'Olelo Hawaii

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  Wai'anae, Hawai'i
  September 29th, 2014
  
  The Hawaiian culture may still seem foreign to some, but for Keala Molina-Wilcox, it represents all that is home. Growing up, Keala was immersed in Native Hawaiian traditions. She knew the stories, ate the food, and even swayed into dancing hula.
  
  “My sister and I danced hula. Besides hula, my grandma spoke Hawaiian, so I grew up hearing the language," Keala said.
  
  This foundation of the Hawaiian culture turned into a thirst for more knowledge. She took four years of Hawaiian Language in high school, when all she needed was one. She then ended up majoring in Hawaiian language at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
  
  “It was the main culture in my life, but I knew that the language part was what I was missing, so as I grew up and I moved on to college thats what I kinda immersed myself in,” she expressed.
  
  Keala’s academic interest transformed into a career when she accepted a job at Waianae High School teaching Hawaiiana as Kumu K. She confessed, “I benefit from the culture one way or another. I feel a responsibility to be able to teach the younger generation a little bit about their culture and language.” Its here, where she believes the students will be apt to embrace their culture.
  
  To-Hawaii.com reveals that statewide, only 0.1% of people who live in Hawaii speak the native tongue. The death of the language is a growing possibility unless something can be done to prevent it. One thing that contributes to the truth of this statistic is the misunderstanding that colleges don’t accept Hawaiian as a language.
  
  Waianae High School college and career counselor, Theresa Sanchez, sheds some light on the situation.
  
  “When you are looking at colleges that you need to apply for, you need to look at what the admission requirements are. [Hawaiian language] wasn't accepted before, but now its accepted in most colleges across the United States, and if you do come across a college where it is not accepted, you can always appeal a request for your credit to be accepted,” Sanchez said.
  
  Students in Kumu’s class took this course for cultural reasons even before they knew the truth. Kailee Ke, a junior in Keala’s second period class, stated, “Although I know that I will not further my knowledge of Hawaiian in college, it's something that I want to do even if its only for a year.”
  
  That’s where Keala dances her way in.
  
  "Being Hawaiian, of course it's important because that's who we are. It's a blueprint to how we behave, how we think and how we act. Culture identifies who you are. It makes you separate from other people. Being that hawaii is so, we have so many ethnicities that live here. I think its important for our Hawaiian culture to know and understand who they really are."
  
  Keala feels the need to pass that idea of cultural identity on to her students. She teaches them not to see the Hawaiian culture as separate from the modern world, but a meaningful link to a rich and beautiful past.

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Looking Back

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"It was interesting to see how invested people are in the Hawaiian culture."



Jaena Campos, Photographer

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"It's touching to see people that passionate about their culture."



Wainani Wetter, Reporter

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