Bill Text: HI SCR180 | 2019 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Supporting The Development Of A Hawaiian Language Plan, Including Goals, Benchmarks, Strategies, And Outcomes, To Build Upon Accomplishments And To Accelerate The Normalization Of olelo Hawaii.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2019-04-15 - Report adopted. referred to the committee(s) on FIN as amended in HD 1 with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and Representative(s) Eli, Gates, Holt, Nakamura excused (4). [SCR180 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2019-SCR180-Amended.html
|
THE SENATE |
S.C.R. NO. |
180 |
|
THIRTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2019 |
S.D. 1 |
|
|
STATE OF HAWAII |
H.D. 1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
||
SENATE CONCURRENT
RESOLUTION
SUPPORTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF A HAWAIIAN LANGUAGE PLAN, INCLUDING GOALS, BENCHMARKS, STRATEGIES, AND OUTCOMES, TO BUILD UPON ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND TO ACCELERATE THE NORMALIZATION OF ‘ŌLELO HAWAI‘I.
WHEREAS, the United Nations General Assembly has declared 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages as part of an effort to draw attention to the critical loss of indigenous languages and the urgent need to take steps at the national and international levels to preserve, revitalize, and promote indigenous languages; and
WHEREAS, the United Nations acknowledges that indigenous languages represent complex systems of knowledge developed and accumulated over thousands of years and serve as repositories of diversity and key resources for understanding and utilizing the environment to the best advantage of local populations; and
WHEREAS, the United Nations has expressed deep concern about the vast number of endangered languages, in particular indigenous languages, and stresses that there is an urgent need to preserve, promote, and revitalize endangered languages; and
WHEREAS, ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i is an indigenous language of Hawai‘i and recognized by the Constitution of the State of Hawai‘i as one of the State's official languages; and
WHEREAS, the State of Hawai‘i, in upholding the spirit of the International Year of Indigenous Languages, and in recognition of the numerous achievements over the past 35 years in preserving and revitalizing ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i, has proclaimed 2019 the Year of the Indigenous Language; and
WHEREAS, there is a need to first and foremost acknowledge the Niihau Language Commission and native Hawaiian speakers who, within their families, are preserving, protecting, and promulgating the indigenous Hawaiian language in a fully comprehensive manner in the family setting from the earliest ages with all traditional subtlety and nuance; and
WHEREAS, for the past 35 years, ‘Aha Pūnana Leo along with other Hawaiian language movement leaders, including Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke‘elikōlani College of Hawaiian Language, Hawai‘inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, and all Hawaiian language programs throughout the University of Hawai‘i System, the Department of Education Office of Hawaiian Education, Kamehameha Schools, the Hawaiian medium and Hawaiian immersion schools, and all other Hawaiian language programs at all public schools including charter schools, have collectively worked to reverse the language loss that occurred at the turn of the 20th century and to preserve, revitalize, and promote this indigenous language through cooperative efforts to raise speakers of ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i, to educate learners in immersive settings, to normalize ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i in its homeland, and to drive and inspire change to ensure a living language in Hawai‘i and beyond; and
WHEREAS, the specific outcomes and results of these collective efforts include:
(1) Consulting extensively with and acknowledging the invaluable expertise of first-language native Hawaiian speakers whose families have never lost the language at any time in history;
(2) Reestablishment of the Hawai‘i P-20 Partnerships for Education Hawaiian medium pathway of education from the Pūnana Leo preschools to the State's Hawaiian medium and Hawaiian immersion programs up through the graduate degrees offered at Ka Haka ‘Ula o Ke‘elikōlani, which serves over 4,000 students annually at over 40 different sites throughout the State;
(3) The Hawaiian language being offered as a world language at over two-thirds of Hawai‘i Department of Education high schools;
(4) Hawaiian language broadcast media initiative in partnership with ‘Aha Pūnana Leo and ‘Ōiwi TV; and
(5) A generation of graduates from Hawaiian medium and Hawaiian immersion programs that grew up speaking Hawaiian and are raising their own keiki to speak and live ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i; and
WHEREAS, to build upon these successes and to further accelerate the normalization of ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i, the development of a Hawaiian Language Plan is necessary to advance the use of ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i in government services and transactions, private sector activity, and tourism, in addition to education; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirtieth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2019, the House of Representatives concurring, that this body supports the development of a Hawaiian Language Plan to build upon accomplishments and to accelerate the normalization of ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that during the next two years, ‘Aha Pūnana Leo is urged to coordinate a coalition to develop the Hawaiian Language Plan, including aspirational goals, benchmarks, strategies, and outcomes for the next 35 years; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that ‘Aha Pūnana Leo is requested to select and invite an equal number of native speakers of Hawaiian as a first or primary language and Hawaiian speakers who have acquired the language as a second or subsequent language through academic or other study to participate in the coalition; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Hawaiian Language Plan, including any proposed legislation, be submitted to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2021; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, members of Hawai‘i's congressional delegation, Chief Executive Officer of ‘Aha Pūnana Leo, Director of Ka Haka ‘Ula o Ke‘elikōlani Hawaiian Language College, Dean of the Hawai‘inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, Director of the Department of Education Office of Hawaiian Education, Chief Executive Officer of Kamehameha Schools, and ‘Ōiwi Television Network.
Hawaiian Language Plan; ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i
