The Ford Foundation has awarded $190,000 to the University of Hawaii Foundation to support the University of Hawaii at Hilo’s College of Hawaiian Language, Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke‘elikolani and two other significant language projects.
The Ford Foundation has awarded $190,000 to the University of Hawaii Foundation to support the University of Hawaii at Hilo’s College of Hawaiian Language, Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke‘elikolani and two other significant language projects.
While the Ford Foundation generally does not support language programs, they made a one-time opportunity grant because UH-Hilo’s Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke‘elikolani is renowned for its language revitalization success at a time when indigenous languages are dying worldwide, according to a Wednesday press release from the UH Foundation.
The college’s mission is to seek the revitalization of the Hawaiian language and culture and to aid other indigenous peoples who want to revitalize their own endangered languages and cultures.
Dr. Larry Kimura of UH-Hilo’s Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke‘elikolani program, considered the grandfather of the Hawaiian language revitalization movement in Hawaii, seeks to develop a digital library of Native Hawaiian audio speech behavior samples to promote native-like language acquisition for Hawaiian second-language learners, according to the release.
“This grant will enable a start in editing over 550 hours of audio interview recordings that I documented from among Hawaii’s last fluent native Hawaiian speakers over a 16-year period from 1972 to 1988,” Kimura said.