Aloha pumehana kākou e nā hoa noiʻi nowelo! Aloha, everyone! It is our pleasure and privilege to introduce our project, Ka Wai Hāpai: Co-Creating Controlled Vocabularies for Social Justice. This two-year project, running August 2021 through July 2023, is generously funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ National Leadership Grants for Libraries program. Throughout the course of our project, we will be using this space to share frequent updates about project activities and findings.
Ka Wai Hāpai is led by Principal Investigator Shavonn Matsuda, Co-Investigator Annemarie Paikai, and myself, Co-Investigator Keahiahi Long. Ka Wai Hāpai extends our previous efforts to center Native Hawaiian perspectives in information science – with particular attention to description practices and knowledge organization systems – as seen in previous collaborations like Lau Ā Lau Ka ʻIke: Knowledge Overflowing. Shavonn, Annemarie, and myself are joined by our colleagues Margaret Joyce, Eleanor Kleiber, and David Gustavsen, and our graduate assistant, Hauʻolihiwahiwa Moniz.
Together, the seven of us are endeavoring to:
- Increase and improve intellectual access to Indigenous Hawaiian collections and materials
- Co-create components of an Indigenous Hawaiian knowledge organization system
- Co-create controlled vocabularies for Indigenous Hawaiian collections and materials
- Support Indigenous and other marginalized communities in related work
- Document and share activities, outcomes, and processes throughout the life of the project
Our work is supported by our partners: Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Library, and Nā Hawaiʻi ʻImi Loa.
Our stories are important. Our language is important. The wisdom taught to us by our ancestors is important. Dominant information science practices have not honored this. And, so, please join us as we reclaim and elevate our stories, language, and ancestral wisdom with Ka Wai Hāpai.