HB1128

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that, during the twentieth century, the political agenda set forth by the new government order of 1900 minimized the value of the Hawaiian language and its function in society under the new order and ceased public support of Hawaiian language for education, public services, and use in all areas of daily life across Hawaii. This severely decreased the number of Hawaiian language speakers and readers to the point where, in 1948, the last Hawaiian language newspaper that was commercially sold closed due to lack of readership, thus severely hampering the possibility for further development of the language for the modern era. Over the next few decades, the number of Hawaiian language speakers declined and almost became extinct since 1948, and in the 1980s when there were fewer than fifty fluent speakers under eighteen years of age, according to Ka Wai Ola - The Living Water of OHA, the monthly newspaper of the office of Hawaiian affairs.

The legislature also finds that, due in part to the growth of Hawaiian immersion schools since the mid-1980s, the number of Hawaiian language speakers and readers has increased to an estimated eighteen thousand according to a 2016 report by the research economic analysis division of the department of business, economic, development, and tourism.

The legislature further finds that, while the growth in the number of Hawaiian language speakers and readers should be applauded, this growth has provided an opportunity to accommodate its speakers, their linguistic backgrounds, and the types of support needed to maintain fluency. Also, while there has been a regular native-speaker presence at the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus for decades as resource staff, native speakers have been absent from nearly all classrooms in Hawaii, minimizing their influence to create new speakers. Had native speakers been at the helm of Hawaiian language maintenance, planning, modeling, and teaching, much of the newly invented Hawaiian language of today by new speakers would not have evolved and new speakers would sound and think like native speakers.

The legislature finds that families of Niihau, who live on Niihau and Kauai, have maintained the language of their ancestors and are now the only true community of Hawaiian language native speakers left in the world, inclusive of kupuna, adults, and children, who use Hawaiian as their primary language. As a community, they have never lost the Hawaiian language. This sets them apart from learners in schools and classrooms of the Hawaiian Islands whose primary language is English or another language, where native-speaker communities no longer exist.

The legislature believes that the function of Hawaiian immersion schools and mainstream classrooms is to retrieve a language that for their participants is new to them, and to add to the language by inventing new terms and ways of expression that are foreign to Niihau speakers.

The purpose of this Act is to clarify the type of support needed for native speakers of all islands who have never lost the Hawaiian language in their families and to appropriate funds to support the perpetuation of that language with regard to the provision of public services and notices to native speakers in the language and orthography they understand best as described by them.

SECTION 2. Chapter 302A, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to part II, subpart B, to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§302A- Hawaiian language. For purposes of this chapter, the Hawaiian language shall be recognized as the sole indigenous language of the Hawaiian islands, as recognized in the Constitution of the State of Hawaii as an official language, and any public school may offer a course in Hawaiian language. Hawaiian language speakers currently consist of native speakers whose families have never lost the language and new speakers who have come to learn the language either from native speakers or through classroom study. A student who successfully completes a course in Hawaiian language shall be entitled to receive credit for that course toward satisfaction of a world language requirement of the public school."

SECTION 3. Section 1-13, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§1-13 Official languages. English and Hawaiian are the official languages of Hawaii. Whenever there is found to exist any radical and irreconcilable difference between the English and Hawaiian version of any of the laws of the State, the English version shall be held binding. Hawaiian shall not be required for public acts and transactions[.]; provided that every effort shall be made to accommodate Hawaiian speakers, both native speakers and new speakers in their respective varieties and orthographies by translating public documents, notices, and medical records to Hawaiian and by providing interpreters for social and legal services in a version of Hawaiian best suited for native speakers, such as Niihau community members, and new speakers, respectively.

For the purposes of this section, "Hawaiian" means the language of native speakers who come from an unbroken lineage of the speakers of the language spoken prior to 1778 in the islands referenced in section 2 of the Organic Act."

SECTION 4. Section 302A-101, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding three new definitions to be appropriately inserted and to read as follows:

""Hawaiian language" means the language of native speakers who come from an unbroken lineage of the speakers of the language spoken prior to 1778 in the islands referenced in section 2 of the Organic Act.

"Native speakers" means speakers of the Hawaiian language who come from an unbroken lineage of primary speakers of the Hawaiian language and children of new speakers whose language is that of their new speakers' parents.

"New speakers" means speakers whose first language is something other than Hawaiian who have come to learn Hawaiian later in life to a level of proficiency comparable to that of competent native speakers, whether from instruction by native speakers or classroom- or self-study not from native speakers."

SECTION 5. (a) The public charter school commission, in consultation with native speakers, shall conduct a study on the Hawaiian language, including the variety of the Hawaiian language spoken on Niihau and any other Hawaiian language known to have been perpetuated since 1777 in the Hawaiian archipelago.

(b) No later than twenty days prior to the regular session of 2024, the public charter school commission shall publish educational and community resource materials for native speakers of the Hawaiian language.

(c) In conducting the study required by subsection (a) and publishing the materials required by subsection (b), the state public charter school commission shall collaborate with the college of education of the University of Hawaii and conduct community consultation with parents and kupuna that are Hawaiian language speakers to determine the most appropriate use of Hawaiian language in schools and the community.

(d) No later than twenty days prior to the regular session of 2024, the state public charter school commission shall submit a report to the legislature on its findings of the study on the Hawaiian language required by subsection (a) and the extent to which it consulted with the college of education of the University of Hawaii and the community pursuant to subsection (c).

For purposes of this section:

"Hawaiian language" means the language of native speakers who come from an unbroken lineage of the speakers of the language spoken prior to 1778 in the islands referenced in section 2 of the Organic Act.

SECTION 6. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $50,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2023-2024 for the state public charter school commission (program ID EDN 612) to conduct the study, publish the materials, consult, and draft the report as required by section 5 of this Act.

The sum appropriated shall be expended by the public charter school commission for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 7. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 8. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2023.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	1128
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2023
STATE OF HAWAII