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Indigenous | Australia

Hawaiian-language schoolteachers on global indigenous peoples conference on education

Teachers from Ke Kula ‘o Samuel M. Kamakau, a Hawaiian medium laboratory charter school in Oahu, were among 5,000 people at the World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education (WIPCE) held in Tarndanya/Adelaide, Australia over the weekend.

For over 30 years, WIPCE’s mission has been to address social, economic and political marginalisation of Indigenous peoples across the world. The conference brings Indigenous representatives together to share success and strategies for culturally grounded education.

Making a visit to Aotearoa, the teachers came to Whakaata Māori. Talking to TeAoMāori.News, Kalaunuola Domingo said their story to share at WIPCE, Kū I ka Mauli Ola, was a showing of the school's past 20 years of Hawaiian medium education.

Keane Nakapueo-Garcia said some of his takeaways from WIPCE 2022 included learning about Aboriginal language nests, where funding is put into bringing the language from the classroom into the home for parents and elders.

“I think it’s something that we can definitely strengthen at our school.”


Having the Ōlelo become the solution for intergenerational trauma.

Language healing the people and land

Kilipohe Miller paid tribute to the Kaurna Nation (the original people of Adelaide) for being an inspiration to keep “fighting the fight” for “our people, the language and culture”.

“One of the Koori nations spoke on their land-based education, which I think we do pretty well in Hawai'i. One of the things they mentioned that they do are these cultural camps with students where they do traditional activities,” Keane said.

“From generational trauma that’s happened with all native peoples, I think bringing back the Ōlelo is healing for everybody,” Kilipohe said.

Keane shared a proverb: “O kaʻōlelo ke kaʻā o ka mauli: Language is the fibre that binds us to our cultural identity.

“Our cultural identity has been stripped from our people and, as Kilipohe mentioned, our language is healing our people and land.”