He kuleana kō kākou: Hawaiian-language learners and the construction of (alter)native identities

Abstract

This article examines the various language ideologies and cultural models that inform Hawaiian-language learners' experiences, language practices, and socio-ethnic identity as they attempt to become speakers of their heritage language. While Hawaiian-language education is often noted as a revitalization success story, and certainly is in terms of its rapid growth and enrollment numbers, many broader outcomes remain unclear, despite their potentially enormous impact on the continued perpetuation of the Hawaiian language. In particular, I focus on the meaning that learning the Hawaiian language has for new speakers and learners, and the ideologies that influence these understandings. Because peoples' ideas about language and identity are so influential for the process and outcomes of language revitalization efforts, I examine the instances and effects of both Western and indigenous ideologies – specifically those authenticity and kuleana (or responsibility, right, and charge). This latter understanding of their relationship to the Hawaiian language and culture, wherein the perpetuation of their native language is both their right and charge, corresponds with their persisting indigenous model of identity as performative and, I argue here, may help to alleviate some potential conflicts in revitalization efforts that are often found with more common uses and interpretations of an ideology of authenticity, while motivating new speakers to learn and use the native language.