Category Archives: Uncategorized

Mahalo Waipahu High School Faculty & Staff for visiting ‘Ulu‘ulu!

Yesterday, our ‘Ulu‘ulu crew hosted a series of archive tours for some 200 faculty and staff visiting UHWO from Waipahu High School. We enjoyed sharing about ‘Ulu’ulu and the work we do, shared an extreme example of preservation challenges in Hawai’i, and helped teachers find their place in the timeline of video formats – good good fun!

From all of us at ‘Ulu‘ulu, we extend a warm aloha to these awesome teachers for their enthusiasm and interest in Hawai‘i’s moving image history. Remember to visit our website at uluulu.hawaii.edu to begin searching our collections and integrating video of Hawai‘i’s history and cultures in your classroom. And, please feel free to contact our Reference Archivist, Shavonn Matsuda, with any questions, footage or visit requests.

View photos on our Flickr

The Association of Hawai’i Archivists (AHA) is highlighting local repositories on its blog each month. This month AHA has chosen to spotlight a repository that was one of ʻUluʻulu’s partners in our HKG Pilot Project – the Lyman Museum & Mission House in Hilo, Hawaiʻi. AHA’s post details the museum’s Pierce Photo Identification Project which has helped Lyman to successfully identify about 450 of the almost 800 unidentified photos they’ve made publicly available. According to the post, the Photo ID Project is “a multi-pronged strategy to recruit community help to solve these mysteries.” Read more on AHA’s Repository Spotlight.

We welcomed two new faces this month – Jonah Dias and Keahiahi Long.

Jonah Dias is from Hilo, Hawai‘i and is a 2011 graduate of Kamehameha Schools Kea‘au. He is currently a senior in the Academy of Creative Media program at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and hopes to work in the film industry after graduating with his B.A. Jonah says he is interested in film because he “appreciates learning from stories and sharing stories.” He shared that he’s happy to be at ‘Ulu‘ulu because he likes to learn about the history of Hawai‘i and its people and ‘Ulu‘ulu enables him to do so through film. When he’s not here at ‘Ulu‘ulu, Jonah also serves as a Production Technician for PBS Hawaii.

Keahiahi Long is from O‘ahu and is a graduate student in the Master of Library & Information Science program at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. As part of her summer fellowship with the Dance Heritage Coalition (DHC), Keahiahi spent the first part of her summer interning at the Museum of Performance + Design in San Francisco. She will be fulfilling the DHC’s practicum requirement by working at ‘Ulu‘ulu for the next 6 weeks helping to research dance materials in our collections.

We are thrilled to have both Jonah and Keahiahi with us!

Have you ever been inside a movie theater projection booth? If not now’s your chance to get a glimpse of some analog film projectors at ‘Ulu‘ulu!

Now on display inside the UHWO Library are two 35mm projectors and one 16mm projector that once screened films at the Hawaii Theatre. We took in these projectors from the Hawaii Theatre when they switched to digital projection in 2013 and are excited to share this celluloid technology with visitors to ‘Ulu‘ulu.

Mahalo to the Hawaii Theatre for donating the projectors; to Alan Sakaida from Consolidated Theatres for spending a Saturday at ‘Ulu‘ulu assembling them for display; and to the UHWO Facilities Crew for moving these 500 pound beasts into our exhibit area!!

~ Pictures featured above are of the Punahou PUEO Program students who stopped by today. Mahalo PUEO Program!

Two of our ‘Ulu‘ulu crew, Shavonn Matsuda and Koa Luke, attended the International Conference on Indigenous Archives, Libraries & Museums in Palm Springs, California last week. The annual conference is organized by the Association of Tribal Libraries, Archives, & Museums. It brought about 600 librarians, archivists, museum specialists, cultural practitioners and others from around the world together to discuss current challenges and successes related to developing and sustaining the cultural sovereignty of Native Nations. Topics included preservation, collections care, digitization, documentation, access protocols, project management, education, academic outreach, language revitalization, funding, and more.

