Awaiaulu, Inc. to receive $500,000 from OHA to support Hawaiian language, culture, traditions, identity and sense of lāhui

Awaiaulu, Inc. announced a grant award totaling $500,000 that will support the Native Hawaiian community through the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

The grant will help to reinforce and strengthen Native Hawaiians’ connections to ʻohana (family), moʻomeheu (culture), and ʻāina in support of OHA’s Mana I Maoli Ola Strategies and Outcomes.

The purpose of this program, “Restoring Continuity of Hawaiian Knowledge,” is to reconnect the historical Hawaiian language archive into our present day body of knowledge. By training a cadre of already-fluent young scholars to navigate and understand the contents of that long-disconnected repository. This program generates skilled resource people for this generation and the next, while creating informational resources that provide access for the Native Hawaiian community, Hawaiʻi and beyond.

“Awaiaulu is proud to have OHA as a partner in this endeavor to foster a foundation of cultural confidence. We are grateful for OHA’s recognition of how this work strengthens Native Hawaiian identity benefiting all of Hawaiʻi. Developing access to continuity by providing new resources and a generation of skilled researchers and translators will empower Hawaiʻi today and in the future,” said Dr. Puakea Nogelmeier, Executive Director of Awaiaulu, Inc.

Awaiaulu is a Hawaiʻi nonprofit whose mission is to bridge Hawaiian knowledge from the past to the present for the future. Learn more at www.awaiaulu.org.