Press Release
CONTACT: LILIKALĀ KAMEʻELEIHIWA,
PHD
PROFESSOR, KAMAKAKŪOKALANI CENTER
FOR HAWAIIAN STUDIES
HAWAIʻINUIĀKEA SCHOOLOF HAWAIIAN
KNOWLEDGE
UH MĀNOA
EMAIL: lilikala77@gmail.com
CELL: 753-5826
We are proud to
announce that the AVAKONOHIKI.ORG
website is being published today in order to serve as a Hoʻokupu no Ka Lāhui, or gift to the Hawaiian Nation, from the
students of the UHM Kamakakūokalani
Center for Hawaiian Studies [KCHS].
Working on the
AVA Konohiki project, funded by a federal grant from the Administration of Native Americans [ANA], and through the Edith Kanakaʻole
Foundation [EKF], our Hawaiian students have created a web site to provide
free and easy access to all 8,500 of the Hawaiian Kingdom Land Commission
Awards [LCAs] and LCA Testimonies, as well as LCA maps for the 81 Ahupuaʻa of Oʻahu.
They even have video webinars to walk you through LCA land and map research!
The AVA acronym
stands for Ancestral Visions of ʻĀina, or Kamakakūokaʻāina, where young
Hawaiians study ancestral Konohiki
understandings of land and water management with a view to sustainable and
efficient food production; hence the term AVA Konohiki! They believe that
the first step in their training is to serve the Lāhui by making Hawaiian land
documents available through the web; modern Hawaiian students!
Dr. Lilikalā Kameʻeleihiwa of UHM KCHS serves as Principal Investigator, Professor Kekuhi Keliikanakaoleohaililani
of EKF and HCC is Director of the grant, and Dr. Pualani Kanahele of EKF is cultural leader.
For the past 2
years, the team of 15 AVA Konohiki have been harvesting, transcribing, and
proofreading these 8,500 land records, and now are wanting to share them with
the world at http://www.avakonohiki.org/ava-home>.
The website
begins with the 932 pages of LCAs in Volume 4, and the first 40 pages of
Foreign Testimonies, both the handwritten original pdfs, as well as the
typewritten transcriptions.
Over the next
few weeks, handwritten pdfs and their transcriptions of all 10 LCA volumes will
be uploaded. Eventually, transcriptions
for all 24 volumes of Foreign and Native Testimonies will be uploaded along
with the handwritten original pdfs too.
By the end of Year 3 of the grant, there will be 12,400 land documents
available. This will make genealogy and land researching available at our
fingertips! If you want monthly updates about new materials being loaded on the
website, you can ask to be put on the mailing list at avakonohiki@gmail.com.
For the more
sophisticated researchers, they can access this material through the Hawaiʻinuiākea
Knowledge Well that will allow searching in 5 different fields at once. Dr. Maenette Benham, Dean of Hawaiʻinuiākea
School of Hawaiian Knowledge, has established the HSHK Knowledge Well as
permanent repository for all records having to do with the Hawaiian
people. Our AVAKONOHIKI.org website will
be the first portal to access that knowledge.
In order to
better serve our Lāhui, on September 18,
2012, our students will hold an AVA Konohiki Website Launch Party to train
students and community on how to use our website to search for Land Commission
Awards, testimonies and maps. This event
will be held in Hālau o Haumea, Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies,
2645 Dole Street, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi from 5-7 pm, so mark your calendars!
Our students
follow the motto of Hawaiʻinuiākea: 100
Generations of Ancestral Knowledge to Share with the World!
AVA Konohiki
gratefully acknowledges and thanks it supporters:
Administration
for Native Americans [ANA]
Edith Kanakaʻole
Foundation [EKF]
Hawaiʻinuiākea
School of Hawaiian Knowledge [HSHK]
Kamakakūokalani
Center for Hawaiian Studies [KCHS]
Kawaihuelani
Center for Hawaiian Language [KCHL]
Association of
Hawaiian Civic Clubs
Department of
Hawaiian Home Lands
Hamilton Library
Ka Huli Ao
Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law
Kamehameha Schools
OHA
ʻŌiwi TV
ʻŌlelo
Television
Paepae o Heʻeʻia
UHM Aquaculture
Hub
UHM Geography
Department
