wisdom, detennination and flexibility, all done with aloha, adding later that with a name like "Kū," "There's no question about the honor of that kuleana." "She has sacrificed mueh to bring so many dreams to reahty and has paved so many paths for all of us to walk on," Mailer said. Kalei Kailihiwa, Director of Kamehameha Schools Ho'olako Like, whieh supports start-up and conversion Hawaiian-focused charter schools, said Kahakalau is an agent of change. "People who are crazy enough to think they ean change the world are the ones who do," she said of Kahakalau, who also co-founded and

directed Hālau Wānana: Indigenous Center for Higher Leaming, whieh is Hawai'i's first state-approved teacher education program that's not affiliated with a westem university. "I am absolutely humbled and honored to stand in the shadow of the work that you do." Kahakalau said she is privileged to see what our youth are capable of doing . ' 'They have infinitepotential and they ean do anything and everything that they want to do, and all we have the privilege of doing is helping them along and watching them grow and watching them blossoming." Kahakalau - whose daughters 'I'inimaikalani and Pōlanimakamae, perfonned the song E Pili Mai for their mom - thanked her family and husband for their support. "When you ask the students what is different about this way of education, they will be the first to say, it's the aloha," Kahakalau said. "Because of the aloha of kumu, because of the aloha of our community, we have been able to grow and to move beyond our wildest dreams." ■