Kuali I Interview Report

Kuali’i is a native to the Hawaiian Islands and wants to keep her culture alive for her future children to enjoy and hopes to achieve this through Hawaiian language broadcasting. In Kuali’i’s second year here at Uh Hilo, she was able to join the hosts of KWXX, which is a local radio station here in Hawaii, and host a three hour segment in for Alana I Kai Kikina (which means rising in the Eastern sea), which is a segment broadcast in the Hawaiian Language. The university offers the program to students in their second year and above studying Hawaiian Language in an attempt to create a partnership with the students and their culture. The segments can consist of talking about any of the sites here on the big island and telling stories of the history and it’s importance. For example, a segment on Waipio Valley would include why it’s so sacred and possibly stories about the night marchers that roam the valley at

IRR is a station that talks about the cultural survival issues happening across the globe, not just America. “At IRR, I am not considered an intern, I am a fellow because we all work as one and are united together. Kind of like a family.” Due to the fact that she hadn’t really taken any courses here that could help her succeed at IRR, she got in touch with Kaimana Barcarse, who is one of the organizers at KWXX who helped her get the fellowship. All summer Kuali’i worked with him to understand the different programs she would be using, including one called Audacity. Kuali’i’s job was to take the interviews and clean them up, removing things like um and ahs, and ready the segment for a live broadcast. Now, as a senior, Kuali’i is taking Linguistic 453,which is a Hawaiian Phonetics and Phonology class, taught solely in Hawaiian. In this class they learn to understand the sound system of the Hawaiian Language, as well as stylistic and regional variation, all using the program Audacity. Kuali’i’s prior knowledge with the program has helped her become successful in this class. Eventually, she hopes to be able to tell what um 's and ah’s look like on wave lengths, like many of her peers at IRR. Kuali’i also spends a lot of her time at Kahakaula, which is the center for hawaiian language here on campus. Kahakaula is more of a lifestyle approach, a cultural practice. It is not like other classes where you go to class and leave without really thinking too much into, at Kahakaula it is deeply rooted in traditional Hawaiian ideas and culture. “When I leave Kahakaula, i feel ready to immerse myself deeper into learning more about who I am and my culture. This is why broadcasting and studying Hawaiian Language is s important to me. I hope to lead my people by example and bring awareness to the importance of staying connected to your culture. It