WRRC/Ike Wai Seminar

ʻEli Wai: Excavating Water from the Hawaiian Language Newspapers

Uʻilani Au & Kilika Bennett Institute of Hawaiian Language Research & Translation

The aim of the Institute of Hawaiian Language Research and Translation is to provide access to the Hawaiian language newspaper repository. The Hawaiian language newspapers ran from 1834 to 1948 and have become the largest indigenous language repository in the world with a total of approximately 125,000 newspaper pages of text (~1.5 million letter-sized pages of text). These newspapers are a prime source of Hawaiian knowledge because they document the observations of the Hawaiian natives who were familiar with their respective areas and were able to effectively manage its natural resources. For this reason, the IHLRT is working with ʻIke Wai to provide access to these valuable Hawaiian narratives through the medium of translation. By privileging primary sources that were originally recorded in the Hawaiian language, we are aiming to incorporate ancestral knowledge and observations about water resources and resource management into modern research so that it can further inform our current theories on our environment, how it works, and how we have come to understand it.

Event Sponsor
Water Resources Research Center/Ike Wai, Mānoa Campus

More Information
(808) 956-3097, morav@hawaii.edu

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