Understanding Hawaii’s History & Language

This month we did a hard thing - we submitted a grant to start a Hawaiian language program on Oahu! Though I have dabbled in grant writing in the past - this was the first grant I have done where the amount of information required made my head spin and my hands stiff.

While preparing the grant, we researched a number of articles and papers in order to provide the grant people with real data and credible sources to back our claims. One of the articles I read was by Dr. Keao NeSmith. In this article, he outlines the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom better than I have heard anyone else do it.

He outlines the events to give context to the current state of the Hawaiian language which is really what the whole paper is about. I just wanted to share his paper with all of you.

If you’ve ever heard someone say - “end the illegal occupation” or “Hawaii was illegally overthrown”, but you didn’t know what they meant then read Chapter 2 of this thesis. As many years as I’ve been trying to learn and understand what really happened in Hawaii in 1893 - I need constant refreshers so I don’t forget the details and how important the findings of modern day historians and academics have been for us.