Shavonn and Koa met people from all over, including Alaska, Canada, Washington, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Washington D.C., California, and the Philippines. Shavonn even got to listen to a presentation by a Maasai woman who traveled all the way from her home in Africa to share about her tribe’s effort to create a Maasai Culture Heritage Center to “inspire the community to preserve indigenous knowledge for generations to come.”

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Still, it wasn’t just ‘Ulu‘ulu that was in attendance from Hawai‘i… some of ‘Ulu‘ulu’s partnering institutions also attended and presented – Hula Preservation Society (Kahikina Whittle and Keau George), Office of Hawaiian Affairs (Kale Hannahs), Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies (Pi‘ilani Ka‘aloa and Kauwela Valeho-Novikoff), and Bishop Museum (Noa Dettweiler-Pavia) – along with other Hawai‘i organizations, like the Hawaiian Historical Society, Kanu o ka ‘Āina Learning ‘Ohana, Papahana Kuaola, and Nā Hawai‘i ‘Imi Loa. So, in addition to being able to share about all the awesome work being done here in Hawai‘i with others from around the world, the conference provided a chance for our ‘Ulu‘ulu crew to get together with representatives from these local organizations and talk story about the work we are doing and the importance of forums like these that engage information professionals and cultural practitioners alike.

And, Koa and Shavonn didn’t just attend and network at the conference, rather they took advantage of the opportunity to present about the work they do at ‘Ulu‘ulu, at the University of Hawai‘i, and in our communities.

Koa presented a poster titled “I Ka Wā Ma Mua, Ka Wā Ma Hope (The Past Guides the Future): Cataloging Native Hawaiian Content” covering the work we do at ‘Ulu‘ulu, mainly the creation of a Hawaiian Language Subject Index.

Shavonn co-presented two separate sessions. The first, “Ka Waihona: Repository of Ways of Knowing,” offered insights into how a modern special collection retains generations of ancestral ways of knowing and expands its offerings through ongoing knowledge generation.

The second, “Ho‘okele Na‘auao: Navigating Collaborative Partnerships to Advance Indigenous Stewardship,” detailed the goals, planning process, and challenges and successes of the Hawaiian Librarianship Symposium hosted by Nā Hawai‘i ‘Imi Loa, Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, and the UH Mānoa Library & Information Science program last September; mainly focusing on the partnerships and collaborative tools that made it such a well-attended event.

During these presentations and throughout the conference, Koa and Shavonn connected with people working on similar issues across the globe and are hopeful that their expanded network (of friends and colleagues) will provide an avenue for support in the work we do at ‘Ulu‘ulu and the work being done in tribal and other indigenous communities. They also hope to be able to visit the awesome people they’ve met in the near future 😉 … and offer an invitation to each of them and to the ATALM community as a whole to visit us here at UH West O‘ahu anytime!

Congratulations to the ‘Aha Pūnana Leo Hawaiian language nest preschools on their recent accreditation from the World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium (WINHEC)!

As explained in the announcement of International Recognition for Hawaiian Language Preschools on the ‘Aha Pūnana Leo’s website,

“For 90 years the use of Hawaiian was illegal in schools. The ʻAha Pūnana Leo led the movement to remove that ban and has been the primary private entity supporting the development of education through Hawaiian from preschool on to the doctorate level. Language revitalization programs worldwide widely recognize the ʻAha Pūnana Leo as the model for education in an endangered and indigenous language revitalization movement.”

Receiving WINHEC accreditation is undoubtedly an important accomplishment for the ‘Aha Pūnana Leo in and of itself but it is also significant as this is the first time an early education program has received this international accreditation. In celebrating this landmark accomplishment as well as the 30th anniversary of the first Pūnana Leo preschool (started in 1984 in Kekaha, Kaua‘i), we’d like to share some footage from our collections which feature the ʻAha Pūnana Leo (and its Board President Dr. Kauanoe Kamanā).

Videos from the Juniroa Productions collection:

Footage from a day spent in a Pūnana Leo classroom. This clip features their snack time, but the full-length footage (please email uluulu@hawaii.edu to request access) includes the children at recess, doing exercises, and participating in classroom activities.

Interview with Dr. Kauanoe Kamanā, one of the original founders of ʻAha Pūnana Leo and its current Board President. She talks about the beginning of the Pūnana Leo preschools and Hawaiian language immersion education.

