Indigenous language as a source of connection to nature - an exploratory study of volunteers in Hawaiian organizations

Abstract

This study focuses on Indigenous language preservation as a pathway to nature preservation. It explores how Indigenous languages can foster deeper connections between humans and nature, reflecting a Positive Deviance approach in which solutions emerge from within communities. It specifically focuses on the place-based learning of ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language) and its role in shaping ecological understanding through community-based volunteering experiences in Hawai‘i. It examines language loss and revitalization, especially in the Hawaiian context, and recognizes the community's efforts in language preservation as a model for meaningful, lasting effects. Grounded in a humanities-based lens and drawing on qualitative analysis, the study's findings show how language acts as a channel for transmitting Indigenous knowledge, facilitating shifts in worldview through complementary frameworks such as Hard Nature Understanding (pragmatic or functional view of nature) and Soft Nature Understanding (emotional or philosophical view of nature). This shift changes individuals’ perceptions from viewing nature as passive to experiencing it as a living presence, from detachment to cultural embeddedness, and from anthropocentric to ecocentric. The key implication of the study is that learning with and from Indigenous knowledge systems can break societal generational cycles of disconnection and cultivate new forms of care, responsibility, and belonging with nature. In this regard, it also emphasizes the importance of bottom-up approaches in language policy and planning, positioning volunteers and community-based organizations as key agents in Indigenous knowledge and language preservation.