Posted on: Saturday, July 28, 2001

Historical group reprints rare books in Hawaiian

By Jean Chow
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hula halau members, students and others interested in Hawaiian often find that resources in that language are scarce. There are relatively few books available, except those that are rare, fragile and have limited accessibility.

It was that inaccessibility that sprouted forth the idea of Ke Kupu Hou, a series that the Hawaiian Historical Society has established to reprint and make available more books that were printed in the Hawaiian language during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

"(We felt) there was a real need in the community to have these works to support the growing use of Hawaiian language," said Barbara Dunn, administrative director and librarian for the Hawaiian Historical Society.

So last summer, the society formed a committee to select the books that would be a part of the series.

"We decided to reprint books that would be of use today (in terms of) education, culture and history," said committee head Puakea Nogelmeier, an assistant professor of the Hawaiian language at the University of Hawai'i.

The books will be facsimile reprints of the originals, made possible through scanning or digital photography. The books will not be edited in any way. For this reason, the works and their titles will not include Hawaiian diacritical marks, as the originals did not have them.

The first book in the series, now available through the society, Native Books and Beautiful Things and other bookstores, is "Na Mele Aimoku, Na Mele Kupuna, a me Na Mele Ponoi o ka Moi Kalakaua I," or "Dynastic Chants, Ancestral Chants and Personal Chants of King Kalakaua I." There are only seven known copies of the original printing of the book, which was created as a gift to honor the king on his 50th birthday, in 1886. The new, 328-page book is available in softcover ($30) and limited clothbound editions ($60), with special prices for Hawaiian Historical Society members.

Next up is "He Wahi Moolelo No Batimea Puaaiki, No Wailuku, Maui," first published in 1847. The book chronicles the life of Batimea Pua'aiki, one of the first Hawaiian Christians. According to Nogelmeier, Pua'aiki, who was blind, was a loyal advocate and "totally dedicated" to the new religion. The book is expected to come out sometime at the end of this year or the beginning of next.

The third book, "Buke Mele Lahui," is a collection of mele and chants originally published in 1895, just two years after the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. The fourth book, "Ka Moolelo Hawaii," was the very first history of Hawai'i, put together by the adult students at Lahainaluna School on Maui in 1838.

Selecting future books for the series continues, and the society hopes to release one or two books every year. "Each book (will have) a different niche, but students of the Hawaiian language will be interested in all of them," Dunn said.