Archival journal expected to enrich Hawaiian studies

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

For a people who lived for centuries without a written language, the Hawaiians certainly embraced it once it came. Now several scholars are laboring to bring more of that writing out of dusty corners and into the light.

To get it "Ka Ho'oilina" is available: • Single copies, $25 per issue, sold at Native Books, or by calling Kamehameha Schools Press, 842-8719. • Annual subscriptions (two issues), $40, or $20 for students, 956-8833. • On the Web at hooilina.olelo.hawaii.edu

The legacy is a glimpse into Hawaiian life in the 19th and early 20th centuries, descriptions of everything from the ordinary (the usefulness of the coconut tree) to the extraordinary (the outlandish appearance of the elephant). Inside are death dirges and anatomical studies, legends and political treatises.

It is the only bilingual journal devoted to an aboriginal language in the United States, said Bob Stauffer, who heads the "Legacy" project for Alu Like, the organization that provides services to Native Hawaiians and the agency that founded Ka Ho'oilina. Most other Native American languages have relatively few archival documents to reclaim.

He remembered consulting with a Navajo scholar, asking about archival works in that Native American language.

"He said, 'What do you mean, archives? We don't have any archives,'" Stauffer said. "This is precedent setting."

Sometimes the scope of the publication feels intimidating, said its editor, Kalena Silva.

"The aim of the journal is as comprehensive and massive as any," he said. "The preservation, publication and dissemination of some 250,000 pages of materials in the Hawaiian language is a monumental undertaking and will take decades to complete."

The first edition, a 159-page volume, came out last summer and the second is due out in a couple of months, Stauffer said. All of it is available online (hooilina.olelo.hawaii.edu) at a site where the reader can toggle back and forth between translations.

The Web site, like the hard-copy edition, prints all the text in three forms: the original Hawaiian text, without diacritical marks and some variations in spelling; the modern Hawaiian, which uses the marks (the glottal stop, or 'okina, and the macron, or kahako); and English.

With so much to do, the editors have had to establish publishing priorities, Silva said, and on top of the list they are including in every issue at least one work from the Hawaiian Ethnographic Notes (HEN) collection. These consist mainly of materials selected and translated in draft form by the late Mary Kawena Pukui, the noted Hawaiian scholar. The Legacy Project is starting with writings on agricultural lore.

Here are the other primary targets, although the journal is expected occasionally to include other special items:

• Government documents, starting with the constitutions.
• Newspapers — a chronological record, starting with the first edition in 1834.
• Newspapers from historically critical times, starting with those published in 1892.
• Humanities — stories, chants and other literature.
• Student materials, starting with a textbook on anatomy from the College of Hawai'i at Lahaina Luna.

Translating all of this is meticulous work, Stauffer said, requiring a lot of consultation among the editorial committee, numbering around three dozen.

And even when the staff feels satisfied, others have criticized the futility of rendering every Hawaiian nuance in English, Silva said.

"Some critics have also likened the process of English translation of materials to the unraveling of other traditional items of fine Hawaiian manufacture — like taking apart an exquisite old lei hulu (feather lei) to show those unfamiliar with it how it was made," he said.

But Silva said he's convinced the crew is doing the right thing, bringing writing that was published in newspapers for the general public back before that public again.

"The journal provides a window in time allowing 21st-century readers to view the world through the eyes of Hawaiian language writers of the 19th century," he said.

And, said archivist Janet Zisk, another team member, it will raise the profile of the Hawaiian language internationally.

"This journal will be in every university in the world," she said. "Hawaiian will be more accessible to be respected and used."