Proposals sought for Native Hawaiian archives honoring late Henry K. Giugni

Proposals are being solicited for an innovative new archive that will record and preserve personal histories of Native Hawaiians and the people of Hawaiʻi in digital and material forms accessible through the Internet.

The Henry Kuʻualoha Giugni Archives honors the former United States Senate Sergeant-At-Arms -- the first person of color and the first of Polynesian ancestry to hold the position -- who died in 2005. The U.S. Department of Education has awarded $191,593 to the University of Hawaiʻi for the project.

"The Giugni Archives will perpetuate and share the special history and culture of Native Hawaiians, and allow voices from the past to touch future generations. It will be especially valuable as a resource for creating educational materials, and for researchers," said U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye.

Senator Inouye‘s sentiment on the importance and cultural value of the archive is shared by U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka. "These archives will enable the sharing and perpetuation of the culture, collective memory, and history of a community that Henry Giugni so dearly loved. It will ensure that future generations have access to the traditional knowledge and wisdom of all indigenous peoples," said Senator Akaka.

The establishment of the Henry K. Giugni Archives at the Academy for Creative Media (ACM) at the University of Hawaiʻi is thanks to the efforts of Henry Giugni‘s daughter, local filmmaker Heather Giugni of Juniroa Productions Inc. She and ACM founder Chris Lee are leading a nationwide search for a consultant to begin plans for development of a facility capable of transferring existing recorded histories onto a permanent digital format, and also for high-definition recording of new video and oral histories of Hawaiʻi's kupuna.

"We have a society that is rapidly losing our collective memory in the passing of every kupuna and the destruction of recorded media due to age, climate conditions, and neglect. Our personal histories need to be recorded and preserved before we lose these treasures and their experiences forever. Heather and I are very grateful to Hawaiʻi‘s Senators Inouye and Akaka for the creation of this archive," said Lee.

"Hawaiʻi has needed an archive that cares for its photographic treasures both moving and still - treasures that will not only be saved but shared. Working alongside dedicated individuals such as Chris and others in our community will ensure the success of this effort," said Giugni.

The following is an excerpt from the Request for Proposals:
"The Henry Ku'ualoha Giugni Archives is a digital and material archive intended to perpetuate and share the special history and culture of Native Hawaiians and the people of Hawaii. Similar in approach to DENSHO, the Japanese American Legacy Project (http://www.densho.org/) and Stephen Spielberg's USC Shoah Foundation Institute (http://college.usc.edu/vhi/), but much broader in scope and mission, the HKG Archives seeks to document the history of an entire society.
"This funding is intended to hire a consultant to advise on the best practices to facilitate the sharing, perpetuating, and preserving of Hawaiʻi's culture, traditions, oral histories, and collective memory through the development of a facility with the ability to transfer existing films, television shows, and privately recorded histories such as super 8mm home movies, and preserve them on a safe, digital storage archive for current and future generations via both a virtual, internet-accessible museum, and a physical repository for the storage and viewing of such documents. In addition, the consultant will advise on the establishment of a high-definition production facility to record new video and oral histories of Hawaiʻi's kupuna."
The deadline for submissions is February 16, 2009. More information is available at http://navet.ics.hawaii.edu/hkg_rfp.html

Specific requests for the full Request for Proposal (RFP) can be made by contacting the Principal Investigator and Technical Representative: Dr. Stephen Itoga, at (808) 956-9639 or itoga@hawaii.edu

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