On the Hawaiian island of Kauai, the students of Ke Kula Niʻihau o Kekaha immersion school speak the native language of the nearby island of Ni‘ihau, which has only about 200 native speakers on the island and 200 more in their community. Ten years ago, the only book published in the Niʻihau dialect was a Bible provided by missionaries. Today, there are over 400 books written in the dialect by students and staff of Ke Kula Niʻihau o Kekaha and published by Hamline University’s Center for Global Environmental Education (CGEE).
"Your language represents your culture, and historically, indigenous cultures have been decimated across the world,” said Tracy Fredin, director of CGEE.
CGEE’s mission is to foster environmental stewardship and literacy in citizens of all ages, so Fredin was naturally drawn to find collaborators in Hawaii due to the state’s abundance of endangered species, ideal circumstances for studying evolution, and sustainability practices developed as an island state. But he found another conservation need.
"Many times conservation has been viewed as saving wildlife or habitat, but there is a real dilemma of saving indigenous culture as well,” Fredin said. “The environmental world isn’t just about science, it's just as much about civics because people need to understand how to take care of their environment.”
In 1896, the U.S. government took control of Hawaii and banned the use of native Hawaiian language in school instruction, but by that time Ni’ihau was a private island purchased by the Sinclair-Robinson family, who still owns the island today.
“They have been speaking the native Hawaiian dialect there since, they never stopped speaking it,” Fredin said. “Most of Hawaii was not allowed to speak Hawaiian and dialects were lost in many places, but on Ni‘ihau their language has been saved and we're working with them to preserve it."
In 2017 Hamline developed a partnership with Ke Kula Niʻihau o Kekaha school to design and provide language learning materials, such as a graphic chart that depicts all 46 phonemes that make up the Hawaiian language.
“They needed storytellers to help visualize what would be called sound units and help teach the dialect,” Fredin said.
These charts incorporate graphics that are culturally relevant to the students, explained Brinkey Prescott, CGEE operations director.
"In the word for a ‘bridge’ we have a graphic of a bridge that is just down the street from their school,” Prescott said. “Our biggest goal is to produce materials that help the students learn the dialect. They had very little to work with before, and they had to develop it themselves. Together we’ve created high-quality, culturally relevant materials for them to use in class.”
Every year, each student writes and illustrates a book in the Niʻihau dialect, then Hamline formats the books and publishes them. There is also a legacy book written by staff for students each year, illustrated and published by Hamline with variations at four different reading levels. Hamline and Ke Kula Niʻihau o Kekaha publish about 70 books a year together, bringing their current library total to 400 books.
"I would like to see us get to 1,000 books and I believe we can do that,” Fredin said. “The critical thing is we do not want to be a flash-in-the-pan – we're here to make a long-term commitment. The school has been incredibly supportive of us and in turn we have worked with whatever their needs are. We feel honored to be able to make this connection there."
In addition to the work with Ke Kula Niʻihau o Kekaha, CGEE has also developed educational materials and interactive exhibits for locations in Hawaii that educates visitors about endangered species and environmental concerns across the island.
Altogether, CGEE’s activities in Hawaii are rooted in a mission to better tell the story of the island through the words of its indigenous inhabitants.
"Helping these individuals write their own books, in their native dialect, supports a powerful message, where they get to be the author of their own stories,” Fredin said. “These books are written by the young people of Niʻihau about their local environment and that is really empowering."
