About This Project

Hawaiian Language Newspaper Project

In 2013 our production of Ka Leo Kānaka—Voice of the People was inspired by a phenomenal project called ʻIke Kūʻokoʻa — Liberating Knowledge— where volunteers manually transcribed century-old Hawaiian Language newspapers to create a searchable data base from a treasure trove of historical knowledge.

A friendly competition ensued, prompted by the project’s leads, Puakea Nogelmeier and Kauʻi Sai-Dudoit. They put out the call to countless hālau, schools, civic clubs, universities and other organizations in Hawaiʻi and beyond to see who could transcribe the most pages in a friendly competition-of-contribution.

Nā Lei Hulu transcribed over 1200 pages which landed us in first place. As a kumu, I consider this to be one of our hālau’s most significant accomplishments.

Awaiaulu is dedicated to developing resources and resource people that can bridge Hawaiian knowledge from the past to the present and the future. Historical resources are made accessible so as to build the knowledge base of both Hawaiian and English-speaking audiences, and young scholars are trained to understand and interpret those resources for modern audiences today and tomorrow.