ABSTRACT
The Kalihi area of Honolulu on O’ahu is where I was born Kauanoe Kamanā, daughter of Paul Kia’ipō Kamanā and Ella Kauanoe Ka’ai. I was raised in Honolulu and on the Island of Moloka’i where my mother was born and which is also the site of the Hawaiian Homestead Lands where the majority of my parents’ generation of relatives as well as my own generation of relatives were raised and nurtured with aloha. It is from my own family that I derive my worldview of loyalty to the concepts of love for God and the spiritual aspects of life, love for the family and genealogical connections, and love for knowledge and learning. They are the source of my personality, my culture, my fears and lack of fear that I have today. My heart holds their lessons firmly as a pulakaumaka, a constant all powerful vision, within my mind. This pulakaumaka has set the course of what I have done every day of my life. So, if I am asked why I became involved in the revitalization of our Indigenous language here in Hawai’i, the answer is very clear. It is my responsibility, a joyful burden that must be carried and because there are so very few who are seeking out the beautiful goal of a restored living Hawaiian language in its own homeland, I have no choice. And the same holds true for others born and raised throughout our Hawaiian Islands.
