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As a new policy on Hawaiian legal interpreting is issued,
Jordan Lancaster considers the language's growing status
H
awaii
1
is the only one of the 50 American states
to be officially bilingual: English and Hawaiian.
Nonetheless, English is by far the dominant
language today, and court proceedings are generally
conducted in English only. Until recently, native speakers
of Hawaiian were usually expected to testify in English,
although interpreters were available for speakers of other
languages. However, since the beginning of the year, a
series of high-profile legal cases has enabled the local
language to gain prominence.
In January 2018, activist Kaho'okahi Kanuha was
allowed to testify in Hawaiian during a trial in which he
was found not guilty of obstruction during protests
against the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea, a
dormant volcano on the island of Hawaii. A short time
later, Samuel Kaleikoa Ka'eo, Associate Professor of
Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawai'i, insisted on
speaking only Hawaiian in court as he was charged with
misdemeanour offences (later dropped), arising from a
protest over the construction of a solar telescope on the
Haleakalā
volcano on the island of Maui. (The protests
centre around the sacred nature of the peaks of Hawaii
in Hawaiian mythology.)
As a result, the Hawai'i State Judiciary has issued a new
policy on Hawaiian language interpreting, stating that it
"will provide or permit qualified Hawaiian language
interpreters to the extent reasonably possible when
parties in courtroom proceedings choose to express
themselves through the Hawaiian language".
2
Currently,
there is only one official Hawaiian-English court
interpreter in the state: 75-year-old Byron Cleeland from
the island of Kaua'i, who received his certification in 2014.
Hawaiian-language court interpreter orientation
workshops – a mandatory step for those seeking to work
in this field – began in February this year. An amended
bill, currently under review, would also require courts to
provide interpreting services if any party requests that a
case be conducted in Hawaiian. At a recent hearing for
the bill, testimony was given in Hawaiian and translated
into English. Hawaii News Now reported that the
testimony was "emotional and teary"
3
as supporters
expressed the importance of their language.
Hawaiian renaissance
