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Ko Mäkou Mo‘olelo . . . Our Story |
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Phone: (714) 395-6651
E-mail: kahaleea@kekahiau.com
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Ke Kahiau Hawaiian Language Instruction
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To contact us: |
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As with many important things in life, Ke Kahiau Hawaiian Language Instruction began with the foresight of a beloved kupuna. My grandmother, Rebecca Kahale‘ea Hoopii Bodnar moved her young family of four children to post-World War II California in the early 1950’s. Despite the distance from home, she devoted her life to her family and also to the preservation of the Hawaiian culture through educating her own ‘ohana and others’ in mele, hula, lawena, and so much more. She passed this legacy on to her children, wherein her two daughters actively followed in her footsteps—one on Kaua‘i and the other in California. The eldest of the two, my beloved mother Aunty Raouleen Kahale‘ea‘okekaulike Bodnar Pahulu, continued to teach hula and Polynesian culture for over thirty years in her hula hälau Ka Pä Hula o Ka’ea. Fluent in Hawaiian, Tongan and English, Aunty Raouleen, sometimes referred to as Aunty Ka‘ea, also began teaching Hawaiian to her youngest daughter, Kahale‘ea‘okekaulike ‘Akilisi Raouleen Pahulu, during the latter years of her bout with terminal cancer. Also following the footsteps of those that had gone before her, Kahale’ea continued her education in the Hawaiian language at one of the most prominent tertiary institutions for the subject, Ke Kulanui o Hawai‘i ma Hilo . . . The University of Hawai‘i at Hilo. Drinking deeply from the waters offered at this university, Kahale‘ea became fluent in the Hawaiian language. She knew that she had come into her own as she continued to diligently study, listen to mäna leo . . . native speakers . . . and use the Hawaiian language. After serving a mission for her church, returning to school to earn a Master’s Degree in English and marrying and having a child, the young native Hawaiian woman chose to return to that which she loved deeply, ka ‘ölelo Hawai’i . . . the Hawaiian language. She established Ke Kahiau Hawaiian Language Instruction in hopes of educating both native Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians alike about the history, structure, life and beauty of the Hawaiian language. It is her firm belief that as we couple the hopes, determination and sacrifice of so many küpuna with our own, that ancestoral knowledge, wisdom and aloha will be perpetuated through kekahi hanauna a i kekahi hanauna hou . . . one generation to the next.
‘O ko käkou kuleana ka ‘ölelo Hawai’i. The Hawaiian language is our responsibility.
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‘O ka ‘ölelo Hawai‘i ko käkou kuleana . The Hawaiian language is our responsibility.
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A special mahalo to Hawaiian Graphics for the kökua! |
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Aunty Rebecca Hoopii Bodnar in her former business in Wilmington, California called “The Kamaaina.” |
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Aunty Becky with her eldest daughter Raouleen Bodnar Pahulu at a Hawai‘i’s Daughters Guild Holokü Ball. |
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In this picture, Aunty Raouleen is helping her eldest daughter, Amalia, into a Tongan woven mat. She is teaching children at a public Southern California elementary school about Polynesian culture. She brought several visual aids. She had a special gift, as did her mother, for teaching. |
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About Us |