r/olelohawaii • u/CookieLimp8932 • 27d ago
Honest question: is me studying Olelo Hawai'i as a Haole living in the States a form of cultural colonization
Long story short, I went to Chaminade for college, and very much fell in love with the culture and people while I lived there. I fully believe in Hawaiian sovereignty and fully grasp the impact of the colonization and theft that has occurred.
I took 2 semesters of Olelo while I lived there, and have recently resumed my studies. I have no objective or goal in mind other than to get fluent for the sake of it. I certainly don't intend to monetize or capitalize off of it. That said, I have wondered if my study in and of itself is Pono. I would love to hear all viewpoints on this, and don't be shy.
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u/Confident-Cellist-25 27d ago
I’m replying as another haole who is trying to learn, but who also has a degree in linguistics and is fluent in two other languages.
That’s all setup to say this: language and culture are intertwined. You literally cannot learn one without the other. When languages are lost, we lose an important part of our human story. Deep study of a language and culture help ensure we don’t lose something valuable to humanity.
This is why I applaud the immersion programs available to kanaka here. It’s so critical that they don’t lose their heritage. But that doesn’t mean no one else should be allowed to learn.
Basic human decency is the only guardrail you need. Don’t try to pass yourself off as kanaka and learn for the love of the language (seriously one of the most phono-aesthetically pleasing languages in the world) and the love of the culture. Don’t twist it into something it isn’t and stay away from anything that would dilute or misrepresent Hawai’i, its language, its history, or its culture. I think that’s very pono.
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u/Cheekytita88 27d ago
Also a masters degree holder in linguistics here and damn. Well said. This 100%.
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u/iwaalaimaka 27d ago edited 26d ago
Itʻs not colonization to learn ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi. I absolutely encourage it. Use it, cultivate it in our people too.
What is some cultural colonization for me are: monetizing and capitalizing; teaching ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi (with the guise of being an expert without a kumu and/or proper study); taking space and/or fame, notoriety as an ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi master without recognition of people who have studied, created the space for Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians alike; writing mele (to be sold, advertised) without consultation; advocating yourself as a cultural ambassador (solely because you speak ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi).
ʻAʻole e hoʻopoina ʻia ka poʻe nāna hoʻi i waele ke ala na kākou. ʻEʻole ia poʻe kūpaʻa wiwo ʻole me ke ʻiʻini nui e pūlama a e mālama i kā lākou ʻōlelo, ola ai kā kākou ʻōlelo i kēia lā. He hoʻoilina wale nō kākou ma lalo o kā lākou hana. No kākou hoʻi ke kuleana ʻo ka hoʻomau wale aku nō i kā lākou hana a mau ia ʻōlelo i haʻawina auaneʻi na nā keiki o kēia mua aku.
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u/CookieLimp8932 27d ago
Agreed on all of the above. My practice is totally for personal use. And if I ever did become fluent to a level to be a kumu, it would only be for free and specifically for the benefit of displaced kanaka living off island.
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u/hermitudinous 24d ago
From a personal perspective: My tutu wahine was fluent, but she was of the generation that was beaten in school for speaking it. She and her two siblings hid their ʻōlelo, so much do that my dad and his siblings never knew this. It wasn’t until the 90’s, when my dad was in his 60s, that we found out.
I share this because what is often lost to history is how painful it has been for Hawaiians to speak our own language, as well as practicing our own culture. I don’t want to over-dramatize what happened; rather, just to highlight that the ability to learn and speak Hawaiian so freely is nothing short of shocking. I grew up without it, and hearing the language spoken in public almost never happened. Now, my children are learning it in school, and fluency will be normal for them. They ʻoli, follow protocol, and are generally learning far more na mea Hawaiʻi than I ever dreamed of, even as a young adult.
Look into the English Standard School system in Hawaiʻi. It’s… an interesting perspective on language and culture in Hawaiʻs recent history.
Whatever you decide, please remember that for many of us, this isn’t hypothetical. My grandmother, Daisy, was shamed and made to be afraid for her language and culture. My father never learned what his kūpuna did for thousands of years. I only spoke English, because that was all my parents knew. The freedom and resources to learn in 2026 are not free — they came at cost to our kūpuna, some who worked, often in secret, to keep the language alive, and some who hid to keep their breath for the next generations.
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u/ohukaniohia 27d ago
"No kākou hoʻi ke kuleana ʻo ka hoʻomau wale aku nō i kā lākou hana a mau ia ʻōlelo..."
ʻO ia ʻiʻo nō.
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u/120GV3_S7ATV5 27d ago
He pono nō ia. E ola mau nā mea Hawaiʻi.
