Plants of Kahoolawe: A Bi-lingual Digital Resource

Abstract

Native Hawaiian culture is heavily dependent upon biological resources, primarily plant resources. Much of the biological and traditional knowledge about Kaho‘olawe is available only in English and not presented in the Hawaiian Language, also an official language of the State of Hawaii. The Joseph F. Rock Herbarium, Department of Botany at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa has initiated a biological plant database and digital collection of plants of Kahoolawe, supported by historical published literature and related digital plant photographs. Vascular plant species recorded on Kahoolawe were initially identified from literature research and species names were then updated utilizing the International Taxonomic Integrated System. A database model was developed for dissemination of the plants of Kaho‘olawe including presentation of taxonomic plant information, descriptions and digital photographs of herbarium specimen. The English web site interface terms were translated to complete the development of a Hawaiian language interface. Resulting from this project is a functional bi-lingual digital library, evaluation data, a standard methodology for documenting recorded traditional knowledge and increased awareness and use of the library reference collection. This project serves as a reproducible extensible model which other culturally digital biological library reference collections can utilize and will promote a greater awareness and understanding of the Native Hawaiian language and its relationship to a living culture. It is encouraged for institutions that provide support for Indigenous languages across the world to provide resources that people in the local community can utilize for the continuation of cultural perpetuation and preservation of knowledge.