02/26/2021

First Alaskans Institute executives La quen náay Liz Medicine Crow (Haida/Tlingit), CEO/President, and ‘Wáahlaal Gíidaak Barbara Blake (Haida/Tlingit/Ahtna Athabascan), Alaska Native Policy Director, talk with us about important social and racial equality work they are doing in Alaska. Both are active in indigenous networks with ties to Hawaiʻi. Listen as these amazing female leaders share personal life experiences around learning and reclaiming their mother tongue, the importance of their people’s matrilineal traditions, and what it means to be a leader in their community.

02/24/2021

The Austronesian language family, to which Hawaiian and many Pacific languages belong, has its roots in what is called Taiwan today. Early Austronesian speakers developed maritime technology that facilitated migration as far west as Madagascar, down through Island Southeast Asia, into parts of Melanesia and Micronesia, as well as Western and Eastern Polynesia in the central and northern Pacific – and ultimately to Hawai‘i. As they voyaged, they left genetic, botanical, cultural, and linguistic imprints forming a 6,000 year-old genealogical road map. Anthropology professor Dr. Yuan-chao Maeva Tung of National Taiwan University, Taipei, talks about her work with the Kaviyangan Paiwan Tribe. Also featured are declaration signing ceremonies and traditional rituals performed via Zoom to ratify Taiwan-Hawaiʻi partnerships sponsored by Kamehameha Schools, Polynesian Voyaging Society, Bishop Museum, and University of Hawaiʻi.

02/12/2021

Dr. X̱’unei Lance Twitchell, Associate Professor of Alaska Native Languages at the University of Alaska Southeast, is a powerful advocate for indigenous education and language revitalization. He is from the Tlingit, Haida, and Yup’ik native nations, speaks and studies the Tlingit language, and received a Ph.D. in Hawaiian and Indigenous Language Revitalization from Ka Haka ʻUla o Keʻelikōlani College of Hawaiian Language at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. Dr. Twitchell recently sat down with us to share personal stories of his own language journey and reflected upon how discovering your mother tongue can become a pathway to healing emotional trauma.