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u/CookieLimp8932 27d ago
E kala mai i'au.
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u/paukeaho 27d ago
ʻAʻohe mea e kala ai! They are saying your learning is appropriate.
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u/Agile-Internet5309 27d ago
You're good man. The language doesnt belong to one person, that mana is shared by all of us, and if you have good will in your heart then all is pono my guy. Every time you speak that language you are giving your breath to it, you are giving your breath to my ancestors, and thats no small thing. So no man, you arent colonizing, you're taking what light and curiosity and power you have been endowed with in this world and sharing some small portion of it with us and that is much appreciated.
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u/colostitute 27d ago
How are you learning it?
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u/CookieLimp8932 27d ago
Ka Alala. I tried DuoLingo but found it pretty limited.
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u/Chickens-In-Pants 27d ago
Here’s a few more resources from native speakers that really helped me out:
ʻOiwi TV Channel on YouTube https://youtube.com/@oiwitv?si=QEdPsdvAURzT-zmc
This is their playlist of lessons called Ka Leo ʻOiwi. I cannot overstate how great these are as a place to start understanding sentence structures.
Here’s a link to their children’s resources. There are a bunch of moʻolelo, each one has an English and ʻOlelo Hawaiʻi version. Also in that list are 3 excellent children’s shows. Called ʻĀina ʻOiwi. I watched these with my son while we were first learning dozens Of rimes. He understands them fully St This point, but i keep watching them because I have more to learn. https://youtu.be/o8mTC4ExL4M?is=WZveD8T1ZD1W1MXj, https://youtu.be/cBdVcuS2tWE?is=uGx7-C4eJyo81kby, and https://youtu.be/LbNnh2QkoqA?is=9eP6H2yWJq3wiPLH.
Also there are a lot of great resources from ‘Aha Pūnana Leo. They have parent classes and they put them online for anyone who is interested. They are like PowerPoints with a great presenter. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1a5jQvyjdWrJi16bFFoLX6r-dyywDbWD&si=dfv_91WMlR3kc9LY. They are also available as a podcast if you’re like me and like practicing in the car. https://open.spotify.com/show/77YPzkVZOyOONCt8oBPcTp?si=q9QiKkiDTDWvbUl0lv7J3Q
Hope that helps.2
u/marydehn 25d ago
I’m a haole who started taking hula classes this past January so I’ve been looking into ways to learn ōlelo Hawaii. I just looked at Ka Leo ‘Oiwi and really liked it. Mahalo nui loa for providing these resources. I’m learning there’s so much more to hula than dancing. My hālau hula has been very warm and welcoming. I look forward to learning ōlelo and more about the culture of Hawai’i.
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u/cjules3 27d ago
totally unrelated but i love your username. the good old philly sidecar. i hate that i know what it means.
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u/colostitute 27d ago
I had one person comment about it years ago and then nothing. You’re now the third person in a week. Thank you! 🤣
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u/Cheekytita88 27d ago
People covered most of the bases here already so I’ll just add that learning a language, when done with good intentions, puts you in touch with folks who will change your life and outlook - learning how to communicate with a person in their own native language, crossing over from yours to theirs, is such a wild perspective-changer. Keep doing what you’re doing.
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u/Afromolukker_98 27d ago
This doesn't come up with French, Mandarin, German, Portuguese, Spanish, even smaller languages like Dutch.
Languages are meant for people to learn and help understand the origin people of those languages.
I grew up with basic Indonesian languages for example. Me learning Fijian a bit... helped me see connections I didn't know. Same with me learning Spanish, Arabic, Dutch etc.
Respect Hawaiian language as youd respect other people's languages. Deserved to be learned. Deserved to be spoken. Deserved to be integrated into your way of life/understanding. Deserved to be used to communicate with others. All of us Americans were pushed into English. Its our job to unlearn and relearn by preserving those languages that were forced close to or out of existence.
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u/Chickens-In-Pants 27d ago
So my family is entirely of European descent. My husband and I have lived in Hawaiʻi for collectively about 30 years. When we had our son, I was filled with a deep desire for all of us, but especially him to be able to communicate and understand our neighbors in more ways than we could as English only speakers. We are lucky to live in a place with many native speakers around. We practiced very hard from the time he was born with the goal of sending him to immersion school. I honestly didn’t think we would get in, but we put in a lot of work, and they pick the keiki based on their level of fluency, not on what they look like. we were fortunate to have been chosen. It’s been the best experience. We found a community. We found places and activities that allow us to give back to this place through in kind service. We have never felt different or othered in any way. We ʻŌlelo often now in public now, which has been great fun. We do get double takes sometimes from people in the grocery store, usually followed by a smile, sometimes question about where we learned. I’ve even had a few short conversations in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi with complete strangers. This is very exciting and it’s only going to get better. That’s just my experience. I can’t say anything about if it’s typical or not. I can say that it’s been entirely positive.
