He Au Puni Palapala: A Critical Analysis Of The Influences Of Christo-Colonization And American English Language Teaching Methods On ʻōiwi Kanaka And ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi

Abstract

The focus of this research study centers on a critical problem-of-practice related to the authenticity of an Indigenous language during a time when many native vernaculars are quickly disappearing from use. This investigation explored historic documents–e.g., journals, sermons, letters, official communications–produced by Protestant missionaries in the 1800s to determine the degree to which Kanaka Hawaiʻi pikoʻu kanaka (Hawaiian identity) and ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language) were altered. As the New England ministers and their families began arriving in Hawaiʻi in 1820, they took to developing a written form of ʻŌlelo Makuahine (Hawaiian language) to educate the native population. In the process, they utilized American-English grammar, syntax, and other literary devices as well as pedagogical approaches that they brought with them to translate and teach the Protestant Bible and Calvinist ideologies. In the push from orality to literacy, kanaka Hawaiʻi communication, epistemology, cosmology, axiology, and ontology were significantly modified. This study also explored six major Hawaiian language textbooks used to teach Hawaiian language in the last thirty years and found that some of the Christo-Colonized pedagogy and forms of literacy are currently in use to not only teach ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi but also have become normalized and accepted as authentic. This study recommends: 1) increased research to expand understanding of Christo-Colonized influences on current Kānaka Hawaiʻi thinking, communication, belief systems, and ways of being; 2) more investigation into ʻŌiwi (precontact) linguistic methodologies to refine what might be considered as authentic linguistic exchange; and 3) expand professional development for kumu of ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi and pikoʻu kanaka on the multiple influences that impact Hawaiian language and identity. Key Words: Indigenous language, epistemology, ontology, cosmology; ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, ʻŌlelo, palapala; Native teaching methodology, pedagogy, Memoriter, Catechism, Lancastrian; Christo-Colonization; moʻoʻōlelo; moʻopalapala; Christianity, Protestant (Calvanist) religion, literacy, proselytization, foreign missionaries and the American Board of Christian Foreign Missions; Social Justice of Indigenous Peoples; Native indoctrination, colonization-decolonization, language acquisition, knowledge transmission; Oracy; Mānaleo; Neo-Hawaiian.