ROD THOMPSON / RTHOMPSON@STARBULLETIN.COM
Big Island Mayor Harry Kim received a model of a canoe made by one of the 10 indigenous peoples of Taiwan. Chen Chien-Nien, chairman of the Council of Indigenous Peoples of the Taiwanese government, presented the model last week.
KEAAU, Hawaii >> Thousands of years separate the 10 indigenous tribes of Taiwan from their distant Hawaiian cousins. Taiwanese officials find
ties in Hawaiian schoolBy Rod Thompson
rthompson@starbulletin.comBut when a delegation of 51 Taiwanese, most of them mayors of indigenous townships, visited a Hawaiian language school last week, they discovered their languages still share a few words in common with Hawaiian.
"Lima," several mayors counted out in their native language, holding up five fingers. Students at Nawahiokalaniopu'u School in Keaau south of Hilo immediately recognized their own Hawaiian word, 'elima.
"Masaru," one mayor said in thanks, not far removed from the Hawaiian "mahalo."
The mayors had come to learn about Hawaiian language teaching and culturally based tourism, said delegation leader Chen Chien-Nien, chairman of the Council of Indigenous Peoples of the Taiwanese government.
The visit turned into report cards on how the two widely separated groups of people are faring.
Unlike Hawaiians, the indigenous Taiwanese are not Polynesians, but neither are they ethnic Chinese. Their languages are part of the great Austronesian language family which stretches from Hawaii, through the Philippines and Indonesia, to Madagascar.
Out of Taiwan's population of 23 million, there are about 240,000 indigenous people. Older people still speak their native languages, although younger ones are losing the ability, Chen said. In the last two years, Taiwan has increased recognition and teaching of the languages, he said.
In comparison, the position of Hawaiian is "a little more urgent," said Kauanoe Kamana, principal of "Nawahi" school.
When the Punana Leo Hawaiian preschool program started in 1983, only 30 children under 18 spoke Hawaiian, almost all on Niihau, said Punana Leo administrator Namaka Rawlins. Now there are about 2,000 students in all-Hawaiian "immersion" schools.
Although that may sound like success, that's still only 1 percent of the 200,000 Hawaiians in the state, she said.
"Most people will tell you you cannot do it. Your language is not the language of today," Kamana said.
"English is the language of today," she responded. "Our language is the language of forever."
County of Hawaii
