Alana Kanahele

Since 1976, the Center for Oral History has documented Hawai'i’s working-class, Native Hawaiian, and multi-ethnic communities, centering voices often absent from formal archives. Its next phase highlights the contributions of women of color on Maui through a Mukurtu-based digital platform guided by Indigenous data sovereignty. Using recordings, transcripts, and culturally informed metadata, the project will ethically expand access to underrepresented stories. Digital tools, training modules, a mini-documentary, and podcasts will build community capacity and create a justice-driven, community-rooted repository for Hawai'i and the Pacific.

Our project aims to create a digital resource that would provide more information on the history of boarding schools in Hawai?i. The ultimate goal of the digital resource is helping Native Hawaiians learn and reckon with this history as part of larger efforts towards challenging colonialism, addressing intergenerational trauma, and restoring relationships with the land. The ?olelo no?eau (Hawaiian phrase for wise saying or proverb) that inspires the title of our project, is: “He lei poina ?ole ke keiki,” meaning, “a child is like a lei never forgotten.” We believe that reweaving the stories of these children, and making them truly “poina ?ole,” or not forgotten, is essential in crafting more just futures for children in Hawai?i today.