Bill Text: HI HB1128 | 2024 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Relating To Support For Traditional Native Speakers Of Hawaiian.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 12-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2023-12-11 - Carried over to 2024 Regular Session. [HB1128 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2024-HB1128-Amended.html
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.B. NO. |
1128 |
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THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2023 |
H.D. 2 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
RELATING TO SUPPORT FOR TRADITIONAL NATIVE SPEAKERS OF HAWAIIAN.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that, during the twentieth century, the political agenda set forth by the new government order of 1900 minimized the value of the Hawaiian language and its function in society under the new order and ceased public support of Hawaiian language for education, public services, and use in all areas of daily life across Hawaii. This severely decreased the number of Hawaiian language speakers and readers over the next few decades to the point where the Hawaiian language almost became extinct. In 1948, the last Hawaiian language newspaper that was commercially sold closed due to lack of readership, thus severely hampering the possibility for further development of the language for the modern era. By the 1980s, there were fewer than fifty fluent speakers under eighteen years of age, according to Ka Wai Ola - The Living Water of OHA, the monthly newspaper of the office of Hawaiian affairs.
The legislature also finds that, due in part to the growth of Hawaiian immersion schools since the mid-1980s, the number of Hawaiian language speakers and readers has increased to an estimated eighteen thousand, according to a 2016 report by the research economic analysis division of the department of business, economic development, and tourism.
The legislature further finds that the growth in the number of Hawaiian language speakers and readers should be applauded, as this growth has provided an opportunity to accommodate its speakers, their linguistic backgrounds, and the types of support needed to maintain fluency. Also, while there has been a regular native-speaker presence at the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus for decades through its resource staff, native speakers have been absent from nearly all classrooms in Hawaii, minimizing their ability to create new speakers. Had native speakers been at the helm of Hawaiian language maintenance, planning, modeling, and teaching, much of the newly invented Hawaiian language of today would not have evolved and new speakers would sound and think like native speakers.
The legislature finds that families of Niihau, who live on Niihau and Kauai, have maintained the language of their ancestors and are now the only true community of Hawaiian language native speakers left in the world, inclusive of kupuna, adults, and children, who use Hawaiian as their primary language. As a community, they have never lost the Hawaiian language. This sets them apart from learners in schools and classrooms of the Hawaiian islands whose primary language is English or another language, where native-speaker communities no longer exist.
The legislature believes that the function of Hawaiian immersion schools and mainstream classrooms is to retrieve a language that for their participants is new to them, and to add to the language by inventing new terms and ways of expression that are foreign to Niihau speakers.
The purpose of this Act is to clarify the type of support needed for native speakers in certain islands who have never lost the Hawaiian language in their families and to appropriate funds to support the perpetuation of that language with regard to the provision of public services and notices to native speakers in the language and orthography they understand best as described by them.
SECTION 2. Chapter 302A, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to part II, subpart B, to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:
"§302A- Hawaiian language. (a) For
purposes of this chapter, in any island with a population of five hundred or
less, the Hawaiian language shall be recognized as the sole indigenous
language of the Hawaiian islands, as recognized in the Constitution of the
State of Hawaii as an official language, and any public school may offer a
course in Hawaiian language. Hawaiian
language speakers currently consist of native speakers whose families have
never lost the language and new speakers who have come to learn the language
either from native speakers or through classroom study.
(b) As used in this section, "Hawaiian
language", "native
speakers", and "new speakers" shall have the same meaning as
those terms are defined in section 1-13."
SECTION 3. Section 1-13, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"§1-13 Official languages.
(a) English and Hawaiian are the official
languages of Hawaii. Whenever there is
found to exist any radical and irreconcilable difference between the English
and Hawaiian version of any of the laws of the State, the English version shall
be held binding. Hawaiian shall not be
required for public acts and transactions.
(b) For each island with a population of five
hundred or less, every effort shall be made to accommodate Hawaiian speakers,
both native speakers and new speakers in their respective varieties and
orthographies, by translating public documents, notices, and medical records to
Hawaiian and by providing interpreters for social and legal services in a
version of Hawaiian best suited for native speakers, such as Niihau community
members, and new speakers, respectively.
For
the purposes of this subsection:
"Hawaiian" means the language
of native speakers who come from an unbroken lineage
of the speakers of the language spoken prior to 1778 in the islands referenced
in section 2 of the Organic Act.
"Native speakers" means speakers of the Hawaiian
language who come from an unbroken lineage of primary speakers of the Hawaiian
language and children of new speakers whose language is that of their parents
who are new speakers.
"New speakers" means speakers whose first language
is something other than Hawaiian who have come to learn Hawaiian later in life
to a level of proficiency comparable to that of competent native speakers,
whether from instruction by native speakers or classroom- or self-study not
from native speakers."
SECTION 4. (a) The state public charter school commission,
in consultation with native speakers, shall conduct a study on the Hawaiian
language, including the variety of the Hawaiian language spoken on Niihau and
any other Hawaiian language known to have been perpetuated since 1777 in the
Hawaiian archipelago.
(b) No later than twenty days prior to the regular session of 2024, the state public charter school commission shall publish educational and community resource materials for native speakers of the Hawaiian language.
(c) In conducting the study required by subsection (a) and publishing the materials required by subsection (b), the state public charter school commission shall collaborate with the college of education of the University of Hawaii and conduct community consultation with parents and kupuna that are Hawaiian language speakers to determine the most appropriate use of Hawaiian language in schools and the community.
(d) The state public charter school commission shall submit a report to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the regular session of 2024 on its findings of the study on the Hawaiian language required by subsection (a) and the extent to which it consulted with the college of education of the University of Hawaii and the community pursuant to subsection (c).
SECTION 5. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $ or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2023-2024 for the state public charter school commission (program ID EDN 612) to conduct the study, publish the materials, consult stakeholders, and draft the report as required by section 4 of this Act.
The sum appropriated shall be expended by the state public charter school commission for the purposes of this Act.
SECTION 6. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 7. This Act shall take effect on June 30, 3000.
Report Title:
Hawaiian Language; State Official Languages; DOE; State Public Charter School Commission; University of Hawaii; Appropriation
Description:
Provides that, in any island with a population of five hundred or less, Hawaiian language shall be recognized as the sole indigenous language of the Hawaiian islands; public schools may offer a course in Hawaiian language; and every effort shall be made to accommodate Hawaiian speakers. Requires and appropriates funds for the state public charter school commission to study the Hawaiian language, publish resource materials for native speakers of the Hawaiian language, consult stakeholders, and submit a report to the legislature. Effective 6/30/3000. (HD2)
The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.
