LILIA WAHINEMAIKAI HALE
HAWAIIAN LANGUAGE KUPUNAGenerous native speaker
lovingly passed on
isle traditions
Lilia Wahinemaikai Hale, a big-hearted kupuna who helped drive the renaissance of the Hawaiian language, died June 5 in her Waimanalo home. She was 90.
Hale is one of the last manaleo, a new Hawaiian word that means a native speaker who passes Hawaiian mouth to mouth and generation to generation, said Laiana Wong, coordinator of the Hawaiian language section of the Department of Hawaiian and Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Hale worked as a cultural research specialist for the Hawaiian language department until her retirement last September.
"She was invaluable to the re-genesis not just of the Hawaiian language, but of the Hawaiian people," said Wong. "She was a very rare person, and we will all miss her."
Kimo Armitage, a former student and close confidant, said, "The wealth of manaleo is drastically shrinking so that each passing is not just important to the family, but to the Hawaiian nation, which is losing that wisdom and guidance."
Armitage said "Mama Hale" had a rascally side and was still jumping onto the bus even in her late 80s to get to school. He said she never turned down people who sought her advice on the Hawaiian language or life and would invite them to meet her at her "Waimanalo office," which was the Jack-in-the-Box restaurant in Waimanalo.
Hale began teaching native Hawaiian during the 1970s at a preschool in Waimanalo. She went on to become a kupuna in the public school system before working at UH-Manoa.
Hale was a consultant to Eddie and Myrna Kamae, who produced the "Hawaiian Legacy Series," a collection of documentaries on Hawaiian culture. She also appeared in their 1998 documentary "Hawaiian Voices: Bridging Past to Present."
"She is one of the last to know the old ways and all the hidden meanings in songs and words," said Eddie Kamae.
Among her accomplishments, Hale wrote a volume of Hawaiian proverbs for children called "Olelo No'eau No Na Keiki," which has been highly praised as one of the only books of its kind.
While Hale contributed to the Hawaiian renaissance with her knowledge of the language, she did not dance hula, another strong aspect of cultural regeneration, because she was a deeply religious person who strictly followed the teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, said Armitage.
Hale was born in Palama and hanai'd to her grandfather, Kamuela Kanahele, who spoke to her only in Hawaiian and taught her Hawaiian values and devotion to God, said Armitage.
A construction worker by trade, Kanahele was also a kahu at a church in Palama and one on Molokai. As a young child, Hale would paddle a canoe with her grandfather and grandmother to visit families with Hansen's disease and bring them fresh fruit.
Armitage said Hale loved her home because it "was full of children." Hale, who was married twice, had 24 grandchildren, 63 great-grandchildren and 16 great-great-grandchildren. She lived with a daughter, two great-granddaughters and four great-great-grandchildren and taught them all Hawaiian. She died surrounded by family, said Armitage.
Hale is survived by a sister, Annie Lee; her son, John Kealiinohomoku; and daughters Laverne Oliveira, Shirley Leslie and Elizabeth Hale.
Services will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Honolulu Central Seventh-day Adventist Church, 2313 Nuuanu Ave. Call after 10 a.m. No flowers. By her request, her ashes will be scattered at Napoopoo Bay on the Big Island.