MĀKAU MOʻOMEHEU

Cultural Competence in Hawaiʻi's Museums

What is cultural competency? And why is it important for those of us working in Hawaiʻi’s heritage sector? Join us as we talk about cultural competency as a framework for fostering meaningful relations between museum workers and the cultural practitioners that enrich our programs and institutions. These workshops include a panel on museum indigenization practices, as well as a talk-story with cultural practitioners across Ka Pae ʻĀina o Hawaiʻi about the challenges and opportunities of working with museums and related institutions.

Past Events

November 27, Mākau Moʻomeheu: A Conversation on Cultural Competence in Hawaiʻi’s Museums 

Spotlight/Focus on Maui & Molokai 

Guest Speakers: Keola Donaghy, PhD, Kaʻohulani McGuire, and Hōkūao Pellegrino  

November 21, Mākau Moʻomeheu: Cultural Competence in Hawaiʻi’s Museums 

Hawaiʻi Island Filmed Conversation 

Guest Speakers: ʻIliahi Anthony, Lynn Elia, Noe Noe Wong-Wilson, PhD 

November 14, Mākau Moʻomeheu: A Conversation on Cultural Competence in Hawaiʻi’s Museums 

Spotlight/Focus on Oʻahu 

Guest Speakers: Noelle Kahanu, JD, Earl Kawaʻa, Marques Hanalei Marzan 

November 7, Mākau Moʻomeheu: Cultural Competence in Hawaiʻi’s Museums 

Kauaʻi Filmed Conversation 

Guest Speakers: Chucky Boy Chock, Aletha Kaohi, Sabra Kauka 

August 15, Mākau Moʻomeheu: An Online Webinar on Cultural Competency

Spotlight/Focus on Maui, Molokai, and Lānaʻi 

Guest Speakers: Kepā Maly, Mikiala Pescaia, Keola Donaghy, PhD 

August 8, Mākau Moʻomeheu: An Online Webinar on Cultural Competency

Spotlight/Focus on Kauaʻi and Oʻahu 

Guest Speakers: Sabra Kauka, Puakea Nogelmeier, PhD, and Keao Nesmith, PhD 

July 11, Mākau Moʻomeheu: An Online Webinar on Cultural Competency

Spotlight/Focus on Hawaiʻi Island

Guest Speakers: Mahealani Pai, Keola Awong, Kahakaʻio Ravenscraft  

EXPLANATION OF HAWAIIAN LANGUAGE

Written Hawaiian uses two diacritical markings as pronunciation guides:

  • The ‘okina, which is typographically represented as a reversed apostrophe. In spoken Hawaiian, the ‘okina indicates a glottal stop, or clean break between vowels. If your browser supports this display (and it may not, depending on browser type and settings), an ‘okina should look like this: ‘. If browsing conditions do not support this display, you might be seeing a box, a blank space, or odd-looking character instead.
  • The kahako, or macron, which is typographically represented as a bar above the letter, as in ā (again, you will see it correctly only if your browser delivers it correctly). The macron on a vowel indicates increased duration in pronunciation of the vowel that it appears over.

Web browsers sometimes have difficulty reproducing these markings without the use of graphics, special fonts, or special coding. Even correctly authored Web pages that use Unicode coding may be transmitted through a server that displays the symbols incorrectly or the browser may use a replacement font that displays these incorrectly.

Since most browsers can and do display the ASCII grave symbol (‘) as coded, this site uses the grave symbol to represent the ‘okina. We do depict the correct ‘okina on all pages in the title graphic because it is embedded in the graphic and not displayed as text.

The kahako/macron is more problematic. Given the problems with displaying this with current technology, some websites resort to displaying these with diaeresis characters instead, as in ä, which will appear in most browsers (but not all) as an “a” with two dots over it. However, this is not a desirable solution because it doesn’t work uniformly in all browser situations. Until Unicode fonts are more universally displayable, the site reluctantly omits the kahako from most text.

For up-to-date information on how to display the Hawaiian language on websites, visit http://www.olelo.hawaii.edu/enehana/unicode.php by the Kualono Hawaiian Language Center of the University of Hawaii. General information on these issues can also be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E2%80%98Okina and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macron.