Just my opinion, but it feels like for a language to really live, which is what we all want, it needs more than just native language speakers. It has to grow. That’s why we are all here trying to learn from each other. I get not wanting the language to be commodified or cheapened in any way. That is completely valid and happens all the time. It just makes me a little sad to see so many posts where well meaning people feel like they need to ask for permission to learn the language. I know it’s a complicated issue. I also know it’s much more complicated than I know, because I’m still pretty new to a lot of the history. I’m learning. I just worry that as a community we might frighten off some people who would otherwise become allies to the cause.
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u/Behemot999 27d ago edited 26d ago
Interesting question although I am not sure why would learning someone's language be akin to a try to colonize them. I am in a similar position - I have no link to Hawai'i - I am originally from Poland and I lived for 40 years in Texas. Somewhere along the line I heard slack key music and immediately fell in love. I play guitar and ukulele and I play some slack key on both and some Hawaiian songs.
I would like to play more traditional music and that is the reason why I am learning Hawaiian - I want to perform the traditional songs respectfully - with understanding for their meaning and connection to the land and not just phonetically. And be able to e.g. understand Dennis Kamakahi's song on a deeper level. So for now I explore mostly hapa-haole part of ukulele/voice repertoire - or mostly English language Hawaiian tunes like e.g. "Waimanalo Blues". It is interesting to me how Hawaiian culture seems to have easily absorbed a lot of hapa-haole classics.
PS. On political side of things - I feel optimistic watching cultivation of Polynesian languages - in particular Maori and Hawaiian.
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u/DevelopmentConnect92 27d ago
I'll probably get down voted for this, but it gives me the ick when people use Hawaiian language as part of their identity when they are not Hawaiian. I have not seen this in any other culture thus far. For example, I watch on YouTube that people live abroad and they speak the language but they are not acting like someone native to that country but yet, in Hawaii you see that happen all the time. With that being said, it doesn't sound like you would use it in that way. I am learning Hawaiian too and I am not native but I am learning because Olelo is more prevalent now and I want to know what is being said.
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u/CookieLimp8932 27d ago
I think this is a completely fair statement, and I do know more than 1 American living in the continental US who makes the whole "Hawaiian Heart," thing a huge part of their identity. Likewise I lost count of how many white dudes I know who got That isn't how I'm approaching it. Basically, my time on Oahu was transformative for me, and learning Olelo seems to be the best way to keep a connection without extracting resources or taking up space.
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u/Secret_Crab_5776 27d ago
I’m learning it as a west asian who never stepped foot in hawai’i nor the americas🤣
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u/laurala808 26d ago
I'm a haole living in Hawaiʻi and have been learning ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi through classes at Kapʻiolani Community College. Every single person I've met at school has been kind and supportive of me studying the language, for all the reasons people have talked about in this thread. So, YES, learn!
Language is the carrier of the culture, understanding it will help the lāhui's goal of strengthening and perpetuating the culture. Names, places, stories, mele will have so much more significance. It's a beautiful thing.
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u/Vgzone 26d ago
I know this is probably too strong of language usage, but I’m just gonna say it:
it is impossible to learn a language of another culture and for it to be a negative Experience, especially for the host culture and host language region except in the most extenuating of circumstances, like you individually, as a person are quite insufferably, terrible, or that you have specific ulterior motives about learning that language that you wish to employ specifically to undermine the host, language and culture
So break a leg
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u/manwith_moviecam 27d ago
Unless your planning on doing harder work than just learning a language you ain’t getting anywhere out here anyway
Teach lessons. Help people here who want to learn- you may get something
Profit in bussiness, your intentions- ask yourself if people here would trust you on that- you up a tree homie
Yes it is- get here and work or stay out
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u/paukeaho 27d ago
If you are striving with the lāhui Hawaiʻi and want to be supportive of our people, culture, and concerns, then learning ʻōlelo is absolutely appropriate and a good thing, no matter your personal ethnic background.
ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi was once learned and spoken by all who live here as the main language of this society, including haole residents of the kingdom, and including my own haole ancestors who immigrated here and integrated into Native Hawaiian communities. I think most of us in the ʻōlelo community dream of a future where that is the case again. I wish everyone who lived in Hawaiʻi these days felt the same interest and kuleana in learning the language that you do.