By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

I am pleased to announce that 29 staff members at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs are learning to speak Hawaiian. However, only one of the trustees has signed up for the class.

To be fair, three of the nine trustees already speak Hawaiian: Haunani Apoliona, Colette Machado and Linda Dela Cruz. The trustee at the starting gate is Oz Stender, who said he was raised by his Hawaiian grandparents in Hau'ula.

"My parents and grandparents spoke Hawaiian to each other but never around the children," said Stender. "We were not allowed to talk in Hawaiian. When I went to school at Kamehameha, nobody taught Hawaiian until a new haole teacher formed a Hawaiian Club."

Stender said he tried to learn Hawaiian when he became a Bishop Estate trustee but there was nobody to practice with so he forgot the words he learned in class.

On a trip to New Zealand last year he found that whenever two Maoris got together they spoke the native language. Finally he asked what happened if somebody in the room like himself didn't speak Maori. The answer: "Too bad."

"When I came back, I realized that very few of us at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs speak Hawaiian so I sent a memo to the trustees requesting that we hold Hawaiian language classes," he said.

There was no response from the trustees, but staffers Nancy King Holt and Rona Rodenhurst, who are fluent in Hawaiian, joined the crusade because they had the same idea. They got permission to hold classes in the board room during the noon hour twice a week. Stender and 28 others signed up.

"It's all voluntary," he said. "They bring their lunch. I'm excited that the class is so well-attended."

Rahera Shortland, a visiting language teacher from New Zealand, said it takes at least six months to get along in Hawaiian without using English.

The setting at OHA headquarters is anything but Hawaiian; a black glass high-rise on Kapi'olani Boulevard, computer terminals on every desk. Roast beef sandwiches, potato chips and a Pepsi for lunch instead of coconut milk and breadfruit.

But the faces around the table are tinged with Polynesian and the words that come out are pure Hawaiian. Rodenhurst, the agency planner, said they're starting with common phrases and words for the office furniture around them.

"This is the best thing that we've done," said Ikaika Rawlins, aide to trustee Stender. "As the agency for the Hawaiian people, we fund programs to teach the Hawaiian language. We should learn it ourselves."

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.