Kaleialoha Kaniaupio-
Crozier and her Hawaiian immersion students see Haleakala every day from their classroom at Pa‘ia Elementary School. But she said she hasn’t had the resources to bring her third graders to visit Haleakala National Park because the programs and field trips are in English.
But that’s changing soon: Kaniaupio-Crozier is part of a team that is developing a new distance-learning program in Hawaiian for Haleakala National Park. The project is considered one
of the first in the National Park Service to offer this level of virtual programming and in a language other than English.
“This curriculum, I hope, will provide a resource to help our haumana learn more about who they are as kanaka and help them to steward and foster this type of kuleana for their aina,” she said. “For them to engage in these activities … those are ways of sparking that ancestral knowledge that’s already in them. Our job as kumu is to really help and guide them in realizing who they are and tapping into their own DNA.”
Honeygirl Duman, Haleakala’s interpretation and education specialist and the project’s lead, said the park has received several requests from Hawaiian immersion teachers, including Kaniaupio-Crozier, for field trips in Hawaiian. But the park didn’t have the resources or the staff to do that before, she said.
With the help of a recent $31,000 National Park Foundation grant, Duman, who was born and raised on Maui, said they hired Kaniaupio-
Crozier, another Hawaiian language teacher and a multimedia intern to begin developing the curriculum. This is the first program
that the park is developing in Hawaiian, she said.
Duman said the goal is to create one-hour lessons that combine videos, engagement and asynchronous and synchronous learning about two main areas in the park: the summit and the Kipahulu area. They plan to complete the curriculum by August, in time for the new school year, and make it available on Haleakala National Park’s website and the National Park Service’s educators’ portal. She said the teachers are leading the development of the curriculum to ensure that it meets the needs of their keiki and the state’s Hawaiian immersion standards.
By expanding the park’s reach, Duman said they hope the curriculum, which targets fourth graders, will be used by Hawaiian immersion teachers, other schools in the islands and families living on the mainland. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she said, the park has shifted its focus to distance-learning programs, but they were all in English up until this point.
“We’re striving to protect language, culture, history and people’s stories. I knew we were on the right track because it’s a missing audience for the National Park Service,” Duman said. “This is just a steppingstone for us to be able to create more curriculum in the future for other grade levels. This is not just the National Park Service. This is their park. This is our park.”
As part of the project,
Kaniaupio-Crozier is creating the project’s curriculum for the summit area. She said she plans to incorporate moolelo (history), stories, songs, chants and genealogy. She added that “this curriculum is truly a step forward in helping to broaden the ike (knowledge) of our (students). It’s a big step.”
Along with Kaniaupio-
Crozier, Heitiare Kawehi Kammerer, an instruction technology specialist at Kamehameha Schools
Hawai‘i, is developing the Kipahulu District curriculum. A former Hawaiian immersion teacher, Kammerer, who grew up in Waimanalo and on Maui, said she hopes to use this opportunity to dive deeper into her family’s genealogy and connect that with the area’s stories and people.
She said she also plans to incorporate mele and chants about Kipahulu into the project and has more visits planned to Haleakala so that “the aina helps guide the curriculum.”
“Being able to make those connections and tie that into the people who are still there, I think that will be powerful in how I approach this curriculum and make it authentic,”
she said. “I’m always excited about trying to use applications and software for ike Hawaii (Hawaiian knowledge). When our kids see olelo in these spaces, they realize that … olelo Hawaii is relevant in today’s society.”
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Jayna Omaye covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a national service organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.
