More than 30 years ago, Native Hawaiian student activists urged Ka Leo O Hawai‘i to publish in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi following a push for language revitalization efforts at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.
Now, the student magazine is hiring an editor and a writer with qualifications that include knowledge of the Hawaiian language.
“The goal for this is to make Ka Leo what I think it should be,” said Editor-in-Chief Dwight Byrum. “Giving so many different writers from so many different backgrounds a chance to fall in love with journalism, a chance to be the voice of their community. This isn’t just a publication from a random university. We’re in Hawai‘i, and to exclude ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi feels like a crime.”
The new editor and writer will be responsible for pitching, writing and editing stories all in the Hawaiian language, which will be published once a month in the magazine.
An English version of their stories will be published online, and a QR code will be provided in the magazine to guide readers to the student publication’s website.
Managing Editor Elle Vincioni said the writer and editor will not translate other reporters' stories. She added that the new hires are expected to write an English summary, but will have a choice to write the full English translation.
“They also get to choose how they translate it because Hawaiian is such a difficult language to translate into English,” she said. “There’s so much cultural nuance.”
Vincioni emphasized that the positions will not be pigeonholing the ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi editor and writer to Hawaiian rights or land issues.
“They should have the ability to write whatever they want,” she said.
Student activism
When Ka Leo O Hawai‘i was created in 1922, founders wanted to give students a voice at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Back then, it was called the Hawai‘i Mirror within its first year of printing.
Ka Leo, which is now a monthly magazine, translates to “The Voice of Hawai‘i” in ʻŌlelo Hawai‘i, and didn't always publish in the Hawaiian language.
The first stand-alone article in the Hawaiian language was printed in Ka Leo in 1991, according to an academic article by Kekailoa Perry.
This came after a push from a student activist movement at UH Mānoa in 1990 called Make‘e Pono Lāhui Hawai‘i, which is the Hawaiian Student Liberation Union.
The group wanted ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi to be used in everyday settings like the student newspaper. They demanded that Ka Leo print in the Hawaiian language as part of their weekly publication. But the editorial board denied their request, arguing that “Ka Leo is an English-medium paper.”
The group protested by halting the newspaper’s distribution trucks and removing all newspapers from its stands before the student activist group and Ka Leo editors during that time agreed to print in the Hawaiian language beginning with a weekly column.
Michael Tsai was Ka Leo’s city editor in 1991. He worked alongside then-Editor-in-Chief Mark Takai, the late U.S. representative.
He said the paper published an editorial column written by Hawaiian Studies students and contributors. The English translation ran alongside it for a period of time.
“There was a lot of debate at that time about how to make it more accessible to the student and campus population at large,” Tsai told HPR. “There was some objection that it was diluting the Hawaiian language version by offering that English translation.”
Tsai said after Takai’s terms as editor ended, those efforts were discontinued.
Questions about qualifications
A campus publication’s ability to publish in the Hawaiian language depends on having ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi speakers on staff. The turnover of student journalists each semester could make or break the student magazine’s ability to publish in the Hawaiian language.
And the positions at Ka Leo are already raising questions: How will they be sustained each semester? What are the qualifications?
Jordan Kalawai‘a Nunies is a graduate teaching assistant at UH Mānoa, studying Hawaiian Studies. He also wrote for Ka Leo in his undergrad.
“It’s a beautiful initiative, and it’s really great,” Nunies said. “I just want to see more concrete initiatives that will sustain these positions and make sure that they’re doing their due diligence in Hawaiian as they would do in English.”
Nunies said the position should require at least taking a Hawaiian language class for three years at the university. Because by then, students are expected to hold a conversation.
“Maybe a great initiative for them to start is if you had letters of recommendations from Hawaiian language professors or Hawaiian Studies professors who can vouch for your Hawaiian for you,” he said.
At Ka Leo, students don’t have to major in journalism to write. But each writer and editor goes through mandatory training every semester. That includes the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics.
Byrum said since these are two new positions that he and Vincioni will train the new hires themselves.
He added that Ka Leo’s cultural advisor will weigh in on the applicants for the ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi positions.
“If somebody gives me a 1,000 word piece all in ʻŌlelo, the only thing I could do is plug that into a translator, and that’s not going to give me an accurate depiction of their ability to write or to give the proper respect to the language. So that would be something I would be referring to him (the cultural adviser) for.”
While Byrum has one more semester at UH Mānoa, he said that Vincioni will help take over and will help pass the torch to the next editor in hopes of continuing the initiative.
“We've had a controversial history at Ka Leo prior to us being there, and our relation to ʻŌlelo Hawai‘i and Hawaiian students and Hawaiʻinuiākea,” Vincioni said. “We just want to establish that's not who we are, and we are Ka Leo of Hawai‘i, The Voice of Hawai‘i. We can't be that unless we are a bilingual newspaper following in the steps of the Nūpepa from the 19th century.”
Kevin Allen contributed to this story.