Interview with Pila Wilson and Kauanoe Kamanā in their Hilo home discussing the Pūnana Leo preschools and how they have chosen to use ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i in their home.

E ola mau ka ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i!

Other Online Resources:

A Timeline of Revitalization http://www.ahapunanaleo.org/index.php?/about/a_timeline_of_revitalization/

E Ola Ka ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i (1996) – View at http://www.ahapunanaleo.org/index.php?/resources/cartoons/
“This video presentation tells the story of how a small group of scholars and native speakers struggled to bring back the language that their ancestors were forced to give up.” Produced by the ʻAha Pūnana Leo. Directed by Na Maka o ka ‘Aina. 28 minutes.

The 2014 World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education (WiPC:E) was held last week at Kapi‘iolani Community College in Honolulu. According to the conference website, WiPC:E is “the largest venue for indigenous education in the world.” This year’s theme was E Mau Ana Ka Mo‘olelo: Our Narratives Endure. Over 3,000 people from all over the world came together “to discuss contemporary movements in education that support our unique indigenous worldviews.”

I was fortunate to have been able to volunteer at and attend the conference all week. I attended workshops presented by indigenous peoples from Canada, Aotearoa (New Zealand), and Hawai‘i and also met people from Japan, Australia, and Europe. Many of the presentations I attended focused on indigenizing the academy, but other topics included information literacy, digital storytelling, digital libraries, strengthening culture, indigenous leadership and the importance of our indigenous languages.

As part of the Huaka‘i day, I also had the pleasure of visiting Ka Waihona o ka Na‘auao public charter school in Nānākuli, not too far from ‘Ulu‘ulu. We had about twenty people from Australia, Aotearoa, the United States, and Hawai‘i in our group. As soon as we got off the bus, we were welcomed with an ‘oli aloha by haumāna at Ka Waihona. During our visit, we listened to kumu and haumāna talk about the school’s humble beginnings, its challenges and its successes. The haumāna also took some time to explain what they had learned about the kiawe trees, which are abundant on the Wai‘anae coast. Apparently, kiawe beans are edible! And, they use its beans to make energy bars which have already won awards and are now sold in restaurants in Waikīkī. The entire huaka‘i was a great learning experience and everyone in our group had nothing but good things to say on the bus ride back to Kapi‘olani Community College (view photos here).

As much fun as the huaka‘i was though, the cultural performances were my favorite parts of the conference. From the parade of nations held on Monday to the cultural presentations held throughout the conference (especially those on Thursday evening!), it was indeed a treat to be able to listen to indigenous peoples speaking their languages and to watch them doing traditional songs and dances.

Overall, I am entirely grateful that I was able to attend WiPC:E 2014. It was an awesome experience personally and professionally! Mahalo to the Conference Chairs, Lui Hokoano (UHWO) and Judy Ann Olivera (WCC), and the Organizing Committee. Special mahalo to the Huaka‘i Committee for allowing me to volunteer with your team!

Click here to check out photos of WiPC:E on our Flickr!

Post By: Shavonn Matsuda

Last June, we introduced you to one of our volunteers, Peter Kowen (read the post here). We are sad to announce that yesterday was Peter’s last day at ‘Ulu‘ulu. During his time here, Peter has worked diligently on the CLEAR (Center for Labor Education & Research) collection – inventorying boxes and boxes of video, film and other AV materials related to Hawai‘i’s labor history. While processing this collection, he actually came across raw video footage of an interview with his grandfather that was used as part of the 1996 documentary, 1946: The Great Hawai‘i Sugar Strike (to view the full-length streaming video, visit http://www.hawaii.edu/uhwo/clear/home/e-library.html).

Peter says he has “learned a lot about media in Hawai‘i” while working at ‘Ulu‘ulu. He will continue to pursue his profound passion for film at American University in Washington D.C. this fall where he will begin his graduate studies.

We greatly value the work you’ve done Peter and wish you all the best in your future (film) endeavors!

Mahalo and aloha,
The ‘Ulu‘ulu Staff