Bill Text: HI SR146 | 2019 | Regular Session | Amended


Bill Title: Supporting The Development Of A Hawaiian Language Plan, Including Goals, Benchmarks, Strategies, And Outcomes, To Build Upon Accomplishments And To Accelerate The Normalization Of olelo Hawaii.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-0)

Status: (Passed) 2019-04-12 - Report and Resolution Adopted. [SR146 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2019-SR146-Amended.html

THE SENATE

S.R. NO.

146

THIRTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2019

S.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

SENATE RESOLUTION

 

 

SUPPORTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF A HAWAIIAN LANGUAGE PLAN, INCLUDING GOALS, BENCHMARKS, STRATEGIES, AND OUTCOMES, TO BUILD UPON ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND TO ACCELERATE THE NORMALIZATION OF ŌLELO HAWAII.

 

 


     WHEREAS, the United Nations General Assembly has declared 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages as part of an effort to draw attention to the critical loss of indigenous languages and the urgent need to take steps at the national and international levels to preserve, revitalize, and promote indigenous languages; and

 

     WHEREAS, the United Nations acknowledges that indigenous languages represent complex systems of knowledge developed and accumulated over thousands of years and serve as repositories of diversity and key resources for understanding and utilizing the environment to the best advantage of local populations; and

 

     WHEREAS, the United Nations has expressed deep concern about the vast number of endangered languages, in particular indigenous languages, and stresses that there is an urgent need to preserve, promote, and revitalize endangered languages; and

 

     WHEREAS, ōlelo Hawaii is an indigenous language of Hawaii and recognized by the Constitution of the State of Hawaii as one of the State's official languages; and

 

     WHEREAS, the State of Hawaii, in upholding the spirit of the International Year of Indigenous Languages, and in recognition of the numerous achievements over the past 35 years in preserving and revitalizing ōlelo Hawaii, has proclaimed 2019 the Year of the Indigenous Language; and

 

     WHEREAS, there is a need to first and foremost acknowledge the Niihau Language Commission and native Hawaiian speakers who, within their families, are preserving, protecting, and promulgating the indigenous Hawaiian language in a fully comprehensive manner in the family setting from the earliest ages with all traditional subtlety and nuance; and

 

     WHEREAS, for the past 35 years, Aha Pūnana Leo along with other Hawaiian language movement leaders, including Ka Haka Ula O Keelikōlani College of Hawaiian Language, Hawaiinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, and all Hawaiian language programs throughout the University of Hawaii System, the Department of Education Office of Hawaiian Education, Kamehameha Schools, the Hawaiian medium and Hawaiian immersion schools, and all other Hawaiian language programs at all public schools including charter schools, have collectively worked to reverse the language loss that occurred at the turn of the 20th century and to preserve, revitalize, and promote this indigenous language through cooperative efforts to raise speakers of ōlelo Hawaii, to educate learners in immersive settings, to normalize ōlelo Hawaii in its homeland, and to drive and inspire change to ensure a living language in Hawaii and beyond; and

 

     WHEREAS, the specific outcomes and results of these collective efforts include:

 

     (1)  Consulting extensively with and acknowledging the invaluable expertise of first-language native Hawaiian speakers whose families have never lost the language at any time in history;

 

     (2)  Reestablishment of the Hawaii P-20 Partnerships for Education Hawaiian medium pathway of education from the Pūnana Leo preschools to the State's Hawaiian medium and Hawaiian immersion programs up through the graduate degrees offered at Ka Haka Ula o Keelikōlani, which serves over 4,000 students annually at over 40 different sites throughout the State;

 

     (3)  The Hawaiian language being offered as a world language at over two-thirds of Hawaii Department of Education high schools;

 

     (4)  Hawaiian language broadcast media initiative in partnership with Aha Pūnana Leo and Ōiwi TV; and

 

     (5)  A generation of graduates from Hawaiian medium and Hawaiian immersion programs that grew up speaking Hawaiian and are raising their own keiki to speak and live ōlelo Hawaii; and

 

     WHEREAS, to build upon these successes and to further accelerate the normalization of ōlelo Hawaii, the development of a Hawaiian Language Plan is necessary to advance the use of ōlelo Hawaii in government services and transactions, private sector activity, and tourism, in addition to education; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirtieth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2019, that this body supports the development of a Hawaiian Language Plan to build upon accomplishments and to accelerate the normalization of ōlelo Hawaii; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that during the next two years, the Aha Pūnana Leo is urged to coordinate a coalition to develop the Hawaiian Language Plan, including aspirational goals, benchmarks, strategies, and outcomes for the next 35 years; and

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the coalition to develop the Hawaiian Language Plan may include representatives of the Aha Pūnana Leo, Ka Haka Ula O Keelikōlani Hawaiian Language College, Hawaiinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, Department of Education Office Of Hawaiian Education, Kamehameha Schools, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Ōiwi TV, the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, Aha Kauleo, Kanaeokana, Keomālamalama, native speakers who are first language speakers and whose families never lost the Hawaiian language, and other organizations as appropriate to ensure collective and equitable representation in the development of the Plan; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Hawaiian Language Plan, including any proposed legislation, be submitted to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2021; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, members of Hawaii's congressional delegation, Chief Executive Officer of Aha Pūnana Leo, Director of Ka Haka Ula o Keelikōlani Hawaiian Language College, Dean of the Hawaiinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, Director of the Department of Education Office of Hawaiian Education, Chief Executive Officer of Kamehameha Schools, and Ōiwi Television Network.

Report Title: 

Hawaiian Language Plan; Ōlelo Hawaii

 

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