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Ka Mooolelo Hawaii: The Beginnings of Written History

THE HAWAIIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY is pleased to invite its members and friends to a free program, Ka Mooolelo Hawaii: The Beginnings of Written History. This program will take place on Thursday, June 1, 2006, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Mission Memorial Auditorium, 550 South King Street, Honolulu.

This special program celebrates the publication of Ka Mooolelo Hawaii: The History of Hawai'i, a facsimile reprint of the first history of Hawai'i in the Hawaiian language.

The featured speakers for the event are Edith McKinzie, Noelani Losch, Collette Leimomi Akana, Noelani Arista, and M. Puakea Nogelmeier. These teachers, writers, and language scholars will examine the significance of this book in the written literature of Hawai'i and its value today in the study and appreciation of Hawaiian history and language.

  • Edith McKinzie is an emerita teacher of Hawaiian language at Honolulu Community College and is chair of the University of Hawai'i Committee for the Preservation and Study of Hawaiian Language, Art and Culture.
  • Noelani Losch is an associate professor and chair of the University of Hawai'i Department of Hawaiian and Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures.
  • Collette Leimomi Akana is a teacher of social studies at Kamehameha Kapalama Middle School.
  • Noelani Arista is a doctoral candidate in history at Brandeis University.
  • M. Puakea Nogelmeier, Ph.D., is an associate professor of Hawaiian language at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa.

Limes

Copies of Ka Mooolelo Hawaii will be available. This edition was produced for the Hawaiian Historical Society by Barbara Pope Book Design of Honolulu and printed by Thomson-Shore of Dexter, Michigan. Publication date: November 2005. Softcover: $30.00 retail. Event price: $24.00. Cloth: $60.00 retail. Event price: $48.00.

Ka Mooolelo Hawaii was first printed in 1838 at Lahainaluna Seminary. It is the first book credited to Native Hawaiian writers, the first history of the islands published in the Hawaiian language, and the first concentrated effort to commit Hawaiian oral traditions to paper.

This book grew out of an 1836 seminar organized by the Reverend Sheldon Dibble at Lahainaluna and attended by ten advanced students, including David Malo, a prominent historian, genealogist, and advisor to the chiefs. S. M. Kamakau, another eminent historian and genealogist, wrote that he had worked with Dibble in editing the book.

The impact of Ka Mooolelo Hawaii has been far-reaching. Hawaiian scholars were inspired to go on to establish historical and cultural fieldwork and writing as a Hawaiian endeavor. Later works by David Malo, S. M. Kamakau, Hale'ole, Ii, and Kepelino were influenced by this first Hawaiian book on culture and history.