Welina Mānoa: A Hawaiian Language Curriculum That Exposes Acts of Settler Colonial Erasure and Reveals Stories of ʻŌiwi Survivance

Abstract

Kānaka Hawaiʻi have been dealing with settler colonial erasures for centuries, from changes to our landscape and our presence on it to our virtual elimination from school curricula. This article features a curriculum titled Welina Mānoa, which brings these erasures into full view while also revealing stories of survivance and resurgence by ʻŌiwi of Mānoa and Waikīkī who refuse to be silenced and forgotten. Led by a team of Kānaka Hawaiʻi, this curriculum initiative is dedicated to developing learning experiences for Hawaiʻi's students based on the language, living practices, and genealogies of the land and Native people of Hawaiʻi. Furthermore, its development is a statement of survivance in and of itself—challenging the many curricula that are imposed on our students in Hawaiʻi, which continue to contribute to our Native erasure and elimination.